Capt. Vance D. Scott walked the halls of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, his alma mater, and spoke to more than a hundred Junior ROTC cadets about leadership, accountability and life in the submarine force. The stop was one of many on a multi-day trip home, according to a hometown release from the Navy Office of Community Outreach.
The visit was part of the Navy’s “13 Colonies” Executive Engagement Visit program, which the release describes as a way to put senior officers in front of the communities that shaped them during the nation’s 250th anniversary year. Scott’s itinerary leaned toward the classroom and the lab. At Morgan State University, engineering faculty and doctoral researchers showed him microelectronics and semiconductor research tied to national security. Along the Inner Harbor he met digital services and artificial intelligence companies to talk about bringing commercial technology into naval modernization, then toured local maritime facilities the release says are developing autonomous surface vessels already deployed with the fleet. The release does not name the companies or facilities.
He also met the next crop of officers. Scott addressed midshipmen and cadets from collegiate ROTC units, including Navy ROTC at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Army ROTC units from Morgan State and Coppin State universities. At the Port of Baltimore he toured marine terminals to see military cargo staging, veteran workforce programs and what the release calls record-setting commercial supply chain operations. At City Hall he talked with officials about youth career pipelines and the city’s maritime heritage after the summer’s Sail250 celebrations, which brought tall ships and the Blue Angels to the harbor. He rounded out the trip with meetings of regional business coalitions and corporate leaders working on neighborhood revitalization and industrial development.
“Returning to Baltimore and walking the halls of Poly reminds me where my foundation was built,” Scott said in the release. “Seeing the innovation thriving across our universities, the digital talent emerging from local tech firms and the industrial strength along our waterfront underscores an enduring truth: Baltimore has always propelled our nation forward.” He added that the same ingenuity behind the city’s maritime past is “driving the naval capabilities of tomorrow.”
Scott serves as Deputy for Fleet Operations, Training and Evaluation at Strategic Systems Programs, the Navy organization in Washington that, according to its website, provides the nation’s sea-based strategic deterrence. The release says little else about his career. A WMAR-TV profile from June 2025 of a Navy commander with the same name, then in command of the ballistic missile submarine USS Nebraska’s Blue Crew, reported that he was raised by his grandparents in northwest Baltimore, graduated from Poly and then the Naval Academy in 2004 with an electrical engineering degree. “I call myself Baltimore built, Navy refined,” he told the station then. The Chronicle has not confirmed with the Navy that the two are the same officer.
The trip ended in front of a crowd. Scott was honored on the field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards before more than 15,000 fans during the Baltimore Orioles’ game against the Cleveland Guardians, the release says, without giving a date for the game or for the rest of the visit.
The outreach office runs these visits to build ties between senior leaders and civilians, and says the story of the Navy is the story of America. Southern Marylanders know the pitch from close to home. The Chronicle has profiled a steady run of local sailors through the same program, including an Upper Marlboro sailor aboard a Norfolk-based destroyer, an Annapolis native leading Navy Triton missions and a Great Mills sailor’s path into the Navy. The Navy marks its birthday on Oct. 13, next Tuesday. More on the outreach office’s programs is at outreach.navy.mil.
