USAHEC Perspectives Lectures Series (Audio)

On February 6, 2020, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania welcomed USAHEC Senior Historian Dr. Michael Lynch as he presented his talk on Edward M. Almond. Lt. Gen. Edward M. Almond was one of the more controversial leaders in U.S. Army history, but his story is more nuanced than the legends indicate. He commanded the 92nd Infantry Division—one of only two complete African American divisions formed during World War II—and led it through two years of training. He did so in a time when both the Army and American society were segregated, which presented training and stationing challenges. Almond lived by the adage that “units don’t fail, leaders do,” but when the 92nd performed poorly in Italy in February 1945, he asserted that it was due to their inferiority as a race. The Almond legends highlight his shortcomings as a leader, but don’t address the maltreatment of all African American Soldiers by a separate but unequal society, and how those cultural mores affected Almond’s perspective.

To learn more about the USAHEC, find education support for teachers, researchers, and soldiers, or to find more programs at the USAHEC, please visit our website at www.usahec.org.

On September 16, 2021 at 6:30PM EST, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania welcomed Prof. Amy Gaudion, of Penn State Dickinson Law, as she presented her lecture, Shifting the Oversight Lens on Cyberspace Operations. In this lecture, Prof. Gaudion examines the recent expansion of the U.S. government’s cyber authorities, to engage in both offensive and defensive measures, and explains how that expansion has coincided with a weakening and dispersion of congressional oversight mechanisms. Professor Gaudion proposes alternative mechanisms for plugging the gaps in the oversight structure and for ensuring appropriate limits on the use of cyber capabilities, considering their potential for unintended escalation, catastrophic effects, harm to third-parties, damage to diplomatic relationships, and the development of reciprocal state actions at odds with the goal of creating international norms in cyberspace.

To learn more about the USAHEC, find education support for teachers, researchers, and soldiers, or to find more programs at the USAHEC, please visit our website at www.usahec.org.

August 19, 2020 – Dr. Andrew Marble

On August 19, 2020 the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, presented a lecture by Dr. Andrew Marble of Brown University based on his new book, Boy on the Bridge: The Story of John Shalikashvili’s American Success. In his lecture, Dr. Marble tells the story of John Shalikashvili, the son of immigrants who fled Europe to the safety of the United States after World War II. Despite his underprivileged upbringing, Shalikashvili clawed his way to a Bachelor’s degree before being drafted into the Army and attending Officer Candidate School. Shalikashvili’s empathetic and collaborative approach to leadership impressed his colleagues, subordinates, and leadership alike. He demonstrated his expertise in military affairs through his ability to handle conflict, his humility, and his ability to work well with others. He rose rapidly in rank, eventually serving as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe for NATO and then as the Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff. In his lecture, Dr. Andrew Marble studies Shalikashvili’s leadership style through the lens of Shalikashvili’s family struggles, his career as a junior officer, and how he broke the chains of poverty to achieve the highest position in the American Armed Forces.

To learn more about the USAHEC, find education support for teachers, researchers, and soldiers, or to find more programs at the USAHEC, please visit our website at www.usahec.org.

November 18, 2015 - Gayle Lemmon

In 2010, the United States Army created Cultural Support Teams (CTS), a secret pilot program to insert women alongside Special Operations Soldiers battling in Afghanistan. The women of the CSTs put themselves in the line of fire to build relationships with the women of both the Afghan mountains and the tough streets of the Afghanistan cities. In November 2015, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) in Carlisle, PA presented a lecture by Gayle Lemmon, author and Senior Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, based on her book, Ashley’s War. Lemon discussed the complexities of war, as well as the stories of the war in Afghanistan through the eyes of the members of the CST team. Her talk also covered why the Army believed women could play a unique role on the Specials Ops teams.

To learn more about the USAHEC, find education support for teachers, researchers, and soldiers, or to find more programs at the USAHEC, please visit our website at www.usahec.org.

