Overuse of acronyms

One thing that has bugged me for years and years is the way in which we teach our folks in the Army how to write. For some reason way beyond my understanding, many believe that they HAVE TO create an acronym for anything they are too lazy to write out in full. It's crazy!

To make matters worse, acronyms change as popular military terminology changes, and unless you are directly involved in the subject area being discussed, you may have absolutely no idea what the author is trying to say. This is especially bad for people inside the Army's Training and Doctrine Command. Just look at a typical piece written by anyone in the Engineer School for example, and you will probably be able to count as many acronyms as you can sentences.

Maybe it's phone text messaging that's making this situation worse today, but whatever the reason, I say "let's stop overusing acronyms" (LSOA)!

Take time to relax

Last winter when I was suffering a bit of cabin fever, wanting to load my kayak on top of the truck and go fishing on a day when the weather was right, but realizing the weather would not be "right" for several more months, my almost 65 years old muscles seemed to hurt a bit more. Then, by chance as I was browzing around on the internet late one afternoon after finishing up magazine duties for the day, I found this short quote. I can't remember where I found it, or who wrote it, but I printed it out and keep it sitting right in front of my computer monitor, so I can read it when I start work every day. Here it is:

"A most pleasant day will be in the offing for you today, if you can just relax and enjoy yourself instead of trying to steer things into place. Let life tell you what to do and where to go"

I'm not one to normally get much out of such quotes, but this one did the trick for me.

Many Questions

Having served in Viet Nam for two tours (12 month deployments) I fully appreciate the feelings many of our Soldiers and families have today, as they experience multiple combat deployments. In short, it's tough, especially on those we leave back home. It's understandable that frustrations will increase, and that some decide to get out of the Army. Morale may dip a bit too, and equipment gets worn out and difficult to replace.

On top of that, the challenges we now face in Iraq and Afghanistan are a far cry from what I thought we'd be seeing by now. In that regard, I'm sick and tired of listening to "experts" on TV who care only about second guessing decisions made, rather than seeking to unite everyone toward a reasonable objective. I'm not smart enough to come anywhere close to being able to say what we ought to do: it's bad if we stay too long, and bad if we leave too early. Have we already been there "too long"? Can the Iraqis and Afghans hold their own if (when) we come home? Will there be civil war? Is there already a civil war ongoing? What effect does this all have on our ability to protect the homeland? Too many questions in my mind, which is too shallow to swallow it all and make me feel (generally) comfortable.

Still, my time with the Army taught me that we put military people in charge who know what they are doing. More importantly, it's those on the ground doing the hard work that count, not the opinions of those on the sidelines doing all the second guessing.

Nice Software

If you have a MAC computer system, and if you would like to experience a nice program titled "Journler" that can be used to keep track of many things, like your thoughts, plans, activities, experiences, visit Journler website and download a great piece of software...and use it free if you wish.

Why don't more engineer units tell their story?

Over the past couple of years I have consistently received articles for publication written by men and women from essentially the same units…over and over. Why is that?

I don't want to list the units involved because as soon as I do, I'll find out I overlooked one or two; so, let's say that, for example, fewer than fifteen battalion-size units have sent materials over the past twelve months. All of them were/are deplolyed in either Iraq or Afghanistan, so don't tell me your unit is too busy.

My view is that by not spending some time telling the story of what your Soldiers are doing, is a dis-service to their overall efforts as a part of your unit. Organizations that have been successful in doing what I am suggesting, generally appoint a junior ranking officer or mid-grade enlisted person to handle "PAO" actions. In each case, articles tend to get written, published, and well rememberbered by those involved.

I'm pleased to continue to publish the work of those organizations who consistently send materials for publication in Army Engineer, and if it appears I am favoring the same units, then that's the way it will be until I receive more from others.

20th Engineers

If you have an interest, check out the 20th Engineer Battalion's website which contains a lot of historical images about the battalion. Nice site.

Baghdad vs Anbar

The title reads like a Friday night high school footbal game headline, but, in reality represents a serious situation in Iraq right now, as coalition forces work to improve conditions in Baghdad, as well as to battle insurgents in adjacent Anbar Province... a continuing challenge.

