The U.S. Military Academy hosted the 77th annual Kermit Roosevelt Lecture Sept. 28 at Robinson Auditorium. The guest speaker for the distinguished foreign visit was British Lt. Gen. Sir Roly Walker, deputy chief of Defense Staff for Military Strategy and Operations at the Ministry of Defense.
Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt, served both the U.S. and United Kingdom armies during World War I and World War II. The annual lecture offers a chance for continued fostering of Anglo-American military co-operation. The members of the USMA Class of 2025 attended the lecture with the hopes that they will forge their own transatlantic relationships and improve interoperability and mutual understanding.
The lecture series began in 1947. The idea for an annual exchange of American and British military lecturers came from Mrs. Kermit Roosevelt, who intended it as a memorial to her late husband, who died in 1943 during the war.
Walker spoke to the Class of 2025 on various topics including Russia and Ukraine, NATO’s involvement in the Ukraine War, the future of land warfare and current state of lower military enlistment rates among this generation in several countries.