Archive for July, 2005
Life In A Sorority House
As has been previously mentioned in this space, this summer’s quest for gainful employment took me to a rather unexpected nook of this great country: Lexington, Virginia.
Lexington, a slim sliver of Southern hospitality home to some 7,000 proud Virginians, is a town mostly scattered around two institutions of higher learning: Virginia Military Institute and Washington & Lee University. And, for the scorching months of June and July, Lexington is also home to the LeadAmerica military-fest-for-high-schoolers, Junior War College. (I always had to chuckle at the true “militarism” of the program when I explained to dozens of parents that, yes, in fact, their son would be staying in a sorority house while in our program. Vacant of ladies, of course.)
My position for three 10-day sessions with LeadAmerica, known to those under my dominion as their mighty Team Leader, encompassed the usual duties of a camp-counselor-type: be responsible for 16 kids, do teambuilding activities, lead field trips, supervise lectures, and keep the next generation from burning the campus down. While the 16-hour workdays became a bit tedious after 40 days of the same repetition, overall, it was a very enjoyable experience.
Despite the repetition of the session schedule, the kids kept things interesting: everything from the guy who didn’t have detergent and therefore substituted shampoo in his laundry load, to the delinquent that snuck into my room during the night and turned the thermostat down to 55ยบ, to the young lady that assured us, with a straight face, that her Junior ROTC program was so comprehensive that she had nothing to learn from the Brigadier General on our speaking schedule. While there were a few bad apples, out of the 286 kids I crossed paths with, I’d look forward to serving in the uniformed services with just about all of them.
Even in the midst of a flashback to the high school soap opera, I found the program to be personally profitable. We heard from some fantastic speakers (such as Winston Churchill’s granddaughter, an analyst from the NSA, and numerous talented Field Grade officers), visited some meaningful sites (including the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, and the National Museum of American History), and enjoyed memorable experiences (tactical road marches, all-you-can-eat cafeteria meals, and long bus rides). Not bad for getting paid to be there.
The true highlight of the experience, though, had to be the other staff members. Five other Team Leaders came from The Citadel, VMI, Norwich, and Mary Baldwin and brought with them military experience, contagious enthusiasm, and true talent in working with high schoolers (even if such acumen did involve the “Kill Them All” speech or fictional tales of the French Foreign Legion). Despite imperfect management at higher levels of the organization, I was consistently impressed with the high standards of my co-workers: these were people that knew their stuff and were tireless team contributors. Even in the craze of what seemed to be regular emergencies, we forged some terrific friendships and I left little Lexington with the thought, “Why can’t I go to school with more people like these?”
All in all, a summer well spent.
Tomorrow morning, the adventure begins anew as I set off for Tel Aviv, Israel in the company of fellow former-Peppers-House residents Chris Stieber and Kevin Mills, along with forty other recipients of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Undergraduate Fellowship. Together, we’ll spend two weeks in the field and in the classroom learning the theory and practice of counter-terrorism in a free society. It should be quite an experience.
More Junior War College photos available in the gallery…
Of Fear, Freedom & Futures
Continuing the background reading necessary for my upcoming counter-terror educational sojourn to Israel has led me to Natan Sharansky’s latest work, The Case for Democracy (reviews | prices). Sharansky, a fascinating Soviet dissident who spent nine years locked in a Siberian labor camp, investigates the moral premises separating free societies from fear societies while answering the foundational question, “Is freedom for everyone?” Though verbose in sections, overall this work is a penetrating look at important recent history–the collapse of the USSR, the Israeli/Palestinian peace process, the Global War on Terror–that isn’t being taught in school.
