As the year comes to an end...

It seems to me as if we average Americans are getting squeezed between the opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan from an increasingly larger number of retired military senior personnel, and opinions from those in uniform on the ground. Making this even more frustrating is the fact people like me have no "on the ground experience" over there ourselves, to help form our own assessment of the situation. I wish I understood better, for example, what a realistic military "objective" might be, other than to side with well worn, overly simplistic phrases such as to "assure democracy succeeds", etc.

I guess any new "strategies" or whatever you want to call them, will not become apparent (officially) until next year. Keeping so many soon to be deployed and already over-extended troops in limbo much longer is not good.

The Army Chief of Staff is correct when he recently warned that the Army is near being broken, without some major increases in manning and equipment to do it right. We're spread too thin. If I can believe what I read today in the news media, the Joint Chiefs of Staff appear united in that position.

The person I admire the most in relation to how we ought to fight militarily and win is retired Army General Colin Powell, who is now calling the Army overextended and "about broken." He's also skeptical that solutions now being debated will work. What he said in his biography about not repeating the mistakes we made in Vietnam have always been powerful words to me. So, when he speaks, I listen carefully.

Bad news

I learned that a recent fire destroyed a popular restaurant in Owensboro, Kentucky. That alone is bad news, but it gets worse when you understand the building also served as a "museum" for artifacts and memorabilia donated by veterans of the World War II 297th Engineer Combat Battalion. The owner of the restaurant helped organize unit reunions for the battalion and offered to help keep the history and traditions of WWII engineers alive by using his facility to educate the public of their service.

Veterans of the unit are obviously devastated by the tragic fire, but fortunately no one was hurt. Please keep these valiant warriors in your thoughts during the holiday season.

Experts…or whatever you want to call them

It seems to me as if there are an awful lot of experts in the U.S. today who have opinions on just about anything you want to name. That's OK, but where I get ticked off is when you are automatically judged as incorrect or ill-informed if you don't happen to totally agree with their views.

What can't engineer troops do?

I just finished doing the layout on a feature for the January-February 2007 issue of Army Engineer, which involves the 84th Engineer Battalion's construction of the Libby Bridge during the Korean War. The project was more suited for a large civilian contractor to take on, and the Soldiers involved from the 84th had almost zero experience and training in building this sort of massive, long, high, concrete pier and deck bridge over the Imjin River. And they had to do it in the midst of a Korean winter, with orders to be done in only seven months.

The Operations Officer of the battalion was quoted as saying, "We didn't do anything on time except finish." That pretty much sums it up. They got the job done, under exceptionally harsh working conditions, during a war, with little prior experience and construction expertise pertaining to needed skills, and with daily challenges that would cause most others to say "it's too tough!".

It's always been this way with Army Engineers. They get the job done, no matter the challenges placed before them.

Photography is fun

One of the nicest things I get to do in relation to being Editor of Army Engineer, is to spend a lot of time taking photographs for use therein, or to use in my personal collection. When I took "Fundamentals of Photography" at Iowa State University in 1972, it was only because I needed some "easy" credits my last term there, so I could remain a full time student...in the eyes of the Army which had funded my attendance. (I'd already completed all the courses I needed to graduate with an MS in Geodetic Science, and the Army could not move me early, thus the need for some additional courses.)

Actually, the course was a lot harder than I thought it would be, since we were required to spend many hours out in the field taking roll after roll of pictures, and then return to the lab to develop the film. The "final exam" consisted of having to prepare a photo essay on some subject that could be told only with photos taken...no text. I decided to do an essay about the local bar where my Army classmates and I had gathered weekly during our two years together. Having to take pictures, for example, of full pitchers of cold beer with sweat beads slowly dripping down the outside was interesting, and after several glasses had been consumed, my ability to compose picture after picture was progressively degraded. It took me several weeks to complete the essay, but in the process I had a lot of great fun. I kept the notebook I placed the photo essay in, and it's always interesting to go back and look at it. Oh, I received an "A".

My photographic abilities improved quite a bit after I left active service, and now I'm fairly proficient with my Nikon D70S digital camera, and can operate rather well in Photoshop to prepare images for insertion into the magazine.

I even bought a photo journalist's "vest", and generally try to imitate being an "embedded reporter" as I travel about. It's surprising how many places you can get into when you carry a camera with a big lens, a photo backpack, and wear a photo vest. Say cheese!