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I am currently attending the Army's Intermediate Level Education (ILE) at Fort Lee, VA. One of the objectives of the course is to improve our understanding of and ability to effectively operate within the interagency. Visiting the State Department gave our class the opportunity to meet not only with several State Department representatives, but also with members of USAID, the Department of Energy, and the Treasury Department. Even having served on an embassy's...read more
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I am honored to have the opportunity to continue serving our Nation as an Army Foreign Area Officer (FAO). After earning my commission through the ROTC program at Loyola University Chicago, I served first as an Infantry officer in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and then as a Logistics officer in the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team and the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. I deployed for 16 months and served in both Mosul and Baghdad, Iraq....read more
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Amman- This entry is focused on sharing information for other FAO still in their language training at DLI. I’ve been in Amman for almost two weeks and am close to finishing the embassy’s inprocessing. It’s similar to the Army’s in that your information has to be entered into several databases for tracking purposes and for expected services, but it’s not instant as some of the information has to go to the host nation for processing as well. The offices in...read more
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Our next trip was to Teotuhuacan, an ancient ruins site about 50km to the northeast of Mexico City. Teotuhuacan was incredible. The below picture is an internet download. I was unable to get up quite that high to get the whole landscape view. The grounds are huge and the two primary temples are massive. The word Teotuhuacan is an Aztec word (in the Nahuatl language) and means birthplace of the gods. The city is not an Aztec city, it predates...read more
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Okay, it has been a very very long time since my last post. For that I apologize. Since my last post a lot has happened to me in real time. I think at the time of my last post, my daughter had just been born. She's is a very mobile and precocious nine month old. I graduated from my master's program and I have begun CGSC (ILE). So, I have a lot of things to blog about, but before I can get to those more recent developments, I...read more
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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...read more
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Monterey-Now that Ihave finished the formal part of my language training, I intend to write more frequently in this forum. Although Arabic is a tough language to learn as an adult, I appreciate the opportunity to represent the U.S. and I appreciate the efforts of my instructors at the Defense Language Institute (DLI). 16 months of 8-10 hour days plus homework and I have the ability to understand most of the newspaper and maneuver around in an Arabic speaking country. The end came...read more
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This month is my 12 year service anniversary in the Army. Although I've criticized certain events and experiences with my family and friends, looking back at it all, I've been very fortunate and happy with the experiences. First Fort Richardson, Alaska then Fort Leonard-Wood, Missouri, Fort Riley, Kansas, a 15 month deployment to Iraq, recruiting duty in Olympia, WA, and now here in Monterey all provided opportunities to work with great people and see our country and world. I was...read more
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First time blogger here, please bare with me. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the U.S. Army in Alaska. Having served for 11 years in the Army, I was in my mind extremely fortunate to serve 9 1/2 of those years in Alaska. By no means did I seek or fight to stay in Alaska, but rather it was coincedence and unique sequence of events that allowed me to serve for this duration. Although Alaska is not for everyone, it is a beautiful and...read more
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I am currently attending the ILE satellite course at Ft. Gordon, GA. One of our graduation requirements is to blog about a subject that we feel like we can contribute to. I have been hesitant to write my blog because I didn’t want to write about “just anything” in order to get this task checked off of my list of things to do. However, once I received my first rental car bill, I was once again reminded of an area that I feel the Army wastes a...read more
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