ATSC is an operating element of Training and Doctrine Command that served to manages, plans, integrates, implements, and sustains specific Training Support System programs, products, services, and facilities that support training across all training domains, TRADOC's core missions, and the Army. (Yes, those are some fancy words, but the bottom line is that this small organization directly influences about $17B of the Army's annual budget.)

ATSC is a tenant unit of Fort Eustis, home of the Army's Transportation Corps. Tenant units don't always get the best support, and that was the case at times. Also, the base was continually short of funding and expected ATSC to do more than its share in this regard. Nonetheless, we liked our Transportation friends and they treated us well. My next door neighbor was the base's Chief of Staff, and we were friends.

I don't recall the exact numbers, but ATSC had about 500 civilian employees and about 36 military when I arrived - my first experience with a largely civilian workforce. Many of the Directorate Chiefs were Department of the Army Civilians, and they were highly professional. My Deputy, Dr. Steve Duncan, was an excellent counterpart and I appreciated his contributions to the organization, both personally and professionally. More on Steve below.

After commuting about 55 minutes one way from our home in Valrico to MacDill AFB, I found that our quarters were about a one minute drive from the ATSC Headquarters. We lived in a single-family house that had a number of extensions and improvements over the years, and was a maintenance headache for the base. But we liked it. It had a large back yard and an old garage. We played all kinds of games in the yard, and used the garage for storage.

For my tenure at ATSC perhaps the two people I was closest with were the Command Secretary Marie Buckner and the Deputy ATSC Commander, Dr. Steve Duncan. Marie was outstanding. She knew everyone and everything. She was not a secretary but an extension of the Command Group. She knew what was right and what was not right. One of her insights was worth ten staff meetings. Marie could take "steno" (Great!!!) and in an era where e-mail was just coming into being and the Internet was in its infancy, she helped me stay plugged into the command even when I was traveling - and I did a fair amount of that. Steve was smart, and a true Type B that the Command needed to balance my Type A personality. I recall taking many pieces of correspondence into Steve to ask his opinion and having him politely suggest that I really needed to write a more moderate letter as opposed to the perhaps too direct or too heated a note I felt the circumstances warranted. And he was always right. Steve also was a true friend personally as well, and he helped me in ways that I could never repay.

I arrived at ATSC about the time the Army was about to reap the "Peace Dividend" from ending of the Cold War. That translated to about 120 spaces being cut from the command - a huge number that (rightly so) had the workforce highly alarmed. But with the help of a number of people, to include ATSC's Resource Manager Bill Mitchell, we managed the downsizing over the next year without anyone losing his or her federal job.

ATSC's various Directorates didn't need me to make them run well; they were doing that before I got there and after I left. I did work to try to improve our part of the Army Correspondence Course Program. We managed the courses that were written by the various service schools and we distributed the paper-based courseware. (Remember, this was 1992-1996.) In accomplishing this mission, we served over 200,000 students and employed a warehouse for incoming and outgoing material that did so much business with the US Postal Service that it had its own Zip Code.

We also had a directorate that managed the Army's training devices. Next to the ATSC Headquarters there was a small building with some of these devices, like a Weaponeer for marksmanship training, and shoot-don't shoot trainer that used lazer bullets and various scenarios. That building was a favorite place to take visitors to tell the ATSC story, and the devices were fun. Robert had his friends over on weekends to play with them.

Very very early in my command I was introduced to a personnel situated that I had never encountered before. You see, federal employees have a union, the American Federation of Government Employees. Great, I have no issue with that. Well, so ATSC had employees represented by a union, and the union members and (all other federal employees) were represented by a Union President. And while I hoped that problems would be solved through the ATSC Chain of Command, I came to realize that a civilian employee with a problem can take it to the Union President. Who would bring it to me. It turned out that I arrived in the middle of a union-management dispute: The employees in the Corresponding Studies Directorate - mostly lower grade civil servants - wanted a break room and management agreed with the break room but said there just wasn't enough space. Aha! An engineering problem (lucky me). So I did find some space to convert and everyone was happy enough. Over the next four years I came to learn and respect that the Union President had obligations to his union members who elected him president. So he and I had a running dialogue, and though I suspected he thought his desk should be next to mine in the Command Suite, we got along reasonably well.

