Mike Pence at West Point commencement: Praises for Trump, graduates' diversity

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Vice President Mike Pence praised the diversity of this year's U.S. Military Academy graduating class Saturday and said President Donald Trump has made the largest military investment since Ronald Reagan.

"Your commander in chief will always have your back," Pence said in his address to the 980 graduates of West Point in their gray, white and gold uniforms. "President Donald Trump is the best friend the men and women of our armed forces will ever have."

Pence, speaking at the 221st commencement, said "Americans will always seek peace but peace comes through strength and you are now that strength."

The graduates include the highest number of African American women, as well as the most women to graduate for any class since 1980, according to the school. It's also the most diverse class for both ethnicity and gender.

May 18:Dozens walk out before Mike Pence's commencement address at Taylor University

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

The vice president urged the cadets to hold onto values including humility, integrity and discipline. 

"Be an example of self-discipline to the men and women you lead," Pence said in a more than 20-minute address.

Pence also used his address to praise the Trump administration. He said NATO allies now contribute more to the common defense.

When this graduating class entered West Point, the world was dangerous and it still is, Pence said. But the graduates are "joining an Army that is better equipped and better trained and better supplied than" any time in the country's history, he said.

Pence delivered his speech at about 10:30 a.m in Michie Stadium, where thousands gathered.

May 11:Vice President Pence to graduates: Be prepared to be ridiculed for being Christian

"You're proud – there's a lot of emotion," said Matthew McGovern,  whose daughter Meaghan is one of the graduates.

He said his daughter's introduction to West Point started early – at a swim camp held there when she was a child.

"We had to pick her up because she wouldn't stay overnight," her father recalled.

The commencement on Memorial Day weekend culminates several days' events, from a wreath-laying Tuesday that included West Point’s oldest living graduate – retired Col. Doniphan Carter, class of 1944 – to a graduation parade held Friday.

Typically, one of the nation's most powerful political leaders gives the address. In 2017, for instance, then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis spoke. The year before that, it was then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Follow Michael McKinney on Twitter: @mikemckwrite