Interview with the majors
In this video, U.S. Army Majors Ned Krafchick, Joe Johnson and Tony Heigaard, who all served at Fort Sill, discuss the education they’re getting at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
- Staff Writer Bryan Dean
Hooah
My week with the military is at an end. I write this blog from Kansas City International Airport as I wait for my flight back to Oklahoma City.
I’ve blogged a lot about what I’ve seen and done here, but I haven’t really touched on the main concept of this workshop — bridging the gap between the military and the media. As I spent time with soldiers here, and during many of the panels we attended with senior leaders, we talked a lot about what we each need to do to improve the relationship between the media and the military.
Of the 19 journalists attending this conference, none work major national news outlets. A couple of those attending are freelance broadcasters, and one works for a newspaper in Kuwait. The rest work for mid-size to small newspapers across the country. None of us have had the chance to embed with a combat unit in Iraq or Afghanistan. For the most part, we cover installations within our circulation area such as Tinker Air Force Base and our local national guard and reserve units.
Many of us would love to cover some of the “positive” news that military personnel claim isn’t getting the attention it deserves. Part of the problem is the method of getting that information to the people who can use it. My experience is that local public affairs officers do a good job relating information to their local media. The national guard is even better. But at the national level, the U.S. Defense Department hasn’t found a way to connect with us enough. Stories such as a new school or power plant being built are pitched to national media who are more focused on the big picture.
If Oklahoma soldiers are involved in those types of endeavors, I want to know about it, and I want to write about it. We’re still trying to figure out how to make that work.
Another problem is the dwindling budgets in many newsroom. The prospect of flying overseas to embed with a unit becomes more remote as the economy continues its decline. Without getting dirty with the troops in a war zone, it really isn’t possible to truly convey what they are going through.
I was encouraged by the response I got from the leaders we talked to this week. They seem to understand the importance of being open and honest with the media and willing to work with us to improve our relationship. The book isn’t closed on this. It will be a long process. And I have a feeling the military will stumble a bit as it continues to adopt social media. When every private can report the news, the Army will have to give up some control of its message.
This week has piqued my interest on the relationship between the media and the military, and it has left me hopeful about our continued efforts to tell the story of our fighting men and women.
- Staff Writer Bryan Dean
Military ethics
I enjoyed today’s activities more than anything we’ve done thus far at Fort Leavenworth.
Maj. Brian Sole, of Lawton, goes over his notes during class at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Fort Leavenworth is the home of the Army’s Command and General Staff College, which trains Army majors for higher command. More than 1,000 majors, including some from other services and some from other countries, attend a 10-month course teaching them advanced leadership. They learn everything from military history to geopolitics. If you didn’t look at the signs, you’d never know you were on an Army base. It looks more like a college campus than a military garrison.
Today, we embedded with students at the college. I sat in on a class including an Oklahoman, Maj. Brian Sole, of Lawton. Sole and a dozen other majors were discussing ethics. They covered different ethical models, including theories by such thinkers as Immanual Kant. They watched clips from HBO’s John Adams miniseries, identifying the ethical models used in several scenes in which Adams, an attorney, contemplates whether to defend the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre.
The instructor was Douglas Stephenson, a professor of leadership who served 28 years as an Army officer. Stephenson gave the students an ethical case study from his own experience as a new battalion commander. On Stephenson’s first day as commander, a female private came into his office and reported that her sergeant wouldn’t keep his hands off her. After a thorough investigation, the case came down to he-said, she-said. No one could cooroborate the sworn statements of either party. Stephenson’s military lawyer, a judge advocate general, recommended doing nothing. But Stephenson couldn’t live with doing nothing.
The class discussed options. Moving either the private or her sergeant seemed a consensus, but moving either of them could cause problems. On the one hand, you don’t want the appearance that you are punsihing a female soldier for coming forward with a harassment complaint. On the other, you don’t want sergeants thinking they can be punished on a mere accusation with no proof of guilt.
