Monterey-One of my habits I’ve acquired comes from the Army’s program to develop leadership.  The most important pillar of the program is the self-development one does after some introspection and identifies one’s shortcomings. Because of this, I read Dale Carnegie’s, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” and Elbert Hubbard’s, “A Message to Garcia,” before every new assignment and reflect upon my application of their lessons. I do this because even though it has been a slow process applying them to leadership opportunities in the Army, communication is at the core of this profession and I know that I am not the best at it. Fortunately, I have witnessed tremendous improvement in my units when I do apply their principles. Over the past couple weeks, I’ve also been thinking about Major Trent Lythgoe’s, “Flight Simulation for the Brain: Why Army Officers Must Write,” in the Nov-Dec 2011 Military Review and my IRT in Jordan. Not only am I going to have to write mission reports after every trip, but also notes from meetings, contributions to official government documents, and I’ve also decided to pursue writing for the English and Arabic editions of Military Review. I am hopeful that IRT will provide the opportunity to examine some issues first hand rather than the purely academic task of a literature review which is what most of my writing in the past has been. I’m down to my last day of clearing at DLI, then a long vacation with my family for the Holidays, and a long plane ride.  Happy Holidays everyone and my thoughts are with those deployed away from their families.