By: Caroline Nauert, Contributor
The U.S. Army War College selected Bellarmine University as one of only 10 universities nationwide for its elite panel of veterans to come and speak about major world issues.
The veteran panel consisted of one Army War College faculty member, Col. Lance Clark, and four current students of the college: Lt. Col. Tom Asbery, Lt. Col. Richard Ball, Lt. Col. Patricia “Nicole” Chavez and Lt. Col. Matthew Strub.
The Army War College functions as a graduate level educational outlet for senior military officers wishing to advance their knowledge and career within the U.S. military. “The war college is one of six universities in the U.S. that the Department of Defense supports,” Clark said. Being selected for the Army War College is an extremely competitive process, one in which only 386 U.S. military officers get accepted into each year.
After being accepted into the college, the students complete a rigorous master’s degree program that crams two years of work into a 10-and-a-half-month time span. Upon the approach of completing their degrees, the 386 students then compete for the chance to participate in the college’s Eisenhower Program. The Eisenhower Series College Program is focused on educating audiences at 10 selected universities around the U.S. about issues such as national security, disaster response and climate change.
The officers selected to come to Bellarmine each specialize in different national issues facing the U.S. Armed Forces, making them extremely knowledgeable about many different things as a group. A crowd of about 40 Bellarmine students and faculty members gathered on campus in Pasteur Hall to listen to the veterans speak. After the opening comments and introductions from the panel, they immediately opened the floor for any audience members that had questions.
“They were just really friendly with us, willing to answer any questions, you could say really whatever you wanted to them, you weren’t going to hurt their feelings, and so if they came again I would go see them,” sophomore Lily Pinhas said.
The first question from the audience came immediately. One Bellarmine student said, “To the best of your knowledge, if Iran were to attack Israel and North Korea were to attack South Korea would the United States military be capable of waging a two-theatre war simultaneously?”
All five officers looked at each other in surprise, and Asbery said: “Wow! That is a good question.”
Among the responses from the panel, Asbery said the U.S. military was capable of waging one full-blown war while also being involved in a regional conflict. Chavez added that the U.S. would decide how to help the hypothetical situation posed through DIME (Diplomatic, Information, Military and Economic).
“The military is just one part of that, there are a lot of other ways the United States could help,” Chavez said.
The dozens of questions that followed touched on problems our country and world face such as childhood obesity, sexual harassment of women on college campuses and in the military, military readiness and global warming. The panel was thorough and made certain they had answered each question to its full extent.
“It was really interesting. They were able to answer all of our questions and they made it clear it was their opinion, not a fact,” Pinhas said.
While in the Louisville area, the officers also visited with the McConnell Center and students from the University of Louisville before returning to the Army War College, located in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.