Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 115
NO SHORTAGE OF CAMPFIRES
Eisenhower records how he found a fabulous mentor
The importance of a setting for mentoring is reflected
in Maj. Gen. Fox Conner, the influential officer alluded
in other nonmilitary managerial and training instituto earlier.13 It was Conner, Gen. Pershing’s operations
tions; one is the sports world. The Australian Sports
officer in France during World War I, that
Commission believes, “The mentor’s first role
cajoled, motivated, and enticed the young
is to create an environment that is conducive
Eisenhower to become steeped in military
to, and challenging for learning.”17 The simiknowledge and history.14 Eisenhower warmly
larities between sports and the Army might be
described Conner as quite the polymath, a
apparent and are certainly appropriate. Both
“storehouse of axiomatic advice.”15 Conner
require team effort, understanding of complex
apparently noticed something, too. He saw
plans, agility, and rapid thinking in a violent
great promise in a young officer that could be
environment (if only in the physical conbrought to fruition through needed nurturMaj. Gen. Fox Conner
tact sense for sports). The sagacious Conner
ing. Noting this significant relationship transevidently succeeded in exploiting his chosen
pired in a very relaxed, almost mystical atmosphere of a
setting for mentoring, the campfire. Some campfire parcampfire is illustrative and instructive.
ticulars, upon examination, are intriguing.
In the present day, a creative challenge for the Army
Quiet and untroubled, the campfire is mainly about
would be to analyze that episode and establish that
discussion. This setting, regardless of topic, fortunately
same relaxed “main comfort of the camp”—hereafter
does not require elaborate facilities or complex exerciscalled the campfire for convenience and consistency—to es. As one example, the staff group exercises conducted
assist the nurturing, mentoring process.16 This paper
in the Command and General Staff Officer Course
gives no recommendation for any reinvention of the
(CGSOC) facilitate learning: small groups, dedicated
Army’s mentoring program; the specific interest here is to cooperation and respect, combined with competent
the campfire setting.
facilitation, a good deal of questioning, and just a hint
of a time constraint (after all, a campfire does dwindle
over time). Given the small scale of the exercise, soldiers do not get lost in the milieu. Moreover, much like
the campfire scene Eisenhower describes, the process is
definitely a cognitive experience. The campfire model’s
simplicity reveals its other attractive points.
This construct is not restricted to CGSOC. It can
be used at all levels and does not require the sophisticated training facilities available to those at combatant command level (e.g. U.S. Army Europe’s Warrior
Preparation Center).18 True, the campfire setting can
occur there, but it is equally well suited for the company level on up to battalion, brigade, and division levels.
Reviewing Eisenhower’s story, there are a few key
points to emphasize when considering this paradigm:
Aim for simplicity and the avoidance of any dogmatic or routine approach.
There is no requirement to levy any programmatic requirements on the process.
•
•
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the day, “Full victory
—nothing else,” to paratroopers in England, just before they board
their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of
Europe.
(Photo courtesy of the Center of Military History)
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