The “Band” goes back a long way, testimony to the importance and strength of the bonds of our profession, that of bearing arms.  Shakespeare wrote the lines almost four hundred years ago,  describing King Henry’s rousing speech to his outnumbered “band of brothers” who then went on to victory.   But for those of us in the Anglo-American Naval tradition, we recall more vividly Admiral Nelson’s immortal “band of brothers”, his ship captains, those brave few, who again outnumbered, defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets, literally saving England and perhaps the modern world from Napoleonic domination.  So, you see, all of us here, on this site at this moment, are a living legacy of the timeless ‘band of brothers.’