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Staff Rides

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Reviewing the characters that I've played, their bios, and themes addressed.

Lafayette McLaws

Major General, Division Commander, Under Longstreet First Corps; 1821-1897

Speaking mid-day, July 2, 1863; May 2024.

  • Concerning the Peach Orchard assault, what were your orders, and did you feel adequately equipped to execute them?
  • What is your opinion of the Union’s defensive preparations at Gettysburg?
  • What is your relationship with Longstreet, and how has it evolved?

Frederick Alfred Pile

General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Anti-Aircraft Command, British Army, 1939-1945

Speaking at the Embankment in Central London on September 13, 1940; replacing absent student for Day 4 of the International Staff Ride: The Blitz: Live Under Siege & Threat of Invasion; March 21, 2024.

How do Britain's ground-based air defenses work?

Heinz Guderian

Major General / Commander, XIX Corps, Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany

Speaking at the Hilltop in Dunkirk, France on May 13, 1940; Day 1 of the International Staff Ride: Fall of France and Operation DYNAMO; March 18, 2024.

How do tanks and aircraft work together in Blitzkrieg?

Hugh Montague Trenchard

Chief of the Air Staff, British Royal Air Force; lived 1873-1956

Speaking at the Udvar-Hazy Center in January 1925, for International Staff Ride's "Mini Staff Ride"—an intro on stands for all accepted students—on February 3, 2024.

  • Assigned Questions: What are the lessons from WWI on air power? Why was it important? Why is an independent air service (i.e., RAF) required?
  • Takeaways: (1) Airpower—through strategic bombing—is the future of warfare; (2) We need an independent RAF to effectively fight future wars; (3) We need to develop our RAF institutions and culture to remain independent.

Henry Tizard

British technologist who helped develop long-range radar

Speaking at the Udvar-Hazy Center in June 1940, for International Staff Ride class on October 18, 2023.

  • Background as an academic, bureaucrat, and military officer.
  • The development and importance of radar in the Battle of Britain.
  • The integration of radar in our air defense architecture and how that worked (i.e., the willingness of Fighter pilots to work hand-in-hand with scientists).

Nicholas Weeks

3rd Alabama Infantry, taking part of an attack on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville; CSIS staff ride on October 28, 2019.

  • Assigned Questions: What is morale like in the CSA Army at this stage of the war? What are day-to-day living conditions like? What did it look and feel like in the Chancellorsville battle?