The U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
Lots of briefings and meetings today. We started the morning in a meeting room in the U.S. Army Command and General Staff college. After the first briefing with Mr. Kirby Brown, the Deputy to the Commanding General U.S. Army, Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, we were quickly and professionally escorted from the building, informed that a suspicious package had been found outside. As a visiting Chinese delegation was due in at any moment, the matter was being dealt with delicately.
I love being around people who can handle any circumstances. I fell in with several officers as we left the building, and had the most pleasant conversation as we vacated the area of a potential explosive. I’ve seen civilians panic at the prospect of an icy road. Several of the journalists today were pretty damn unhappy. These men and women just roll with it.
I had the pleasure to meet some of the most incredible officers today, including Colonel Steve Leonard, Operations Officer for the Combined Arms Center, shown in this photo making his points in an effective, entertaining way. The Colonel had, as he put it, “no filter,” and it made for some interesting conversation.
We have a number of briefings tomorrow morning before leaving for Ft. Leonard Wood to experience new recruits being… welcomed into the U.S. Army. Amidst other hot topics, PTSD has been a subject of much contention among the little group of journalists, and we’re going through a formal presentation on it tomorrow.
Colonel Leonard had this to say on the subject. “If you could take a pill and forget a traumatic experience, would you do it?” He spoke about learning from our experiences, through our mistakes. If we could magically forget the hard times, would we simply go through them again, having not learned our lessons, and, in the case of the magic pill, would we then be doomed to repeat? It’s an interesting train of thought…
We also had the opportunity to walk through one of the cemeteries on base, the resting place of approximately 22,000 men and women. To me it always seems like graveyards deserve a mighty moment of silence, a sense of place. It was haunting and mesmerizing to walk through the gravestones and see dates from the Civil War all the way through our wars today. It was a heavy place.
We met with several officers and their families to discuss the unique challenges military families and relationships face. This was one of my favorite topics, and I loved being able to sit down and hear how families cope, what they like and don’t like about the life and how they make relationships work.
I’ve been told that we will be able to do PT with the troops Wednesday morning at Ft. Leonard Wood, tackle an obstacle course, experience a few IED and vehicle simulators, fire a simulated .50 cal and observe a night infiltration exercise that night. The instructor (civilian, college professor) made some comment about how it would be funny to see the group of liberal, gun-hating journalists try the .50 cal. I thought it wise to keep my mouth shut about my personal experience with tactical weapons… let’s just say I’ll be looking forward to that simulation in particular.
Until then, signing off from the barracks.
Cheers.
Oh, and give what may be the last Dispatches From Craig a read on Chi Wulff.
Colonel Leonard instructing.
Rows upon rows at the Ft. Leavenworth cemetery.
Tags: Military
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Good Afternoon
I may have missed or can’t find again (I know it’s an old age thing)where you explained this military trip that you were selected to teach photography ? or am I all wrong, I would hate to think you’re off again to some dangerous place with real bullets ,and do play with .50 cal
Hi Victor, it’s a military journalism training session. A small group of working journalists were selected from around the States to spend a week with the U.S. military. The intent, in brief, is to enable journalists to better cover the military.
Hopefully the real scenario will not be far behind.