Report from the Reserve Components Joint Officer Leadership Development Seminar at the 2006 ROA Convention
9 August 2006
Subject: 2006 Joint Officer Leadership Development and Training Seminar (JOLDTS) San Antonio, Texas July 18-22, 2006
First Night in San Antonio: Starting out the first evening was a nice, casual dinner during the welcome reception. The dinner was delicious. It was nice seeing some familiar faces and meeting some new faces. The BINGO ice-breaker was really funny and it helped to know others. I sat next to Col. Keith Kries, Vice Commander of 4th Air Force at March AFB. We knew some of the same people, making the world seem that much smaller. The speech by the General was a good reminder of why we’re here, why we attend these conferences and our role in the big picture. I liked his comment about how “our volunteer service prevents the government from needing a draft”.
The following day was our first day of exercises and learning about team building. The healthy breakfast and wearing physical training clothes was a refreshing change. Not being in formal, starched uniforms was nice because the “status quo” was removed a little. The “joint-ness” of having almost all services represented was great, we really learned a lot about each other. My favorite exercise was the Human Knot – unfortunately our team did not succeed at this exercise! I would have liked to complete that exercise with my team had it not been constrained by a time limit. I met a great group of junior officers that were in my original “poker hand” team. A few remained buds throughout the rest of the week and I expect we’ll all keep in touch. In fact, I have plans to have our squadron participate in a joint exercise called Operation Joint Warrior with Army officers, Major Fred Julch, 1st Lt Nancy Sison and 1st Lt Troy King.
Ralph Peters’ key address in the opening session was inspiring. His viewpoints on China, immigration, American Muslims and the current Hezbollah/Israel conflict really put a different perspective in my eyes. I attended the Flight Ops/USAF committee legislation section and learned about four resolutions currently being considered. The issue of TriCare coverage between ages 60-65 having >300% increase in costs was sent back for revisions.
I was blown away by the meeting on the Army’s Medical Readiness and the FEDS_HEAL program presented by the Regional Director, Mike Lemmon. I was the only Air Force person in this meeting and I was shocked at how different the Army handles a soldier’s health assessments. My background is in Health Care Management, so I was especially interested in this information. I met with Mr. Lemmon after the brief and discovered I had a civilian job opportunity with his company (Logistics Health Inc.). This is a type of valuable networking I find valuable at these conferences. The online process for this conference was done very well. A lot of detailed information provided by Col. Obenland, USAR (Ret.) for the JOLDTS portion helped me know what to bring. It seems as though the small booklet was almost obsolete by the time we arrived; there might not be a need for this in the future since the communication was done so well in the upstart.
The presentation, “How to Deal with Difficult People” was especially informative. I discovered I work with difficult people of different types, but this presentation really helped me find a way to deal with those challenges. I think that was my favorite briefing of the entire conference. Another good one was by Col. Welch, “Spread Your Wings and Fly”. I was entertained and very much admired his ease with public speaking.
Overall, this conference was probably one of the best ones I’ve been to in my officer career. I know how dry and routine some conferences can be and ROA really made this one stand out, especially for the JOLDTS group.
Thank you so much to the Major Dan Anderson Freedom Fund for providing the opportunity for me to attend. Capt. Larry DeVries, USNR (Ret.) has been especially encouraging to the process. I appreciate the hard work he and Col. Obenland, USAR (Ret.) have done for myself and other junior officers.
Submitted:
Captain Jennifer Aasland, USAFR
934 AEROMEDICAL EVACUATION SQUADRON
Minneapolis-St Paul IAP ARS, MN OPR: 934 AES/SGX