FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (June 18, 2009) - The 77th Military Operations Research Society Symposium was June 16-18 at the Lewis and Clark Center.
Established in 1956, MORS is an organization for defense analysts, operators and managers from government, industry and the academic world, and includes active-duty military, civilians and contractors. MORS members share insight and information on national security issues and support decision makers across many national defense organizations and agencies.
The first MORS symposium was at Corona Naval Ordnance Lab in Corona, Calif., in 1957.
There were more than 1,000 attendees at this year's conference that included break-out sessions and working groups after the opening plenary session June 16.
During the opening session, TRADOC Analysis Center Director and host of the symposium Michael Bauman said the preparation Fort Leavenworth put into hosting the symposium was only one of the necessary ingredients for a successful symposium.
"Now it is up to you - the participants - to realize the full potential of this gathering they have organized," Bauman said. "It is my wish that over the next three days you fill it with exciting intellectual discourse and deep analytical arguments that go long into the night."
Symposium sponsor and Director of the Center for Army Analysis E.B. Vandiver III said this is a great time to be with the Department of Defense and a great time to be an analyst.
"Nothing causes greater demand for more analysis than change," Vandiver said.
Vandiver said it is also a great time to have a MORS symposium.
"Here we can discuss and debate new analytical thinking, new analytical approaches and new analytical methods," Vandiver said. "Open your eyes, your ears and your minds ... and we will all be richer for it."
Training and Doctrine Command Commanding General Gen. Martin E. Dempsey also spoke to the group during the opening session.
Dempsey said everywhere he goes he generally sees a group of young people carry out the colors. The color guard for the opening session was a group of Leavenworth High School Junior ROTC cadets. Dempsey said, analytically, his relationship to the cadets would be like a graduate of the West Point class of 1935 watching him carry the colors.
"That difference in our age and what has happened in this world between 1935 and now, for me, is just a slight indication of what they can expect if they pursue a military career," Dempsey said.
Dempsey said the Army and the rest of the military never go anyplace for a short or finite amount of time and leave.
"We tend to go places and stay, and when you go places and stay you're in a campaign, and when you're in a campaign it means time, and when you are there over time, it means change," Dempsey said.
What the analysts are charged with, Dempsey said, is to help the current leadership train the future leaders to anticipate change, create opportunities and manage transitions.
"I wish you luck in the symposium and beyond, and I promise you that we are going to get this as close to right as we can for those kids who walked across the stage here just a few minutes ago," Dempsey said.
Social Sharing