Chattanooga, Tenn. (April 12, 2013)—Ten senior leaders from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District toured the Chickamauga Battlefield April 12, 2013 in a staff leadership exercise led by Lt. Col. James A. DeLapp, district commander.
DeLapp arranged for a former Army Command and Staff College instructor to guide the tour, and explain the lessons learned by both Union and Confederate generals at the 150-year-old battle site.
Lessons learned in logistics, leadership and decision-making on the hallowed grounds of that 150-year-old battle are applicable today, according to the tour director, retired Army Lt. Col. Edwin L. Kennedy, Jr., presently assistant professor in the Department of Command and Leadership at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
“Think about what happened here; how to communicate; how to earn trust; and how differing leadership styles affected the outcome of some of the hardest fighting in the Civil War,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy, a West Point graduate who holds master’s degrees in administration and history, taught at the Army’s Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., a total of 15 years (10 years in tactics, three years in history and two years in leadership departments) during his Army career.
During his tour as an instructor in the staff college’s history department, Kennedy conducted tours to various battlefields at home and abroad to train middle and high-level military officers in leadership and decision-making techniques and procedures.
Exercise participants included Lt. Col. James A. DeLapp, district commander; Lt. Col. Patrick Dagon, deputy district engineer; Capt. Corey Wolff, project officer and quality assurance representative, Cheatham Lock and Resource Manager’s Building Project; Capt. Allen Stansbury, construction representative, Wolf Creek Dam Rehabilitation Project; Jimmy Waddle, engineering-construction chief,; Valerie Carlton, contracting chief; Joanne Mann, executive assistant/congressional liaison; Mike Abernathy, real estate chief; Mike Wilson, deputy district engineer for programs and project management; Bill Woodard, district counsel; and Tammy Kirk, librarian.