Another option the class identified included refresher courses on harassment for the entire battalion. Stephenson’s ultimate course of action was inventive and won approval from most of the class. He used Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which allows commanders to discipline soldiers for minor offenses without going through a judicial process. Soldiers disciplined under Article 15 can request a court martial if they want to challenge the commander’s decision. Stephenson called both the private and her sergeant into his office and told them that based on their sworn statements, one of them was lying. He had disciplinary papers drawn up for both of them. He asked the private if she would take a polygraph, and she agreed. The sergeant sought legal council and was advised not to take the polygraph. He agreed anyway, after Stephenson told him that a polygraph that confirmed the private’s story would result in discipline. The polygraphs both showed the private was telling the truth. She wasn’t disciplined. Although the polygraphs were not admissiable for legal proceedings, the sergeant was kicked out of the unit, and a reprimand from Stephenson was put on his permanent record.
The action won Stephenson the trust of his female enlisted soldiers and sent an immediate message that sexual harassment would not be tolerated under his command. He took a risk. If the sergeant refused to take the polygraph and challenged his punishment, Stephenson might have had a hard time justifying his decision with no evidence.
This scenario illustrated many of the situations the majors might encounter in their military careers. Ethical decisions are easy to make when the issue is black and white. Shades of gray are where the problems arise, and senior leaders need to know how to think through cases where there may not be a clear cut right or wrong decision. It was nice to see the future senior leaders of our military having an honest, open discussion about the issues.
Special thanks to the members of the class who let me sit and observe and who eagerly answered all my questions.
- Staff Writer Bryan Dean
Bayonet practice
Here’s some video of Army recruits going through a bayonet course at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. on Tuesday.
- Staff Writer Bryan Dean
Ready, aim, fire
Here’s a short video of some Army recruits firing .50 caliber machine guns at a Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., firing range on Tuesday.
- Staff Writer Bryan Dean
Comprehensive soldier fitness
Back at Fort Leavenworth after a short flight on a C-130 this afternoon.
One of the most interesting things we are hearing about is a new approach the Army is taking to fitness. I’ve been hearing about comprehensive soldier fitness for some time, and we are getting a taste of it during our time here.
The jist of comprehensive soldier fitness is that the Army has realized its past concepts about fitness — namely physical training and physical training only — are inherrently flawed. The leadership is honest about the Army’s problems related to rising suicide rates, domestic violence and mental illness. Comprehensive soldier fitness is an effort to change the Army’s culture and create soldiers that are healthy in every way.
The new philosophy takes into account five areas of a soldier’s fitness: physical, emotional, spiritual, social and family. Part of this means being more proactive about dealing with issues like post traumatic stress disorder and depression. The Army is also involving soldiers’ families in the program, giving them some of the same training the soldiers will get.
One of the comprehensive soldier fitness concepts the Army is about to implement across the service is resiliancy. Think of the way a tennis ball deforms when you squeeze it. When you let go, the ball returns to its original shape. The Army wants its soldiers to be able to deal with the physical and psychological stresses in their lives in much the same way, returning to their healthy selves after the challenges are over.
Soldiers will be taught, beginning in basic training, methods to deal with all kinds of stress. This strategy is a way of dealing with anxiety by returning yourself to rational thinking. Say, for example, that a soldier is deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and calls home to get no answer. In a stressful environment, all kinds of things could go through that soldier’s head as to why his or her spouse isn’t answering. Resiliancy teaches the soldier to consider that the worst-case may not be the most likely case. While the soldier’s fear may be that his or her spouse is cheating, the most-likely scenario is that they simply left the house to go shopping or something similar.
When I get back to Oklahoma, I intend to follow-up on this concept with the Oklahoma National Guard. I’d like to know how they plan to implement comprehensive soldier fitness and when we can expect to see these methods put in place.
- Staff Writer Bryan Dean
Training with the troops
Trust me, that rubber dummy had it coming.
He was just standing there, looking like a bunch of old tires. I had to gut him with the bayonet on the end of my M-16.
Staff Writer Bryan Dean stabs at a rubber target with a bayonet at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
Day three at the Military and the Media seminar, and we are at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
My apologies for not getting to the blog last night. To be honest, our second day at Fort Leavenworth gave me a lot of knowledge I will take home with me as I cover Oklahoma’s military, but it wasn’t too exciting. We flew to Fort Leonard Wood yesterday afternoon on a C-130 Hercules cargo plane.