August 21, 2013-Dr. Conrad Crane

Though the Korean War was a limited conflict, there were many operational and technological temptations to expand it. America's allies feared the United States would again resort to atomic bombs as they did against Japan, and Communist enemies propagated elaborate accusations about the employment of biological warfare. Political and military leaders certainly considered using such weapons, though the reasons they never did are varied and complex. Dr. Conrad Crane describes the practical and ethical reasoning behind strategic leaders' decisions, particularly emphasizing the pressures they faced in a limited war with the potential to be much worse. He also discusses the research process to investigate such decision-making and the special difficulties involved in dealing with classified sources about weapons of mass destruction. The lecture is a detective story with twists and turns and more than a little luck involved.

To learn more about the USAHEC, find education support for teachers,researchers, and soldiers, or to find more programs at the USAHEC, please vist our website at www.usahec.org.

April 22, 2021 – Mr. D.M. Giangreco

On April 22, 2021 at 6:30PM EST, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania welcomed author and scholar Mr. D.M. Giangreco as he presented his lecture, Berlin 1945: The Halt on the Elbe and the Redeployment to the Pacific. In this lecture, Mr. Giangreco discusses the steep increase in U.S. losses during the "casualty surge" of 1944-45 and its relationship to "the Berlin decision" to halt the U.S. Army’s drive into Germany instead of allowing them to push on to the German capital. Manpower needs for the planned invasion of Japan and the complex redeployment to the Pacific Theater principally drove this decision and had implications for the decision to use the atomic bomb. Mr. Giangreco highlights the ethical discussions and reasoning behind these strategic decisions, their long-lasting impact, and historical significance.

To learn more about the USAHEC, find education support for teachers, researchers, and soldiers, or to find more programs at the USAHEC, please visit our website at www.usahec.org.

February 18, 2021 – Dr. David Danks

On February 18, 2021, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in coordination with the Army Heritage Center Foundation, welcomed Dr. David Danks, who presented a live-streamed lecture via ZOOM that explored the critically important topic of military applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ethical questions that arise with the idea of “responsible AI." In this talk, Dr. Danks provided a short history of military AI ethics discussions and looked carefully at the nature of “responsible AI,” with a particular focus on military uses. He argued that we should focus on the processes and practices that we use to design, develop, and deploy AI-enabled systems, rather than fine-grained technical details of the systems themselves.

To learn more about the USAHEC, find education support for teachers, researchers, and soldiers, or to find more programs at the USAHEC, please visit our website at www.usahec.org.

March 11, 2021 – Dr. Reed Bonadonna

On March 11, 2021, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania welcomed author and scholar Dr. Reed Bonadonna to present his lecture, How to Think Like an Officer: The Officer as Visionary. In this lecture, Dr. Bonadonna argued that the military officer corps functions as a collective repository of knowledge of the nature of armed conflict, causes and consequences, and of peace and victory. An officers’ education and experience, combined with reflection, can equip them for visionary thought, a form of thinking that can enhance their role as a serving officer and as a citizen. He discussed a variety of facets of this topic, including careful consideration of the past and future, death and the officer, the "ethical turn," the problem of political engagement, the officer's dreams, and peace and conflict studies. He also examined the ways in which history and literature provided examples of the officer-as-visionary.

To learn more about the USAHEC, find education support for teachers, researchers, and soldiers, or to find more programs at the USAHEC, please visit our website at www.usahec.org.

May 7, 2020 - Dr. Thomas Bruscino

On May 7, 2020, at 6:30 PM EST, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania live-streamed a lecture entitled Developing Strategists, Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Interwar Army War College by U.S. Army War College Associate Professor Dr. Thomas Bruscino. The lecture is based on a paper written by Dr. Bruscino in conjunction with the USAHEC Historical Services Division. General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, did not achieve his position or victory in World War II by accident. The overwhelming majority of senior leaders who led the United States to victory in World War II relied on world-class education and mentorship at the U.S. Army War College. Making extensive use of the Army War College’s archival records at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Dr. Bruscino’s lecture will describe the U.S. Army War College during Eisenhower’s tenure as a student in the 1927-1928 school year. He will offer insights into professional military education at the strategic level, interwar military reform, and the professional experiences of most of the senior leaders of World War II.

For video of the USHAEC's podcasts, or to learn more about the USAHEC, find education support for teachers, researchers, and soldiers, or to find more programs at the USAHEC, please visit our website at www.usahec.org.