As Gen. Arter explained, for the past 10 or 12 years, the Army had sent every major to the CGSC, but it is now returning to the selective process it once employed. He spoke to of the long-term economic impact of the 100 or more international officers who have historically attended each program at the CGSC. “They are the people who are going to make economic decisions for their military in years to come,” he said.
“We have an opportunity,” said Ulin. “We’re going to take the 27 Committee and go back to the military and say, ‘You didn’t think about the broader impact of this reduction.’ ” Ulin does not believe the projected numbers will come to pass, especially at Fort Leavenworth. “When you start to downsize,” he said, “the most important thing you’ve got to do is to keep your educational core and keep growing your leaders. Because if you start cutting down in the leader-development side, you’re going to hurt the military in the long run.”
“Clearly it’s a very important time to rally around the installations and the military communities on the installations,” said Dean Vakas. “We are going to suffer some near-term loss of economic opportunity, less construction, you name it.”
Florian Rothbrust thought it critical that Kansas City area businesses come up to speed on what major reductions at local military installations could mean to the area’s economy. The commanding general “can’t pick up the telephone and call Sen. Roberts,” said Rothbrust, “but you can.”
“It’s better to get ahead of it than behind it,” agreed Mike Hockley. “When a decision is made, then you go back and say they made the wrong decision, everybody digs in their heels.”
Going Forward
Florian Rothbrust thought it might be worthwhile to get a number of HR managers around the same table with people who have military experience and expose the HR managers to the potential that veterans have.
“I would suggest that the enthusiasm and the significance of this discussion not be lost,” affirmed Gen. Arter, “but used as best we can. Human-resource people and everyone needs to join in an ongoing education campaign to try to narrow the gap between the military and the civilian sector.”
He recalled the experience of having attended the funeral of a soldier who managed to survive eight overseas deployments as part of the war on terror, but was killed during his ninth deployment. That kind of sacrifice, Arter suggested, warranted a place in the calculus of hiring managers with so many servicemen coming into the job pool.
“It is incumbent upon us who have an understanding,” he added, “to share as best we can in every way we can and certainly in the process today, to share with those who are in a position of helping, if you will, those who have contributed so much to become, again, greater contributors on a longer-term basis to our society.”