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) MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2014 113