Below, I’ve included some of Sharansky’s more insightful points:
Pg. 104-105
A regime based on fear must maintain increasingly tight control over its population to remain in power, and such control inevitably triggers a process of decay. Outward signs of this decay may take some time to emerge. In fact, if a fear society is blessed with abundant natural resources, the society may prosper even when the process of internal dissolution is well under way. This is what occurred during the middle decades of the twentieth century in the Soviet Union. Rich reserves of coal, oil, iron, aluminum, diamonds, and many other commodities provided the means to sustain the regime’s total control over its own people. Moreover, in an age of industrialization and mass production, methods perfected elsewhere could be put to use in the Soviet’s command-and-control economy. But in an information age, when technological innovation was becoming increasingly dependent on the free flow of ideas, the Soviet’s sclerotic fear society was destined to fall further and further behind the West.In Saudi Arabia, where a degenerating fear society has been hidden for decades beneath a sea of oil, a similar breakdown is setting in. The hundreds of billions of petrodollars that have poured into the country have built cities, paved roads, and created enormous wealth and power for the regime. But as populations explode and oil revenues dwindle, the inability of the Saudi’s fear society to generate growth from within will become more and more apparent. The Saudis control their fear society through a number of institutions, including those that support a global Islamist network. As these institutions come under increasing strain, Saudi Arabia and the regime that rules it will face the same bitter fate that awaits all fear societies: stagnation, regression, and eventually collapse. This process is inexorable. The only way to slow it down is to seek help from the outside. If it is unable to generate enough energy from within to provide the means to indefinitely control its people, a fear society must parasitically feed off the resources of others to recharge its depleting batteries.Pg. 205-207
Human rights violations can and do take place in democratic societies. But one of the things that sets democracies apart from fear societies is the way they respond to those violations. A fear society does not openly debate human rights issues. Its people do not protest. Its regime does not investigate. Its press does not expose. Its courts do not protect. In contrast, democratic societies are always engaged in self-examination.For example, look at how the United States dealt with the abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison. Even before the abuse became publicly known, the army had suspended those involved and was conducting a full investigation. And as soon as the disturbing pictures of the abuse were published, America’s democracy was shocked into action. The Congress, determined to find the culprits, immediately convened public hearings, and demanded a full account of what led to the abuse. Politicians and opinion makers insisted that the people responsible for the abuse be held accountable, including those at the very top of the chain of command. The media mulled over the details, pursuing every allegation, tracking down every lead. The American people openly discussed what the abuse said about their own country’s values, its image in the world, and how that image would affect the broader War on Terror. The U.S. president, for his part, apologized to the families of the victims and said that those responsible would be punished.
But let’s not forget that the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib under Saddam was far worse than anything America was accused of. Yet were pictures distributed of Saddam’s soldiers murdering, raping, and torturing Iraqis? If they had been distributed, would Iraq’s parliament have conducted public hearings? Would the Iraqi media have reported it? Would anyone have publicly called for the resignation of Saddam’s defense minister, let alone Saddam himself? Would Saddam have denounced the brutality and apologized to the victims and their families?
Far from showing that all societies are the same, the human rights abuses that sometimes occur in democracies often help illustrate the tremendous moral divide that separates free and fear societies.
Pg. 264-265
For ten years, and with five different prime ministers, Israel has tried various approaches to peace with the Palestinians. Rabin and Peres sought to create a “New Middle East” with a Palestinian dictatorship. Netanyahu tried to establish reciprocity. Barak jumped to final status negotiations. Sharon embraced unilateral disengagement. During this time, most of the world and many in Israel measured progress in the peace process by the percentage of territory that was handed over, by how close Palestinians were to establishing a state, or by how close Israel was to removing settlements. Thus, according to the world’s criteria, the peace process was either speeding ahead or stuck in neutral. In contrast, I measured progress by the extent of freedom within Palestinian society. But according to my criteria, despite the efforts of Israeli governments to make peace, the peace process was going steadily in reverse because there was less freedom and more fear within Palestinian society than before Oslo began.There is another way. History has shows us that a few years of freedom can make a world of difference. In 1944, Germany had descended into depths that are scarcely imaginable today. A few years later, West Germany, a free society once more, was building its democratic institutions and becoming a peaceful member of the free world.
The culture of death and violence that has engulfed Palestinian society can also change quickly. But the change is unlikely to happen on its own, nor will it be the product of an Israeli withdrawal or phony peace. It will happen when the free world abandons the false assumptions hat have guided diplomacy in the region for decades. It will happen when the world’s democratic leaders, especially those in the United States and Israel, embrace the principles that President Bush outlined on June 24, 2002, and ensure that those principles shape their policies. Above all, it will happen only when those democratic leaders have faith that freedom has the power to change our world–even when its seeds are planted in the rocky soil of the West Band and the Gaza strip.
Words well said from a wise revolutionary.
Declaring Independence In 109 Minutes
Hours of bus rides around Northern Virginia have afforded me the opportunity to catch-up on a months-neglected reading list, the latest selection from which was Michael Barone’s Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation’s Future (reviews | prices). Mr. Barone was a memorable actor in my childhood via his regular appearance on The McLaughlin Group, a PBS public-policy-rant-fest that was a regular contender in the Deniston Family Friday night television thrill-fest. His latest writing continues this proud tradition.
Essentially, Barone provides a simple but potent paradigm upon which to judge public policy: does it make life “Harder” or “Softer”? He writes, “Soft America coddles: our schools, seeking to instill self-esteem, ban tag and dodgeball, and promote just about anyone who shows up. Hard America plays for keeps: the private sector fires peoples when profits fall, and the military trains under live fire.”
