During the Falklands War, as an observer in the Fleet Air Arm, he helped to rescue 16 British SAS men from Fortuna Glacier and played a crucial role in detecting and disabling the Argentine submarine ARA Santa Fe. According to official records, he is credited with the use of unconventional tactics at sea, original thinking and using innovative methods.

Nowadays, Parry is considered one of UK’s leading experts in strategic forecasting and a thinker on all aspects of the current and future maritime and maritime environment.

His recent talk at William & Mary, titled, “Sea power in the 21st century,” sponsored by the Reves Center for International Studies and the Institute for Theory and Practice of International Relations, was called, an eye-opener.

“The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, in conjunction with joint maritime capabilities, represent the critical guarantor of the freedom of navigation and security on the high seas,” said Adm. Parry in an interview with the Lake Placid News and the Virginia Gazette. “The future will see challenges from highly capable, modern and technologically agile maritime forces, principally those of Russia, China and other aspiring regional powers. As long as the U.S. has global interests and the need to project power into areas accessible from the sea, it will need to maintain sufficient weight and footprint of forces to enable it to prevail against the most demanding opponent, either with allies, or alone, in support of its critical interests, in any part of the world.”

Parry postulates that the future of warfare will be characterized by high impact, low footprint operations. “In turn, this scenario suggests that the USN, USMC and USAF will provide the bulk of expeditionary forces required to confront and defeat those that threaten the U.S. or its allies.”

Reflecting on the value of the Norfolk Naval Base, that plays such a vital role in the economic life of Hampton Roads, Parry noted that as long as the U.S. aspires to a global role, it will require major fleet bases on its east and west coasts to service and sustain a balanced capability that is able to intervene at a time and place of political choice.

He explained that the U.S. naval force, in an age of ballistic missiles, still has a vital role to play.

“The role of naval forces is to be prepared to go in “harm’s way” to deter and defeat threats to a country and its vital interests,” he said. “The U.S. naval forces are providing reassurance to allies and partners with their anti-ballistic capabilities and are essential in promoting stability and security in troubled regions.”

I asked Adm. Parry, what was the message intended to convey to his audience at William & Mary.

“That the sea is the physical equivalent of the worldwide web. Everything that goes virtually by the Internet passes in reality on, over or under the sea. The freedom of the seas enshrined as a principle for over 350 years has been like the independence afforded to the Internet. Those freedoms and independence are under threat… The freedom of the seas is the key enabler of globalization and has been central to economic growth and the prosperity of the developed world since the late 15th century. … Peace and security at sea do not keep themselves. … Currently, the world relies on the US to maintain the integrity and security of the international system.”

Frank Shatz lives in Williamsburg, Va. and Lake Placid. His column was reprinted with permission from the Virginia Gazette. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” a compilation of his selected columns.