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I had the pleasure of attending the Army War College from July 2000
through June 2001 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The War College is the Army's
premier educational academy, preparing its most promising senior officers
for strategic leadership positions. As the motto implies, classes are not
all centered on the military art. Many highlight the other elements of
national power--political, economic, cultural, and informational--and
expose the military officer to working with other federal agencies and
foreign governments and forces. Graduates are militarily adept and
politically astute, learning from Karl von Clausewitz that "War is
regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other
means." They are also exposed to the benefits of working together with
officers from the other services, all of whom are represented in the
student body. But the year is social as well as academic, providing an
opportunity to make friends, learn from each other and absorb the
perspectives of the 41 foreign military officers in the class. The country
is well served by our military officers, and in turn, their service is
immeasurably enhanced by the education and exposure they gain at the U.S. Army War College.
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The academic buildings around campus are a mixture of the old and the new, the functional and the inspirational. |
| Likewise, the residential buildings for students and faculty on post run from a Civil War barracks building to the former commandant's quarters (now home to the State Department Ambassador). |
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Sometimes it was great just to blow off the academics. The class and families gathered for a pumpkin carving party prior to the Halloween festivities. A couple of us noshed on hot dogs and suds at a Harrisburg baseball game. The whole seminar gathered at a local restaurant to greet Cherie when she came to Carlisle for spring break. And at the annual soccer tournament between the American and foreign officers, the ladies surrounded one of our professors and introduced him to the English drink Pimms. |
| The foreign officers lent an international air to the war college experience. They introduced our student body to the customs, attitudes, and yes, drinks, of their regions. |
 
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The military services are steeped in tradition, such as honoring the flag at the end of the day (retreat). Every night at 5:00 p.m. the cannon fired, and the entire post came to a standstill, faced the flag, and saluted. Even cars stop and passengers debark to pay respects to old glory. Also seen here are the Golden Knights making an aerial entrance to Thorpe Field on the day of the international soccer tournament. But I was also exposed to Naval traditions, thanks to Al Lamson, my naval seminar mate. Al took me under his wing (at 6 foot something that wasn't hard for him to do) and took me on a tour of a WW II Liberty Ship in Baltimore's harbor, and then gave me a personal tour of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. As it turns out, I was lucky Al gave me poop on the Navy, as my next assignment was a one-year stint with the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego. |
| And when you need to get away, there's always the town of Boiling Springs down the road a piece. This bucolic town offers some of the best trout fishing in the country along the streams that run though the hills of Pennsylvania. And after a day of fishing, the historic Boiling Springs tavern serves the weary nourishing food and refreshing drink to lift their spirits. I came to love life in Pennsylvania. There is a lot of peace to preserve in this beautiful corner of the world. |  |
The class of 338 students was organized into 20 seminars of about 17 students each. Here is the best of the seminars. Seminar 8 had logistics, artillery, special operations, public affairs, medical, infantry, intelligence, and engineer Army officers, a Navy Commander, and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, two U.S. Army civilians, and three officers from foreign countries: United Kingdom, Hungary, and Mexico. Seminar instructors were colonels from the Army and Air Force, and a professor who was a former foreign service officer with the State Department.