One of the things I did at ATSC was to conduct a quarterly "Command Update." I have to admit that I do not recall the actual name we called the gathering, nor do I remember the frequency, but am sure it was at least quarterly. Because of the size of the organization we had to reserve the Post Theater for a meeting. About a week or so out I would provide an agenda. Provisions were also made for any member of ATSC to submit a question anonymously. My secretary took notes, and they were published for everyone to read. Generally I opened the session with a Welcome and any compliments I had received concerning our people and our organization. I then asked if the notes accurately described the previous meeting and also asked if there were any questions that had been submitted in writing that were not addressed. Then I gave an update on the organization; we were so diverse that members of another directorate likely had little idea of what their counterparts were doing. Yes, it's possible that some viewed the updates as a two hour interruption in their work, but I believe most liked the updates and their opportunity to ask questions.

One of the great things we did at ATSC (that people much smarter than me came up with) was to change to a nine day work week. Since the bulk of the ATSC personnel were Department of the Army Civilians, they were all required to work 40 hours a week or 80 hours over each two-week pay period. Our plan - completely optional for anyone who wanted to participate - was to work nine hours a day for eight of the days, eight hours a day for the ninth day, and be off the tenth day. (9x8 + 8 = 80) The tenth day was staggered so that it was one of the following: the first Monday of the pay period, the first Friday of the pay period, the second Monday of the pay period, or the second Friday of the pay period. (That way there was always 75% of the workforce present on any given Monday or Friday.) The net effect was a GIANT boost in morale at no cost and with even a few benefits: People did more cross training to cover the absences of their co-workers and most people used their tenth day as a time to do the errands that they might have otherwise done during by stepping out briefly one of their "regular" days.

ATSC was also a place for lots of family time. I coached or helped coach Robert in baseball and soccer (great times). He also tried basketball and wrestling, the latter much to Bonnie's anguish. Soccer was especially fun. I would show up for practice and find the kids already there, never late. They loved it and so did we. (Should you be interested in my coaching philosophy or in looking at some soccer drills to keep practices interesting, they are here but you will have to use the BACK button to return to this page.) Bonnie and I also ran the activities for the chapel-sponsored youth group, and that was also fun. We were just 25 minutes from Busch Gardens, so that was nice, also. In fact the whole area had lots of nice places to visit: Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, the Pottery Factory, Virginia Beach, the Norfolk waterfront.

More on places to visit: A great benefit of being stationed at Fort Eustis was that Busch Gardens was just up the road. We got season passes and would sometimes take Anne and Robert there just to enjoy an ice cream cone. Nearby was also Williamsburg with its multitude of colonial era shops and displays. Yorktown waqs also fun. It was the site of the Revolutionary War battle that sealed the victory for the fledgling United States. Our first visit to there happened to be on October 19th, Bonnie's birthday but - as we later learned - the anniversary of the British surrender that was the last fighting of the Revolution and virtually assured the success of the American cause. While visiting we became aware that a parade was being held, coming up one of the single lane roads within the battlefield. There weren’t a huge number of spectators lining the route, and the parade units were a collection of Boy Scout troops, a few school bands, a local VFW color guard . . . all nice but not exactly Macy's. And then here comes a marching unit in complete Continental Army uniforms including muskets. With them is their band. Every soldier is about the same height. They are marching sharply and smartly in step. WOW! Who are these guys? I learned they were a demonstration unit from the Army's 3rd Infantry Regiment, the Old Guard: the same unit that guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Boy, were they outstanding in appearance and bearing. Later they demonstrated the battle drills of Revolutionary War armies, with various defensive formations against infantry and cavalry. They were more than impressive. Later I learned two things. (1) The annual October 19 celebration is a joint venture with the French, our Revolutionary War Ally, without whom the American victory might not have come about. (2) Also, I wondered about the uniforms of the band members. The infantry was in colonial blue with red cuffs; the band was in red with blue cuffs. (Note that there were a variety of American uniforms but blue with red was pretty much established as the standard.). I learned that military bands of that era wore the reverse colors of the infantry, and the it was considered "bad form" to shoot at enemy bandsmen. Note that bands, in combat, communicated various commands by certain drum beats and fife calls. This continued through the American Civil War. Today enemy communications are a high value target.

As you might guess, my time at Fort Eustis was very interesting and rewarding. I retired from the Army in August 1996. From an assignments standpoint I was "good to go" to remain at ATSC until my mandatory retirement date, but to do so, and assuming a move that would likely be necessary as I transitioned into the civilian world, I elected to depart at a time when Anne could spend her junior and senior years at the same high school. No, there was no retirement parade. Bonnie and I were given a very nice farewell party at ATSC and I didn't see a need for soldiers to have to go through a parade just for me.