Hello from Fort Leonward Wood, MO home of Military Police, Engineers and Chemical schools. Last I wrote when I was doing 7 weeks of good time at Fort Benning, GA home of the Infantry.
Well I figured I should check in and share some thoughts as it's been a while. I've got 14 weeks of training here to complete for Engineers officer school. This means alot of classes and alot of tests. We are in class 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. You multiply that by 14 weeks and you get a heck of alot of credit hours. Not to mention the various online courses that we are required to complete. So far I count 63.5 credit hours of online courses. So if you multiply 40 by 14 weeks you get 560 hours. Then you add that to 63.5 you get 623.50 hours. That's a ridiculous amount of class time and associated tests to cope with I think. No wonder I feel burnt out after 3.5 weeks. I need a break.
Yeah I didn't mention that we awake at 5 am every morning for a PT formation at 5:30 am. We PT some difficult stuff for 45-50 mins each morning, 5 days per week. Then we have time to shower, eat breakfast and get to class by 8 am. We have an hour off for lunch and get off at the end of the day all in time to eat, go back to our rooms, go work out, go to the store and come back to either study, work on online courses or do nothing but watch tv. I'm pretty bad about studying as I get bored easily and I thus spend alot of time flipping through channels and slowly working my way through online courses. Most of the time I do this by fast forwarding through each of the modules' pages. Haha.
Anyhow, anytime we start a new school we are graced by the presence of several high ranking Army officers giving us "welcome speeches". These are usually Colonels or Generals or sometimes Majors or Lt. Colonels. Suffice it to say the experience in life, civilian and military matters they hold in a pinky outdoes our feeble Lt. minds very quickly. So when they speak, we listed.
Too often as civilians and even myself as a low ranking Army Guard officer, I/we criticize the decisions of our country's top leaders, thinking we have a better way of dealing with the war against militant islam or whatever threats posed around the world. Then I'm sufficiently humbled to sit in on a welcome briefing and get a real decision maker's take on the state of the affairs our military operates in; and let me tell you, it's a very complicated one.
For example, recently I summised that we're not getting anywhere in Afghanistan because we are paying local Afghanis money to side with or help us against the Taliban/Al Qaeda and that because of this they would stop helping us if we stopped paying them. Thus...we would never be able to stop paying them and if we did they would turn to helping the Taliban/Al Qaeda because all they want is a hand out. Well needless to say my view was changed when an officer here at Leonard Wood put it to me this way: ok, so if you're an Afghan native who do you want to win the war? Taliban/Al Qaeda or the U.S.? Mmmm, interesting question. I would have said it would be whoever's going to pay them the most. But more realistically if you put yourself in theirs shoes, or in any shoes of a people caught in-between....one would have to say that whoever they think is going to win the war. Yes, simple. You see if they side with the Americans and we end up pulling out, ie admitting loss then who do you think that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are going to go after and kill for collaborating with us? Ok, and if the Afghanis go with Al Qaeda thinking that they will win.....then it only prolongs the war for both parties and turns us against them. So it's almost a no-win situation if youre thinking from their simple minds. Of course we all know America is the strongest military power the world has ever seen and there's no way we'd lose this war, right? Well, yes and no. Just like the Russians in the 80's, if we do not gain the support and loyalty of the Afghanis then we will be fighting an uphill battle. However if we turn the focus to "national building" and gainin the loyalties of these people, showing them that we will not leave until the Taliban/Al Qaeda are defeated, then they will see that there's nothing to fear for us leaving them to be killed and seen as collaborators. Simple stuff, just another perspective from some higher-ups.
But as I leave I thought I'd share a few items from my notes after a talk to us by the Brigade Commander for Engineers, a General of course. He spoke about what sets the U.S. Army apart from other organizations. And by organizations it can mean any business, company, group or club.
1. Protection of ideas that define a people and organization.
meaning: we serve and fight for a set of ideals and beliefs that is written on paper: the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
2. We don't outsource leadership.
meaning: the U.S. Army doesn't look outside it's ranks to fill upper leadership positions, we train from within and promote those who are the best. In business terms it means we don't outsource for CEO's or CFO's.
3. Stakes are very high-failure hav grave consequences.
meaning: when mistakes or miscalculations are made it's not money that's lost, it's human lives.
4. Ours is a domain of ground combat.
meaning: simply that we life, work and fight on the ground where the rubber meets the road and the dirty work is and has to be done. What other organization other than the Marines does this?
