Stan,

We did the one day version of that; it was fun and I had a blast. But I noticed that my instructor seemed familiar and I just could not place him until I put the car into deliberate skid and ran over some of the spray heads. he came somewhat unglued and started yelling. It triggered a memory. I stopped the car, looked at his last name, and asked, "Is your first name, Angel?" He looked surprised and nodded. Next question was, "were you in the 82d in 1978?" Again a nod, yes. "Were you in the 313th CEWI?" Another nod, yes. "Were you in the GS company?" When he nodded yes, I for the first time yelled back, " Well I was your G$# D&^%$## executive officer so quit friggin yelling!" At that stage he looked at me and said, "Lieutenant Odom?" We both started laughing and the rest of the day was a blast. Turns out he had left my unit for SOF as I went down on the street as an S2. Nevertheless the training was well worth it. It prepared me for driving with you

My other favorite was the High risk Personnel Shooting Course at Quantico; No BS involved all run by 4 Marine NCOs and we fired some 4000 rounds of 9MM in 4 days.

Least favorite was the official FTX phase of the course as it too involved cookie cutter solutions to all possible conflict situations. I made the "notoriety" list because I acted as I planned to act in Zaire and stood up to aggressive role players when the school solution called for being nice nice. Such behavior--the accomodating nice person--in Zaire equates to inviting trouble.

You get the same kind of "one size fits all" approach down range. Sometimes it arrives from CONUS. Stan and I had difficulty convincing a security inspector from DC at one stage that putting alarms on our houses in Kinshasa was not a good idea; a wailing burglar alarm was very much like a "Blue light Special" in K mart. You were simply asking for more looters to show up. To the guy's credit, he eventually believed us; he had made the mistake of coming in unannounced at NDjili airport and spent several hours under the control of "security" folks there. After that experience, he developed a more open mind. Sometimes it resides in country. Some RSOs, some FSOs, and some FAOs can be the most culturally obtuse folks in the world. We had an assistant RSO get robbed at gunpoint by the FAZ security forces near his residence when he decided to walk his dog at midnight. Stan and I had been reporting for weeks that these same troops had been killing currency exchange mamas in broad daylight. And here was an assistant regional security officer walking his dog at midnight. Our DCM with nearly 8 years total in country still regarded what happened in Gombe--the area we lived in--somehow magically protected from the lesser fortunate areas of the city. Our Charge actually remarked the refugee crisis in the east of the country would be over in 2 weeks and was most irritated when he too had to go to Goma for a few days (he did not stay long). I had to send my counterpart from across the river back home during the refugee festival when he irritated the French so badly in Bukavu that they accused him of spying. he later became VP Gore's advisor on Africa. And finally, my replacement arrived in country and proceeded to simply report what ever the Zairian military had to say as fact, kinda like a protoype of Baghdad Bob. In this case, she insisted that the former Rwanda military and the militias in the camps were not training and that the Zairian military was in control.

All of this rambling does have a point; you cannot train experience in cultural awareness. It has to be experienced. You can however train to keep an open mind just as you train a scout to really look at what is happening and you can provide basic survival tools. The final ingredient, however, is the individual. The individual has to open his own mind, analyze the results, and react accordingly. Too many folks just put on blinders or rose colored glasses.

best

Tom