More applicably for my demographic, Barone continues, “… Americans up to age eighteen live mostly in Soft America, just as most Americans after the age of eighteen live in Hard America. This is the opposite of the situation in most of Europe, where high schools are Hard, to the point that students’ performance usually determines how well they will do in the rest of their lifes, and where life after high school is Soft, with generous welfare benefits, short work hours, long vacations, early retirement, and generous state pensions (Pg. 146).”
Barone spends the balance of the book recounting the Twentieth Century shifts towards Hard and Soft throughout America: in business, education, criminal justice, welfare, the military, et cetera. On the whole, Mr. Barone presents a fascinating lens through which to both understand current events and explore recent, relevant history. In a look towards the future, he includes in his conclusion a striking passage that seems to be a fitting celebration of this day:
Pg. 161-162
United Flight 93 was the last of the four hijacked planes to take off, because of delays at Newark airport. That meant that the passengers had time–109 minutes–after the hijackers launched their attack to respond. Prior to September 11, the standard injunction to passengers and crew on a hijacked airliner was to cooperate and not resist, the assumption being that the hijackers want to land the plane somewhere and that the only way to survive is to acquiesce. But passengers on United Flight 93 called their loved ones on cell phones and heard the terrible news of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It quickly became obvious that these hijackers had no intention of landing the plane safely. So the passengers got together and resisted. “Let’s roll!” were the last words Lisa Beamer heard husband Todd Beamer say. We do not know exactly what happened: the tapes that have been released to relatives of the dead passengers and crew members are reportedly terrifying. But we do know that United 93 came down in an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, far short of the hijackers’ intended destination–probably the U.S. Capitol. As columnist Brad Todd wrote five days later, “Just 109 minutes after a new form of terrorism–the most deadly yet invented–came into use, it was rendered, if not obsolete, at least decidedly less effective. Deconstructed, unengineered, thwarted, and put into the dust bin of history. By Americans. In 109 minutes.”
Duty calls, Hardness happens. Welcome to the Millenial Generation.
The Most Fun You Only Want To Have Once
As previously detailed in this space, I recently enjoyed the Air Force ROTC right-of-passage tradition known as Field Training at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, South Dakota. The rapid transition from that experience into other summer plans has left me with precious few moments to ponder exactly what “twenty-nine days of training intensity” did to my life, but the transition back into life-as-usual has highlighted at least a few attitudes that I’ve taken from the experience. In no particular order:
- I lead a stressful life.
While it took some doing to responsibly suspend life as I’ve lived it for 19 years, once engaged in the Field Training environment, I was surprised how free my mind was. Yes, the object of the training environment is to create artificial stress and measure the response of trainees, but given that absolute and singular focus of the month, I often found myself less worried at Field Training than I am in my daily life. Don’t get me wrong–there are many short bursts of intensity (particularly around reveille) when one feels it impossible to stay afloat through a situation, but on the whole, I was struck with how calm and deliberate the experience allowed me to feel. In an admittedly twisted way, it was a paid vacation from the usual stressors.
- It’s not about the Benjamins.
I’ll never look at spending $20 quite the same again. After all, for each 17-hour training day that we endured, cadets were rewarded with a crisp Thomas Jefferson. On an hourly basis, I might have made more making soccer balls. Such exertion for such negligent compensation quickly drew the spotlight to folks who came to Field Training for reasons that consumed less than the entirety of their commitment. I had to decide quickly that it wasn’t about the scholarship, the guaranteed job, or the prestige of a job well done–it was about fully engaging in a transformational life experience to serve a purpose larger than myself.
- A remarkable amount can happen in ten minutes.
In my experience, “time management” in a college environment, at best, usually means rounding off to the nearest hour and having the stress of deadlines without the plan of priorities. Field Training quickly instilled in me an awe of the results of working expeditiously. As I’m not a morning person, I can’t say I ever enjoyed the hellish hurry surrounding reveille, but I remain amazed to see what 23 people can accomplish in 10 minutes: wake-up, put on Physical Training Uniform, put on shoes, make bed to inspection specification, brush teeth, shave, fill canteens, collect secured items, take accountability, fall out of building, form up outside, and march to the reveille pad. Not bad for the MTV generation.
- The human body is a magnificent, well-oiled machine.
In line with the previous thought, I also was astonished to find how much food and beverage I could consume in 10 minutes if I really wanted to (My standing sub-eight minute record: 1 glass Gatorade, 2 glasses water, 1 full plate entree/vegetable, 1 bowl salad, 1 apple, and 1 peanut butter sandwich). Such ridiculous intake was required to scrounge the nutrition necessary for training days entailing 1-4 hours of physical training, some 15-20 miles of marching, a fair dose of physical discipline, and the occasional Physical Fitness Test. While I was initially unsure of how I would respond to such demands on, at best, seven hours of sleep, I remain humbled by just how well I observed my body rise to the challenge. I learned definitively that diet is more than avoiding obesity–it’s acting intentionally to consume what you need to achieve an energy level. In other words, what was coming out of my first try at my own kitchen wasn’t cutting it.