Well I figured I should check in and share some thoughts as it's been a while. I've got 14 weeks of training here to complete for Engineers officer school. This means alot of classes and alot of tests. We are in class 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. You multiply that by 14 weeks and you get a heck of alot of credit hours. Not to mention the various online courses that we are required to complete. So far I count 63.5 credit hours of online courses. So if you multiply 40 by 14 weeks you get 560 hours. Then you add that to 63.5 you get 623.50 hours. That's a ridiculous amount of class time and associated tests to cope with I think. No wonder I feel burnt out after 3.5 weeks. I need a break.
Yeah I didn't mention that we awake at 5 am every morning for a PT formation at 5:30 am. We PT some difficult stuff for 45-50 mins each morning, 5 days per week. Then we have time to shower, eat breakfast and get to class by 8 am. We have an hour off for lunch and get off at the end of the day all in time to eat, go back to our rooms, go work out, go to the store and come back to either study, work on online courses or do nothing but watch tv. I'm pretty bad about studying as I get bored easily and I thus spend alot of time flipping through channels and slowly working my way through online courses. Most of the time I do this by fast forwarding through each of the modules' pages. Haha.
Anyhow, anytime we start a new school we are graced by the presence of several high ranking Army officers giving us "welcome speeches". These are usually Colonels or Generals or sometimes Majors or Lt. Colonels. Suffice it to say the experience in life, civilian and military matters they hold in a pinky outdoes our feeble Lt. minds very quickly. So when they speak, we listed.
Too often as civilians and even myself as a low ranking Army Guard officer, I/we criticize the decisions of our country's top leaders, thinking we have a better way of dealing with the war against militant islam or whatever threats posed around the world. Then I'm sufficiently humbled to sit in on a welcome briefing and get a real decision maker's take on the state of the affairs our military operates in; and let me tell you, it's a very complicated one.
For example, recently I summised that we're not getting anywhere in Afghanistan because we are paying local Afghanis money to side with or help us against the Taliban/Al Qaeda and that because of this they would stop helping us if we stopped paying them. Thus...we would never be able to stop paying them and if we did they would turn to helping the Taliban/Al Qaeda because all they want is a hand out. Well needless to say my view was changed when an officer here at Leonard Wood put it to me this way: ok, so if you're an Afghan native who do you want to win the war? Taliban/Al Qaeda or the U.S.? Mmmm, interesting question. I would have said it would be whoever's going to pay them the most. But more realistically if you put yourself in theirs shoes, or in any shoes of a people caught in-between....one would have to say that whoever they think is going to win the war. Yes, simple. You see if they side with the Americans and we end up pulling out, ie admitting loss then who do you think that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are going to go after and kill for collaborating with us? Ok, and if the Afghanis go with Al Qaeda thinking that they will win.....then it only prolongs the war for both parties and turns us against them. So it's almost a no-win situation if youre thinking from their simple minds. Of course we all know America is the strongest military power the world has ever seen and there's no way we'd lose this war, right? Well, yes and no. Just like the Russians in the 80's, if we do not gain the support and loyalty of the Afghanis then we will be fighting an uphill battle. However if we turn the focus to "national building" and gainin the loyalties of these people, showing them that we will not leave until the Taliban/Al Qaeda are defeated, then they will see that there's nothing to fear for us leaving them to be killed and seen as collaborators. Simple stuff, just another perspective from some higher-ups.
But as I leave I thought I'd share a few items from my notes after a talk to us by the Brigade Commander for Engineers, a General of course. He spoke about what sets the U.S. Army apart from other organizations. And by organizations it can mean any business, company, group or club.
1. Protection of ideas that define a people and organization.
meaning: we serve and fight for a set of ideals and beliefs that is written on paper: the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
2. We don't outsource leadership.
meaning: the U.S. Army doesn't look outside it's ranks to fill upper leadership positions, we train from within and promote those who are the best. In business terms it means we don't outsource for CEO's or CFO's.
3. Stakes are very high-failure hav grave consequences.
meaning: when mistakes or miscalculations are made it's not money that's lost, it's human lives.
4. Ours is a domain of ground combat.
meaning: simply that we life, work and fight on the ground where the rubber meets the road and the dirty work is and has to be done. What other organization other than the Marines does this?
1 comment:
Thanks for such an informative read Mike. It's a lot to think about. I really appreciate you passing on the thoughts and notes regarding the Army. :)
P.S. Thanks for sacrificing time with LaShawn and your babies to serve our country. I really mean it. Ever since I was little I've always looked up to you and that hasn't changed.
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