Marty also conducted a book signing of his newly released “The Art of Scalability,” a review of which was recently featured in Forbes magazine.

Marty Abbott's Book Signing

Mike takes command from COL Brian Mennes, Class of 1988 and former Director of West Point’s Center for the Professional Military Ethic.

Mike recently relinquished command of 2-73 Cavalry Regiment at Fort Bragg, where he led the 82d Airborne Division’s initial contingent into Haiti for earthquake relief efforts.

He returned to Fort Bragg from Haiti just in time to be with his wife, Reggie, as she gave birth to their third daughter.

WHITEFISH – Some astonishing things happened last week up in Whitefish, on the snowy side of a mountain.

Ian, for once, didn’t fall down.

And Shane, for the first time in a very long time, forgot all about the pain in his arm – but only because his legs hurt so badly.

And Pam, well, Pam was so perfectly happy that she couldn’t decide whether to laugh or to cry, and so she did both.

“It’s a miracle,” she said, “that’s what it is. Look at me” – she stretched her arms as wide as they would go, turned her face to a patch of blue sky – “I’m here, and I’m alive. I’m totally alive.”

Which is a fact that, not so many months ago, she didn’t necessarily take for granted.

Pam Smejkal, like Shane Ugliono and Ian Lennon, is a warrior. A wounded warrior, to be precise.

http://www.missoulian.com/lifestyles/recreation/article_a156115a-16aa-11df-bec5-001cc4c03286.html

2. Some folks have told me that their mail-in donations have been returned due to insufficient address — I believe this is because my brigade HQ is deployed and the mail isn’t being sent. Please send donations to: COL Dan Karbler; 644 Batson Avenue; Fort Sill, OK; 73503. Make checks payable to: “The Matt Zielinski Memorial Fund.” All funds go directly to pay for the granite memorial. As this is a private memorial, no government funding is provided. Thus, only through your generous contributions will this become a reality. Thus far, we have raised $11,000 out of $25,000 needed. A PayPal account has also been set up at:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9120428

3. There is a Facebook page established — Matthew Zielinski Memorial. Please take the time to visit it, as I will publish information to the site.

Our Country We Strengthen 87

Message Follows:

Friday Mornings at the Pentagon
By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
McClatchy Newspapers

Over the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force personnel have given their lives in the terrible duty that is war. Thousands more have come home on stretchers, horribly wounded and facing months or years in military hospitals. This week, I’m turning my space over to a good friend and former roommate, Army Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, who recently completed a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq and is now back at the Pentagon. Here’s Lt. Col. Bateman’s account of a little-known ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on May 17 on the Weblog of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media Matters for America Website.

It is 110 yards from the “E” ring to the “A” ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here. This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army’ hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew. Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area. The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares.

10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway. A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class. Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden … yet. Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier’s chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel. Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.

11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway – 20, 25, 30… Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts. They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along.. Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly. There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband’s wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20’s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son’s behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past. These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years.

Did you know that?

The media haven’t yet told the story.

This is not going to be a Monday morning quarterback dissection of the mistakes we made and things we failed to do (like score) that caused us to lose the game. I have been most upset these last 8 years by how we lose. We haven’t even been competitive lately. Now, I do see improvement with the Ellerson era and I have high hopes for the future based on what I have seen from Plebe quarterback trent Steelman. That highlights my point. It is amazing to me how much this matters and the team, the Corps and the administration needs to know this. Navy is proof that an institution in the exact same situation (recruiting, etc – wise) can produce teams of excellence year in and year out ( see Navy vs Ohio State this year). Army Football can and must return to that level. No excuse, Sir needs to be said and heard more often. It means that much to me.

Everything pales in comparison to the lasting imprint West Point makes on all of us. Bugle Notes was created from motivation that was born out of that imprint. Perhaps it’s telling that I could care less how cliche it sounds when I remark on how my only true friendships and bonds come from my 4 years at USMA. It’s why yesterday sat like an uncomfortable lump in my gut and why we have no choice but to right ourselves.

Beat Navy. What does it mean to you?

It started with a seemingly innocuous quip in an email to friends and a FB post reading, “With Palin going rogue and Spitzer talking ethics last week, maybe the two should team up.  Top line, middle line and bottom line is Sarah Palin quit a job for which she sought and was elected. Please help me understand what “Joe Six Pack” does not understand. The only constituency that benefits is the media and the SLN crew. She is the media’s gift that keeps giving. Ugh!”

Among friends, my intention was mere sardonic wit.  I did not intend to incite a political debate.  My words sparked not only civic discussion but also meaningful dialogue on women in politics.

I believe, as do many, Palin was chosen because of gender and public appeal. Yet, certainly, there were more highly qualified women — Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman immediately come to mind.

