FOUNDATION NEWS, No. 2/Fall 2007 (October 2007)

Lewis and Clark legacy leads to pioneering
effort for new CGSC facility

By Mark H. Wiggins, Managing Editor

Fort Leavenworth celebrated the opening of the new Lewis and Clark Center August 13 in a dedication ceremony in the center’s new Eisenhower Auditorium. Many of the Fort Leavenworth leadership, staff, faculty and guests attending the ceremony remarked that the new facility promises to provide a far superior learning environment for officers attending the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

Built by the JE Dunn Construction Company, the Lewis and Clark Center replaces Bell Hall, a 49-year old structure that could not accommodate the digital infrastructure required in contemporary education. The Lewis and Clark Center can also boast of having one of the largest auditoriums in the state of Kansas.—The Eisenhower Auditorium seats 2,004, which is 579 more seats than the old Eisenhower Auditorium in Bell Hall and about as many as the Lied Center at the University of Kansas.

During the dedication ceremony Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, made the remark that “we are dedicating the finest learning center in the United States of America.”

Roberts led the way in the halls of Congress to fight for the funding of the center and is fond of telling the story of how he discovered the need for a new facility during a visit hosted by Lt. Gen. Mike Steele, Fort Leavenworth commander at the time.

“When I visited here about six years ago a maintenance engineer in Bell Hell reached up into the ceiling and pulled out a piece of rusted, twisted, gnarly-looking pipe and said ‘Senator, this is what the infrastructure of Bell Hall is really like.’ I kept that piece of corroded Bell Hall pipe when I left that day and I took it with me everywhere,” said Roberts. “That pipe visited appropriations meetings, subcommittee hearings, and Armed Services committee hearings. People came to dread the sight of Roberts and his pipe. But sometimes that’s what it takes. That piece of pipe represented something very broken and very wrong to me.

“Our nation’s best and brightest come to Fort Leavenworth as well as visiting international officers who later in their careers become leaders in their own countries. Why on Earth would we put such esteemed representation in a building where the pipes and the infrastructure are falling apart? It just didn’t make sense to me and it didn’t make sense to others.

“With the help of our Kansas delegation, especially Sen. Sam Brownback, we made the best case we knew how. In the long run our Congress worked together and we came to the right decision. The building you are standing in today is the result of a well-planned tour and a special effort to get a senator a real picture.

“I’m honored that I was able to take up the Bell Hall crusade on the part of everyone who has and will continue to be part of Fort Leavenworth. I’m awestruck at the history of the Command and General Staff College. Virtually every hall-of-famer in military history has passed through these portals and has been made a significantly better leader because of that experience.”

The structure that is the Lewis and Clark Center is not its only impressive attribute. Of 96 classrooms in the Lewis and Clark Center, all are identically equipped with flat screen televisions, cameras for video teleconferencing and computers that pop up from every student desk. The audio and video capabilities can allow students to sit in on briefings and conferences from remote locations such as the Pentagon or from overseas. The technology will also allow Leavenworth instructors to teach classes to students at one of the distance learning centers on the east coast.

“Today’s Soldiers and their leaders in a field environment have a huge technological capability and can connect with practically anyone around the world,” said Lynn Rolf, CGSC’s Director of Education Technology. “Our students in the Lewis and Clark Center will now have that same capability. With web-based instruction, digital mapping and tracking and video teleconferencing capability we have all the tools necessary to provide for a first class learning environment.”

Lest one begins to focus on the newness of the facility and the technology within it, conversations with CGSC leaders quickly reveal their belief that it’s the people, not the facility, which provide the quality of education necessary for the nation’s military leaders.

After the dedication portion of the ceremony Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, commander of Fort Leavenworth and commandant of CGSC, inducted Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark into the Fort Leavenworth Hall of Fame. With help from Sen. Roberts he unveiled the shadow boxes that will be placed in the atrium of the Lewis and Clark Center alongside other Hall of Fame members.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Mark H. Wiggins retired in 2004 after serving 23 years in both the enlisted and officer ranks. His last assignment was as Director of Web Communications and Senior Strategic Communications Planner in the Office of the Chief of Staff, Army.