FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- When Col. Bryan Laske arrived here with his Family on a summer night in 2015, there was still enough daylight to soak in the landscape of their new home.
"We had pulled in just about 10 at night, and it was still light out and I remember saying, 'Boy, we have to be pretty far north,'" said Laske, Fort Drum garrison commander. "That was my first thought, but from the very beginning, Fort Drum struck me as a gem of a place -- more green space than most Army posts have, and all these neat things about this installation that we grew to love."
Laske said that he was familiar with wood trails while stationed in Stuttgart, Germany, but to see them at Fort Drum was a pleasant surprise.
"I had been to New York City, but never this far north," he said. "There were just nice things everywhere we turned -- wood trails, functional fitness center -- things I had never seen in the (United) States before. I think one of the first things we did was go to a farmer's market in Carthage. My wife loves that kind of stuff, and the kids love all the things they could do in this environment. They learned to ski here, which was great for us. So many great things to do, you wish you had more time."
Laske had earned a master's degree in strategic studies at the U.S. Army War College, and previously a master of business administration degree from the University of Maryland and a bachelor's degree in architecture from Virginia Tech -- three areas of study that would seem very useful to lead a garrison where infrastructure maintenance, improvements and additions occur quite frequently.
While attending the War College, Laske said that he discussed strategies with colleagues who were also about to assume their first garrison command assignments.
"We got permission to conduct an independent study together, and we just dissected what is this thing called a garrison, how does it function, what are (Installation Management Command's) priorities and how do we fall in with that," Laske said.
He said that they were able to learn from two professors who were former garrison commanders and who provided guidance on their independent study.
"As I looked at that, what I did was develop a command approach," Laske said. "With two years, I knew I wasn't going to have time to do a lot of things, so I wanted to be able to focus on a few areas."
The four areas of emphasis that Laske took out of his analysis were infrastructure sustainment, optimizing base operation delivery, workforce development and communications.
"The great thing about a garrison is that you're going to have a lot of people with a lot of experience with what they do," he said. "I might not have had a depth of knowledge to jump right into this, but you have this great resource available right off the bat. It became just a matter of taking in as much information as you can process from those folks who know what they're doing and apply it to how you want to approach things."
When the U.S. Army announced significant cuts to troops and civilian personnel in 2015, manpower reductions became a key issue that Laske would have to contend with early on in his command.
"I think that was something that dominated my attention for a good part of the time I was here -- certainly not the only thing," Laske said. "Managing that whole endeavor without catastrophically breaking the workforce was probably what I'm most proud of -- with the deputy (garrison commander) and all the directors looking at the situation and how we would approach it."
In the past few months, the garrison received authorization increases for security guards, Public Works personnel and winter hires for snow removal.
"What mattered most to me was protecting the workforce while all that was going on, and then being able to counter with our own argument and actually come away with a net increase in manpower," Laske said. "In the fiscal environment that we lived through while I was here, this was probably the biggest accomplishment."
Job security and additional hiring were topics addressed quarterly at the garrison workforce briefings, and Laske said that it was important for civilian personnel to be informed and have their questions answered directly by the command group and directors.
"What strikes me most about our workforce is their dedication," Laske said. "Everyone I've met, from the guys who work on the ranges to the people at the child development centers, you see their dedication to what they're doing. They approach their jobs with such dedication and positivity, and that always impressed me."
Laske also said the workforce is capable of tremendous teamwork, whether it's for an installationwide force protection exercise that draws multiple organizations together for training or helping to organize the funeral for a fallen state trooper.
"Whenever we do any major event, you just see every single directorate throw in the full weight of their capabilities to support the team," he said. "It's just amazing, and it always impressed me how they always support each other."
Laske said that, given more time, he would have tried to strengthen communications -- that fourth pillar he had identified in his War College analysis.
"That's probably my weakest personal trait, but if I had more time I would have liked to have done more to develop more ways of communicating not only internally with the garrison but also within the community and all the stakeholders," Laske said. "One of the great aspects of Fort Drum is this community network that we have, but it is difficult to manage all the partners and all the information going back and forth."
That's advice he would pass on to the new garrison commander, Col. Kenneth "Dean" Harrison, who is also assuming his first command of a garrison.
"My advice is to communicate more than you think you have to, and that starts with listening," Laske said. "That really helps you make better decisions and empowers you as a leader being able to get a lot of conduits of information and being able to understand what's going on. Also, whatever your priorities are, never stop articulating them so people know."
Laske's next assignment will mark his third tour to Stuttgart, Germany, where he will work at the Special Operations Command Europe. Previously, he served as troop commander for 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, and then as company commander and executive officer.
"My wife is from Hungary, so she is looking forward to being near her Family for a while and having the kids close to them," Laske said. "Then, just having the kids experience living overseas is a big thing for us.
"Fort Drum has been a wonderful place for us, and we've really enjoyed it here," he added. "The experience of being a garrison commander and coming into something you know little about, but then working with all of these professionals, has been a tremendous experience and probably developed me more as a person and a professional than anything I have done before. I'm thankful for the opportunity."
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