- Ordinary people form extraordinary teams.
I’m incredibly proud of the team my Lima Flight became. The twenty-three quirky folks that showed up on TD-0 each brought a unique and essential spice to the dip: some were prior enlisted, some came from military schools, some were marching fiends, some were shoe polishing fanatics, and some couldn’t wipe a smile off their face no matter who was scolding them. We were a motley crew, but together, we formed a remarkably dynamic, cohesive, and effective team. One of the most difficult parts of Field Training were periodic peer evaluations in which we were each asked to identify the lowest performers on our team. While there were some folks whose initial attitudes and interpersonal skills made them an easy target, by the end of the ordeal, it was painfully difficult for me to single out any among us without whom our team would be complete.
- Live chow to chow.
Few single moments of the Field Training experience push one to one’s limits. Taken in two hour increments, Field Training isn’t too different from what you would encounter in the weekly meetings of an effectively-operated college ROTC unit. What separates Field Training as a watershed passage–and what seems to challenge cadets the most–is the requirement of performing at a high standard every hour of every day of the entire month. Aside from the solace of weekly religious services, there is no time off. Hence, Field Training quickly becomes overwhelming and seemingly unconquerable if one tries to even envision all the challenges that lie ahead. A constantly disciplined focus on the present and immediate, however, quickly overcomes the indomitable breadth of the experience. In my case, that meant limiting my focus to life until the next meal. Somehow, I think that even made them taste better.
- True leadership isn’t taught by words.
While the Field Training cake is covered in layers of activity icing (physical training, marching, inspections, etc), the heart of the enterprise is leadership. Hence, numerous performance metrics, instructional lectures, and problem-solving scenarios enter the experience as actors in the quest of “developing leaders.” While many of these tools were helpful, I remain most affected by the example of a single member of our training staff: Cadet Training Assistant Lyon. Upon first glance, CTA Lyon is the kind of guy that might have fit a variety of stereotypes: the high school jock, the Air Force fanatic, or the trainer that couldn’t speak without yelling. Yet, CTA Lyon’s leadership style of mutual respect, relevant instruction, high standards, and a potent combination of encouragement and correction allowed him to be remarkably effective. He was eventually recognized as one of the top eight CTA’s in camp, but I’m confident he deserved the number one spot. A sample of his leadership by example: CTA Lyon was married three weeks before his departure for Field Training. By the end, he had spent more of his married life with us than with his wife. He explained, quite nobly, that while the logistics were unpleasant, this was something he was passionate about doing. That’s commitment. Now if only I could find a woman that understanding…
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Churchill’s words above were originally introduced to me in their inclusion as one of our daily “Warrior Knowledge” quotes for memorization, but this thought above all others learned verbatim has struck me as true. A month of Field Training gave me ample room for shortcoming; particularly troublesome were a careless security violation, questionable results on the sit-up portion of a PFT, and an exercise on the Leadership Reaction Course that quickly went from difficult to rotten. On the sunnier side, preparation, perseverance, and a divine amount of providence also blessed me with some victories: a much higher than expected performance on the graded drill evaluation, only missing a single question on our series of Field Training Manual tests, never losing my cookies on a run, reaching a goal of breaking into 10-minute run times, and ultimately being recommended for Cadet Training Assistant duty. What I learned, though, is that no inflection point–positive or negative–will determine with any certainty the outcome of the future or the results of the whole. No matter what, keep going. The good news: in America, we invented the pleasant utopia of retirement.
- It’s bigger than me.
A month of me versus the challenge forever etched in my mind the power of our human ties on this planet and beyond. In my absence, my brother underwent an emergency appendectomy in Puerto Rico. Having only a postcard as a sluggish means of communication with which to reach out to him and my family demonstrated to me the infinite blessings our world affords us in being able to reach those we care for. I was renewed daily at the sound of mail call when friends, family, peers, acquaintances, and, most frequently, my parents, took a few moments of their time reach into my isolated world and share words of encouragement, humor, and care. They were a tangible reminder that I was not alone. And, in the grandest sense, as I recently wrote to a friend, “However strange it may sound, I found a month of marching, inspecting, pushing ground, and re-discovering who I am and who I can be to be a very spiritual experience.” All in all, I’d say it was the most fun I only want to have once.
I managed to sneak away a few photos from the experience (mostly from the night prior to departure) and have posted them in the gallery.