Today was much more exciting. Wake-up was at 4 a.m. for physical training with a group of sergeants. Now, I may not look like much of an athlete. Truth is, I play sports. I play in tennis and softball leagues. But running and weight training with these soldiers at 5 a.m. was humbling to say the least. These guys are in tremendous shape. I am also in tremendous shape. Tremendously round.
We also got to watch some privates in basic training go through an obstacle course. We even got to negotiate some of the obstacles ourselves, though I passed up the ones that would have required me to get wet or crawl in the mud. After that, it was off to the bayonet course. We got a chance to try out some of the basic tactics the troops are taught for using a bayonet, which our instructors reminded us was an absolute last option when all of your ammo is gone and you have no other weapon. That’s when I took out that pesky rubber guy.
Army recruits negotiate an obstacle course at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
Next up was the live-fire range. Recruits fired machine guns, including the intimidating .50 caliber, affectionately known as the Ma-Deuce. It can take out vehicles.
We got our hands on some weapons at a virtual firing range. We shot M-16s and the Mk-19 40mm grenade launcher at a range that resembles a massive video game. The weapons weigh the same as their live counterparts, and compressed air makes them kick like the real thing, too. I’ll skip modesty for a moment and say I did pretty well with the M-16. I’ve fired rifles before, and all those hours of video game marksmanship finally paid off. It was tougher getting used to the grenade launcher. It weighs a ton and is difficult to aim. Still, I managed to cook some of the turkeys the instructors loaded up as our targets. Yes, turkeys.
Tonight’s activity was watching an A-10 Warthog fire its massive gatling gun at some ground targets on the aerial gunnery range. Reluctantly, I passed up my chance to watch that spectacle so I would have time to write this blog.
Tomorrow it’s back to Fort Leaveworth. Keep watching this space, as I hope to bring you more updates and some video.
- Staff Writer Bryan Dean
Military and the Media
Greetings from Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
My name is Bryan Dean, and I cover Oklahoma City government, Oklahoma County government and the military for The Oklahoman and NewsOK.com. For the next five days, I am participating in a program called Bridging the Gap: Military and the Media.
The program is run by Kansas University’s William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications through funding from the McCormick Foundation. The goal of the week-long seminar is to foster understanding between members of the media and the military. There are 18 journalists here from across the country. We’ll be splitting our time between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
Here at Fort Leavenworth, we’ll be talking with U.S. Army majors who are here training. Much of their training is in the classroom, and we will be sitting in on some of those classes to see how and what they learn as they train to lead men in combat and on the homefront.
We will spend much of Monday, all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning at Fort Leonard Wood, where we will be “getting dirty” with fresh Army recruits. We are going to get a taste of everything from obstacle courses to simulated weapons training.
I’ve covered the military for almost the entire seven and a half years I’ve been at The Oklahoman. Covering the military is unlike any other beat a journalist might encounter. I’ve always been interested in the military, and I like to think I know a lot about our armed services and how they work. I’m here with the hope of learning more.
The goal of this program is to foster better working relationships between members of the media and the military. We come from different worlds, and it is certainly helpful when we sit down and try to understand each other better. Ultimately, I hope it helps me become better at bringing you stories about your loved ones and fellow Oklahomans who are in the military.
Over the next week, I’ll be updating this blog as I get the opportunity. I’ll try to describe some of the training we see here, and I’m hoping to bring you some stories from Oklahomans training either here at Fort Leavenworth or at Fort Leonard Wood.
Please feel free to leave comments or email me at bdean@opubco.com if you have questions or if there is something you want to know about the military. I’ll do my best to answer.
- Staff Writer Bryan Dean
Being There
We landed in Oklahoma City just after noon on Sunday, ending my week-long trek with the medical missionaries. I decided to hold off a little bit on posting the final blog so I could reflect some on the experience.
Throughout this week I have tried to tell the story of a group of medical missionaries working in Guatemala. Along the way I experienced what they did, I was with them when they became the first medical team in Las Lomas and Joyabaj. I worked alongside them in Xepocol. I did my best to tell their story.
In some cases, I don’t think I did it justice.
Just like it’s impossible to experience Greece vicariously through a Travel Channel show, it’s not possible to truly capture the experience with words and photos. There’s a lot more to a story like this than just explaining what they do or how many patients they saw.
