-President Barack Obama carried the debate over national security to the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday, telling graduating midshipmen that America's fundamental values and principles "help keep us safe."
In his first service-academy commencement speech, Obama promised the graduates that he would never send them into harm's way without the strategy, "well-defined goals," equipment and support they needed.
Warm weather, a sun-filled sky and a light breeze provided near-perfect conditions for the event at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium, where the 1,036 midshipmen and about 29,0000 family, friends, alumni and VIPs had gathered.
Obama told the crowd that the U.S. must remain on guard against a full range of security threats: "The conventional and the unconventional. The nation-state and the terrorist network. The spread of deadly technologies and of hateful ideologies. Eighteenth-century-style piracy and 21st-century cyber threats."
And in an echo of remarks delivered a day earlier at the National Archives, he spoke at length about values.
He drew applause when he said that "as Americans, we reject the false choice between our security and our ideals. We can and we must and we will protect both."
Obama, the first African-American commander-in-chief, congratulated the Naval Academy for increased diversity as he faced a graduating class that was 20 percent female and more than 20 percent minority. Less than 5 percent of the Class of 2009 is African-American, according to academy statistics.
Obama singled out four midshipmen for special praise, including Sad? A. Holder.
He hailed Holder, who came to the U.S. from Trinidad as a teenager, for her "patriotism," which earned her "the titles she values most - U.S. citizen and Navy midshipman and, today, ensign."
The 24-year-old, whose mother, Mary Holder, is a home health aide in Baltimore, was serving in the Navy when she applied to and was accepted at the Naval Academy. She graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average and a degree in quantitative economics.
Holder said in an interview that, as an immigrant, she was "super-excited to be mentioned in the commencement speech.
"A lot of hard work, and it paid off," she said.
The president's appearance in Annapolis came one day after he delivered a high-profile defense of his anti-terror policies, facing off in a virtual debate with former Vice President Dick Cheney, who made a speech of his own, on the subject of detainees.
