All Done

Yea!  I met my requirement, so no more blogging.  Thanks for following. 

Post 5

Greetings!  This is a short post, as I have a horrible headache.  I received my second anthrax vaccination today.  Coincidence?  Maybe not. 

Tuesday we had a guest speaker, Dr. Krepinevich.  One thing he mentioned that really made me think:  our downfall is the economy.  I have been watching the news, but what he said next really made me think.  After we spend money on all the social programs, unions, benefits, etc. how much money will be left for our defense?  How much is left for the military?  American socieity is all about entitlements:  not earning things byt give me things. These entitlements are killing us, literrally. 

required note: MAJ Tara McCallum, Student, Command and General Staff College, Fort Belvoir, VA. "The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government."

Post 4

 

     Yea to number three follower, Rachel! 

      Two full weeks are complete in ILE.  We have so much reading.  Seriously, it is not uncommon to have over 70 pages of dual-columned articles each evening.  Like an attorney, I am reading all of them.  I have read  Foundations, Strategy, History, and Leadership articles.  The best article I have read is Daniel Goleman’s Leadership That Gets Results from the March-April 2000 of Harvard Business Review.  That article gave me some excellent insights about being a leader who really leads.  I do not want to just be one that manages and makes decisions, but I also want to also lead. 
 

   After I graduate ILE, I need to move from the decisive style to a more multi-focused flexible style.  I am in the “convergence zone” and am looking forward to being an organizational leader.  I did employ flexible techniques at different times, but I was too nice—too much coaching and not enough coerciveness.  There was a subordinate that needed coerciveness as a leadership style, yet I failed this Soldier, the rest of the Division, and me by not leading in the coercive style with the Soldier.  Now I know I can use this technique at the same time as being a good leader. 

      The best leaders that have the best work environment, performance, and happiest employees have mastered all the styles of being a leader.  The most important being authoritative, democratic, affiliative, and coaching.  I hope to do just that. 

required note:  MAJ Tara McCallum, Student, Command and General Staff College, Fort Belvoir, VA.  "The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government." 

Post 3

The first full week of ILE is complete.  What have your tax payer dollars paid for me to learn?  In my leadership class, we talked about the great leaders (Napoleon, Patton, and some more names were mentioned, but I don’t remember) all keeping logs.  They wrote in particulars their thoughts, views, why they chose this course of action and why they did not choose that course of action…things from which prospering leaders can learn from today.  They were not emotional, unlike our “blog” writers today.  The great leaders’ logs were not the same as our blogs today.  Then why is one of my homework assignments to author a blog? 

I was very emotional on Saturday, 14 May.  That is the date I met the most bravest of American Soldiers:  WWII veterans.   They were on their honor flight to visit their memorial.  It was truly amazing.  I was part of a team that that greeted the veterans when they departed their flights.   We clapped, shook hands, hugged, and I kissed their cheeks, thanked them, wished them well on their day in DC, etc.  Their eyes were filled with tears.  Some kissed me back.  Some would not release from the hug (their “handlers” helped keep the line of veterans going).   Some said they were so happy (and they had not even seen the monument yet - - they were still in the secured area of the airport).  What an honor to help make them happy.    

I don’t know how those USO girls in the 1940’s did it…my lips were sore from kissing all the men on their cheeks.  And there were quite a few ladies amongst them as well.  They wore jackets that said:  Women Served in WWII too.  No one was in the Army, but met one Air Force lady and the rest were Navy.  One of the ladies told me was an operation room nurse in England.  She said she spent day and night in surgery.  I told them about me being in the Army and am a lawyer….  I thanked the ladies for leading the way so I could serve today.    

Please visit http://honorflight.org/.   If you have an airport in your area, you can go to the airport to send them off or greet them when they return.  If you are in the DC Area, you can even spend the day escorting them around as well.  And of course, they need donations to pay for the airfare for these most valiant Soldiers. 

required note:  MAJ Tara McCallum, Student, Command and General Staff College, Fort Belvoir, VA.  "The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government." 

Post 2

Yea I have 2 followers!  Thanks Stacy and Marjorie!!  

This 4 month course is to teach me military stuff, like tactics, war theory, military history, and also the art of writing and speaking.  I have the latter down as I am a lawyer, but the other is like a foreign language to me.  After reading the first 70 pages of homework Thursday night, then listening to the armor and infantry officers talk in class, I was like:  what?  

I am an over achiever and when my daughter finishes the school year, she is going to join me in VA.  So I want to start on my papers and projects now.  One of the papers is to find a reading in my foundations course and disagree with it.  The first articles I have read, I actually agree with it.  How actually it is civilians (what we call the non-military) actually controls the military.  Our Chief of Staff, the President, is a civilian.  Was President Eisenhower in the 50's our last President with military experience (and what great experience he had as the Supreme Commander in WWII)?  Who else - Washington?  

required note:  MAJ Tara McCallum, Student, Command and General Staff College, Fort Belvoir, VA.  "The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government." 

MAJ Tara McCallum, Student, Command and General Staff College, Fort Belvoir, VA

"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government."  Not that is said, let's start blogging!