President Joe Biden told graduates of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London they’d soon be defending America in a changed world during his keynote address at the academy’s 140th commencement ceremony.
Biden spoke about the Coast Guard’s role in dealing with climate change and threats from Russia and China. But his main topic was the pandemic that led to the cancellation of last year’s in-person ceremony.
“When times got hard, you were there for one another. That’s something you’ll all learn quickly at the academy. You can’t crew the tall ship Eagle without working together — it’s not possible. So the pandemic didn’t change that, but it made it more important,” Biden said.
Presidents traditionally rotate commencement speeches among the nation’s top military academies every year. Trump spoke at the academy in 2017, his first year in office. Biden’s former boss, Barack Obama, spoke in 2015, and Biden himself spoke in 2013.