I receive emails from some on the ground who tell me things are much different (not as bad) as what's being reported in the mainstream media, but all agree that the challenges are great.

Meanwhile, back home in Washington DC, politicians take many positions, positive and negative, on the entire situation regarding the war on terrorists, with seemingly impossible divides to cross in order to reach consensus and unity.

I wish we could "fast-forward" and learn where this is all going.

AEA's Website

AEA's website www.armyengineer.com continues to be a popular site for Army Engineers. Statistics reflect an average of near 800 visits per day thus far in 2006, with more than that amount during the Spring as the AEA's annual conference and ENFORCE nears. The most popular area visited is the Engineer Unit page which has links to a large number of engineer units, to include alumni groups. In that regard, one of the best alumni group websites relates to the 6th Corps Combat Engineers, veterans of WWII.

A Big "Whoops" for the Army

My cousin lives in Hawaii and he sent me a news link today describing a recent accident on Oahu where an Army lowboy carrying an excavator struck several overhead highway signs and an overpass...causing massive traffic tie-ups and lots of unhappy people. The story is posted at armyengineer.com.

Apparently the 82nd Engineer Company was involved, and the excavator was being transported from Pearl Harbor to the unit, after having been used in Kawjalein. An AR 15-6 investigation is underway.

Not a good public relations situation for the Army, but things like this do happen. Hard to understand how it did, however, if proper DOT permits were obtained. The jury is out on determining causes, so no reason to speculate here. What this shows to me, is that stuff happening in Hawaii is apparently not news at all here on the "mainland". If it had been Washington DC beltway or Dallas TX involved, CNN would have been all over it.

September-October 2006 AE Magazine

Today I mailed the Sep-Oct 2006 finished edition of Army Engineer Magazine to the printers in Rolla Missouri. If all goes well, I'll have a color proof to review next week, and then a week or so after that, it will be mailed to AEA Members from the AEA's Fort Leonard Wood office.

The new issue has some great stuff in it, which I hope you will like. The major theme involves reconstruction in Iraq and Afghasnistan, but I also included an original article involving Army Engineer OCS in 1966-1967, when it was located at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. I was a part of the cadre back then (two assignments) so had some background, and a lot of memories and photos to share. If you are a grad of that era Engineer OCS, you'll be transported back in time.

I would have liked to be more specific in the article concerning all the stuff Tactical Officers put candidates through at the time, but felt I ought to leave that out, other than to mention there were some good and bad "correctional measures" taken by sometimes overly creative TACs.

I did not include the following in the article, but I remember one time when two of the TACs assigned to the company I commanded, decided, after they caught their class had secretly ordered and received a stack of pizzas late one night, to eat said pizzas INSIDE a garbage dumpster container located behind the company mess hall. Not everyone in the platoon could fit into the dumpster, so the TACS make them line up and take their turn. To make it worse, the TACS poured water on top of the candidates as they entered the dumpster. There were apparently lots of laughs, and the TACS got their point across, but when I found out about it the next day, I had to sit them down and have a talk about being less "creative". This was but one incident, in one company, and there were four battalions worth of companies in the Officer Candidate Regiment at the time, each with their own TAC creativity.

Maybe some of you reading this have some OCS stories to share.

First at Bat

This is the first entry in my AE Magazine Editor's Independent View Blog, which I hope will allow me to be a bit more "editorially free" than I want to be in the print version of Army Engineer Magazine. The Blog will also allow me to place links to sites, images and whatever else I feel may be of interest to members of the Army Engineer Association. And, it amy not be all just "Army" stuff.

I'm a Lifetime Member of AEA, and was one of the first to join. But, I'm not a staff member of AEA, and edit their magazine and publish their website as an independent contractor. As such, I want to remain as fair and balanced as I can in reporting, but I also want to solicit opinions from those of you out there who may not always subscribe to the views of those "in charge".

So, for awhile I'll post tid-bits here designed to elicit a response...positive or negative. If I sense an interest, I'll keep at it. If nothing comes forth, I'll trash the whole deal. After all, setting up a Blog is free and easy so why not give it a shot.