FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Army News Service, June 15, 2009) -- Five U.S. Army warrant officers joined more than 930 Army, sister-service, international and interagency students in graduating from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College's Intermediate Level Education course, June 12.
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Timothy Feathers, Chief Warrant Officers 4 Percy Alexander, Nathaniel Jones and Richard Myers, and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert W. Russell attended the Army's 10-month ILE course, historically designed to educate and train field-grade officers to be adaptive leaders, capable of critical thinking.
The course was also designed to prepare these officers to operate in full-spectrum Army, joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational environments.
For the first time, warrant officers were represented both in the class and on the faculty at CGSC. Chief Warrant Officers 4 Ronnie Patrick, Darren Lester, Brian Edwards and Anthony Williams are currently assigned to the College's Department of Logistics and Resource Operations.
"This is a very proud moment for the college," said Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, CGSC commandant. "Warrant officers are a valued part of the total Army team and these outstanding Soldiers provided another rich perspective of learning. Just as we have embraced our international and interagency partners in the course, today we recognize the importance of our senior technical officers, who are leaders in their career fields."
This year's ILE class also marked several notable "firsts" in addition to warrant officer participation in the course:
- the first officer from Montenegro attended the course, raising participant countries to 155 at the college
- the first interagency representative took home the "Outstanding Interagency Student" award
- the first six students graduated from a new University of Kansas/CGSC master's program in supply chain management
Myers said he gained valuable insight from the unique opportunity to attend ILE.
"I believe the value of our attendance is in warrant officers, present and future, gaining a comprehensive understanding of full-spectrum joint, multinational, and interagency operations from the strategic, operational, and tactical perspective," Myers said. "Ultimately, this understanding enables us to adapt our programs and apply our technical expertise in a way that truly supports the commander's intent while also preparing us as leaders to deal with the complexities associated with Army operations."
Warrant officers interested in attending the Command and General Staff College ILE course should contact their assignment manager at Human Resources Command for details.
(Submitted by Command and General Staff College Public Affairs.)
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