Rear Admiral Wisecup in the news

From: Jim Wisecup
Date: August 10, 2008 08:07:37 MDT
Subject: Springfield News-Sun Article
 
Hey! Guys!  The Springfiel News-Sun has a Front Page article about Phil in today's (Sunday August 10th) edition.
Log on to the follwoing:
 
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/
 
From his proud papa!
 
Jim

That article has been moved off the front page. You can find it here:

Rear Admiral Wisecup: 'After 31 years in this outfit, I'm happy to continue to serve.'
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/search/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/08/10/sns081008wisecup.html

"Rear Admiral Wisecup: 'After 31 years in this outfit, I'm happy to continue to serve.'

By Tom Stafford

Staff Writer

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Rear Adm. James P. "Phil" Wisecup has plenty to keep him busy while commanding the Navy's most technologically advanced strike force group, led by the USS Ronald Reagan.

But in the back of his mind is the question of what contributions he can make when he arrives at his next assignment as president of the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., in November.

"If you look back in history, you see the people who have been president of the Naval War College have helped to take the Navy in certain strategic directions," said Wisecup, a graduate of the program. "I've got to give that some thought."

Students there are brought in "from many many nations" and with a goal of "taking our Navy and our officers in the right direction," he said.

The college "helps kind of pollinate all the thinking" of officers from all over the world.

A 1977 graduate of the Naval Academy, Wisecup throughout his career has alternated duty assignments in places like the Persian Gulf, the White House Situation Room and NATO Headquarters with advance degree programs at the University of Southern California, the War College and the Institute for Advanced European Studies at the University of Strasbourg, France, where he was an Olmstead Scholar.

The pattern has been instructive.

"One hand washes the other," he said.

"You know what questions to ask (in classes) when you have operational experience like that."

Wisecup has traveled the laboratory of foreign relations — the world — many times over in the Navy, learning more about international relations than he ever dreamed of when his interest for it was piqued by a Polish-born French teacher at Piqua High School, Gus Wincent.

"The idea of speaking a foreign language or going to Europe was very, very interesting to me," he said.

The career that propelled him has been "fascinating," he said.

"We're about fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships with other nations and our allies. Most of that passes under the radar."

He said it wasn't missed on the sailors he said who "flocked ashore" in the Philippines to be a part of the typhoon relief effort.

"This is also about conflict deterrence," Wisecup added, likening the Navy's work in that sphere to the work of a forest ranger "who sees that little wisp of smoke in the forest" and responds to it before the fire rages out of control.

In such instances, he said, there's the knowledge that his naval service — and the service of others — is part of something his parents always encouraged him to be interested in: history.

"When you talk about things that have happened in the past 15 or 20 years and you talk to Naval officers, they often will have been present in places like Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The one thing you learn in the Navy — if you're not present, you're not influencing," he said.

By being there, "You can help reassure people that the United States really cares about what's happening," he said.

While going about his duties, "I often think of you folks back in Ohio," said Wisecup.

He is a father of five — four girls and a boy, ages 25 to 13 — who met his wife, Anne, while studying in France.

"When I was home in May, I was able to go to my daughter's graduation at Miami (University in Oxford) and spent some time with my folks.

His parents, James and Bettye Wisecup, live in South Charleston.

"I always carry a buckeye in my pocket," he said, and he takes it out when he runs into guys like the seaman he spotted on deck the other day with an Ohio State tattoo.

Wisecup's latest promotion grants him another five years of naval service. Asked whether he'd like to ascend the next two ranks to admiral, he says, "that's all in the hands of the chief of Naval Operations."

Wisecup said he always tells sailors that promotions are not so much goals or achievements as they are the product of work — the kind of work he still enjoys.

"After 31 years in this outfit," Wisecup said, "I'm happy to continue to serve."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com."