As a few friends noted, I did articulate my reasons for not supporting Palin’s aspirations for public leadership. because, “She lacks intellectual curiosity, critical and careful thinking, analytical problem-solving and an understanding of the geo-political climate. She is also very impulsive. She quit an office to which she sought election without a willingness to explain to her state and the public of why she was stepping down. And one more pet peeve, she does not have a good command of her own native language.”

What I have come to learn is that I viewed Palin’s resume through the prism of gender.   I compared her experiences and qualifications to that of other women, not necessarily to that of other candidates.  By doing so, I have contributed to the continued construction of obstacles and barriers.

In the months before the 2008 Presidential Election, Judith Warner, NY Times columnist and best selling author, posted an opinion piece titled “The Mirrored Ceiling” in which she opined why Palin’s candidacy was viewed by many as condescension.  But more insightful than the column were reader comments, specifically #363, posted Sept. 5, 2008 at 10:26 am posted by Bill.  He wrote:

“Why can’t my wife be the VP candidate? She is the same age as Sarah Palin. She graduated from college, too, but she attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, not the University of Idaho. My wife has executive/leadership experience, 3 commands in the US Army, and in 1991 when Sarah Palin was a Hockey Mom in training, my wife was a Platoon Leader in the 101st Airborne, flying Chinook helicopters in combat, chasing Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. She has a little foreign policy experience too.  In 2000 she was deployed to Bosnia where she served in a Civil Affairs unit and was the liaison officer to the Turkish Battle Group and NordPol Battle Group. She was a member of the Women of Screbnica.

She also has a little experience in planning and coordinating operations. In 2004 she was the deputy G5 of the 1st Cavalry Division, and Operations Officer of the 425th Civil Affairs Battalion, in Operation Iraqi Freedom at the Bagdad Airport.
Did I mention that she is fluent in French and conversant in Serbo-Croatian.

She is a parent of a daughter, 16, who carries over a 3.5 GPA while taking AP classes for more than 50% of her load. She won 2-varsity letter in Cross Country and 1 in Track in her first to years of high school.

My wife, since leaving the Active Army in 1996, has been a high school teacher. She is currently teaching advanced math in an IB program. She believes that creationism should be taught in Sunday School, if at all, but never in a public school, that women should have a right to choose what they do with their bodies, and what difference does it make to her if gays marry or not. Global warming may not be entirely man made, but what if it is and we do nothing? If I were to guess, an education at West Point puts a little more emphasis on “Critical Thinking” than a beauty contest in Alaska.

My wife doesn’t believe she is qualified to be Vice President of the United States, a heart beat away from the Presidency, based on a resume with much more gravitas that Sarah Palin, where does Sarah Palin get the ‘cojones’ to think she is qualified?”

In the 2008 presidential primaries when Senator Hillary Clinton and the 15 other democratic candidates ran against then Senator Barack Obama, his “freshness” was applauded.  When the Democratic and Republican teams were determined, the comparison focused on Obama and Palin.  Palin was regularly criticized for her “inexperience.”  I was among those critics.  Looking back I now ask, why was Obama compared to Palin at all?  The Republican presidential candidate and Obama’s real competition was Senator John McCain (duly noted “she would be one-heartbeat away.”)  Perhaps one explanation is that it is easier to attack a woman in a sexist media society.  I heard few if any sexual innuendoes that perhaps some of the men running should not have the balls to be considered for elected office.

Like most others I know, I do not want to be compared to other women. I want to be compared against other people who aspire to the same job, same salary, same rewards and same intention.  But we as women allow the all too frequent comparison to other women.  Perhaps Bill’s missive should have been equally applied to the men running on each ticket.   I am not a “good woman mechanic”; I am a good mechanic.

For the first time now women make up half of all workers and are increasingly becoming the primary breadwinners in more families.  The economic and cultural landscape of the United States is shifting.  Perhaps, the political landscape is shifting as well.   We need more qualified candidates to step into the civic arena.

Am I just a bit envious?  Without question.  Sarah Palin has a mega book deal, and I don’t.

(My forthcoming book is Porcelain on Steel: Women of West Point’s Long Gray Line)

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091120/ap_on_re_us/us_military_academies_minorities

The article discusses that most of the Reps with low nomination totals are from urban districts with high minority percentages.  Some of the worst offenders, however, are also leaders in the anti-war efforts, although a direct correlation is not necessarily made between their politics and low nomination count.  But it also discusses how some Reps who support the system still have difficulties in drawing candidates to nominate because of a perceived poor opinion of serving in the military by minorites and others in their districts/states.  I do have one problem with the the article and its title.  A Rep or Senator can only have 5 seats filled at each academy at one time, even though they can nominate up to 10 candidates for 1 seat.  They could nominate any amount from 15 to 150 candidates over 4 years, but could still fill all 15 seats with just 15 nominees.  Therefore, they would still be sending the same amount to the academies as others, just nominating less.  The bigger problem is if seats available to Reps and Senators are going unfilled, which is not addressed in the article.  It would be more interesting to know who these people are.