--- title: Barack Obama at the US Naval Academy: Commencement Address description: Here's everything President Barack Obama told the US Naval Academy class of 2009 during his commencement address in 2009. canonical: https://time.com/4337212/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-us-naval-academy/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-02T18:26:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:34:25.308Z article:section: Politics og:title: Barack Obama's Commencement at the US Naval Academy in 2009 og:description: "Our military remains the most trusted institution in our nation” og:url: https://time.com/4337212/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-us-naval-academy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd375743905a56eb9/6988934b3c1639d1bc45d45b/obama-commencement-us-naval-academy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Obama Delivers Commencement Address At U.S. Naval Academy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Barack Obama's Commencement at the US Naval Academy in 2009 twitter:description: "Our military remains the most trusted institution in our nation” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd375743905a56eb9/6988934b3c1639d1bc45d45b/obama-commencement-us-naval-academy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's Commencement Address at the US Naval Academy in 2009 > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 2, 2016 6:26 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the annual Naval Academy Graduation and Commissioning Ceremony at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium May 22, 2009 in Annapolis, Maryland. Obama delivered commencement address to the 1036 graduates of the class of 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the annual Naval Academy Graduation and Commissioning Ceremony at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium May 22, 2009 in Annapolis, Maryland. Obama delivered commencement address to the 1036 graduates of the class of 2009. Alex Wong—Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 2, 2016 6:26 PM UTC President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address at the US Naval Academy on May 22, 2009\. Obama praised the military and its effectiveness in his speech. “These Americans have embraced the virtues that we need most right now: self-discipline over self-interest; work over comfort; and character over celebrity,” the president said. “After an era when so many institutions and individuals have acted with such greed and recklessness, it’s no wonder that our military remains the most trusted institution in our nation.” Here are the [full remarks](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-us-naval-academy-commencement) from Obama’s speech on the US Naval Academy’s campus in Annapolis, Maryland. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4337212/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-us-naval-academy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4337212/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-us-naval-academy/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's Commencement Address at the US Naval Academy in 2009","datePublished":"2016-06-02T18:26:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:34:25.308Z","description":"\"It’s no wonder that our military remains the most trusted institution in our nation”","url":"https://time.com/4337212/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-us-naval-academy/","keywords":["Barack Obama","White House","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd375743905a56eb9/6988934b3c1639d1bc45d45b/obama-commencement-us-naval-academy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd375743905a56eb9/6988934b3c1639d1bc45d45b/obama-commencement-us-naval-academy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama Delivers Commencement Address At U.S. Naval Academy","caption":"Obama Delivers Commencement Address At U.S. Naval Academy","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4337212/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-us-naval-academy/","name":"Read President Obama's Commencement Address at the US Naval Academy in 2009"}}]}] ```