It consists of the local ministers tearfully thanking you for traveling where no other group had been willing to up to that point. It’s receiving a gift a small box of candy from a child for playing with them, or being hugged by a woman who waited outside in the hot sun for hours to see a doctor.
It’s the home-cooked meal in a place where they don’t even speak your language made by people who have never met you. It’s the realization that some of these people have never seen a doctor before, that some of those you just didn’t have time to see might never have another chance to see a doctor.
The people we saw in Guatemala work hard for as long as they can. From the time they’re little children they will carry loads that, if they were in a school child’s backpack here, would draw complaints from parents. But these children aren’t going to school, they’re carrying crops to and from fields or are bringing goods to markets.
They were tough, able to tolerate more pain than I know I could.
To us, the mountains and forests and lakes are pictures you’d expect to find on motivational posters. To them they’re tools for everyday life, soil to grow crops or roads to climb three times a week for firewood.
It’s hard to express what it’s like to be some place. I might be able to describe the environment, like how crop fields are planted on steep angles on the side of mountains or how a person might pick the fruit of a tree fresh every day for a meal, and I could even show pictures of these things, but it’s not a substitute for tasting the corn roasted and brushed with the juice of the lime.
These sensory experiences aren’t something you can replicate behind a computer, they’re something you have to experience in person. That’s not to say I think I did a bad job, but there’s just no real substitute for being there.
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The Instituto Guatemalteco de Turismo
Lake Atitlan is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Seeing it in person is absolutely astounding.
I’ve been told they call the region Gringotenega, or land of the Gringos, because it’s such a big tourist destination. It’s easy to tell why, when people sit around on the streets begging, it’s probably because there are a lot of tourists around. When children follow people for blocks trying to sell them dolls and stuffed toys, you know you’re in a tourist town.
When you sit in a lake view restaurant with a cheeseburger on the menu and Hotel California on the speakers, you know you’re in a tourist town.
We landed in Panajachel and took a boat across Lake Atitlan. The water was clear in two shades of blue. Surrounding the lake are forest-covered volcanoes, Toliman, Atitlan and San Pedro, around which clouds wrap around in whisps. . In the towns, shops and stalls of textiles, wooden carvings, fruit, food and anything you can find in most tourist markets across the country. You can see patchwork green fields, quilt-like in look, where the land is being cultivated.
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- From a cliff near the lake
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- Boats on the dock of Lake Atitlan on the Panajachel side. These boats take people across the lake to Santiago Atitlan
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- A home on Lake Atitlan. Locals fish and use the lake for washing clothes.
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- Santiago Atitlan from a boat while crossing the lake
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- Cloud covers one of the volcanoes over Santiago Atitlan
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- A boat dock on Lake Atitlan
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- A street on Santiago Atitlan
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- Wherever there are tourists in Guatemala, children can be found trying to sell goods. They’re willing to follow tourists even down to the boats or cars to try to sell goods.
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- People dance in the streets of Antigua in celebration on Saturday night.
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- Jade jewelry in the Jade Factory in Antigua. Real jade, unlike much of the stuff you might find cheaply elsewhere, can be rather expensive.
It’s easy to see why tourists flock to this place. The scenery is incredible with monstrous trees and a multihued bunches of flowers. Textiles of every shade of blues, greens, reds, pinks or any color of the visible spectrum fill stalls. Paintings, especially of the lake, are common, as are detailed wooden masks that are more creepy than practical. We saw what we thought was jade traveling through Atitlan, but if it was jade, it was drastically underpriced. At the Jade Museum in Antigua, the prices were in dollars rather than Quetzals and the prices were much higher.
The phrase “you get what you pay for” comes to mind, and the likelihood that the cheap jade in the market may not be the real thing increased.
Boats, both of the speed and the cruising variety, take passengers across the lake. You can see locals rowing wooden canoes to fish for tilapia. I imagine you could spend months, if not years, on the lake and still be exploring it.
And if you look like tourists, you would probably have Guatemalan children following you every step of the way to sell you bracelets or stuffed toys.
We arrived at Antigua late and were greeted by some sort of street festival. Men, women and children all marched down the street behind a truck carrying a pair of stereos. They were wearing masks designed to look like old faces and danced in the middle of the street as a light rain fell.
That’s not something you’d see in Oklahoma.
