On the battlefield

Gettysburg Leadership Summit provides valuable training for cadets

Forty cadet-athletes gathered in the Gettysburg National Cemetery for one final discussion with 12 coaches and other Air Force Academy staff as they concluded their whirlwind trip to the Gettysburg battlefields as part of the 4th annual Gettysburg Leadership Summit. Their visit to Gettysburg concluded with a somber reading of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, originally delivered in 1863 at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery.

The Summit is an information-packed, history-filled, leadership experience for Air Force Academy athletic team captains and leaders. The group traveled to Gettysburg on the same day as the 2019 Academy graduation.

“It is so valuable for cadets that we bridge and embrace our history, the history of our country and our armed forces, and understand how we got to where we are,” said Lt. Col. Kaipo McGuire, Ph.D., deputy department head for the Department of Physical Education. “There’s so much more you can learn than from reading a book about leadership. Going through, discussing and looking at different perspectives is where the real value stands.”

The cadet-athletes who visited nine historic battlefield sites each found real value in the location, the subject matter and the group discussions.

“On a sports field the stakes are pretty low. But for these guys out here, it was life or death. They were professionals in a profession of arms,” said Cadet 1st Class Conor Clancy, representing the baseball team. “And in a year’s time, I will be entering that same profession. One day it might be life or death for me or for any of the other team captains here. And it’s one of those things where you can take those same leadership lessons from a sports team and apply them to life and your career as an Air Force officer.”

Clancy’s reflection took place at the Gettysburg National Cemetery. The group also visited significant battle locations around the area: McPherson’s Ridge, Culp’s Hill, the Peach Orchard, Little Round Top and the High Water Mark/Cemetery Ridge. In each location, Academy history professors and leadership experts led discussions about battlefield decisions and how they can help cadets think about their own leadership style and decision-making abilities.

“The highlight of this trip has been the multitude of leadership aspects we have learned, specifically the leadership styles from going into historical figures and seeing how they’ve applied to each of the individual captains and how we’ve embodied them through what we were told to research and how we’ve been talking about them in group discussions,” said Cadet 1st Class John Evalle, team captain for the cheer team.

The 2019 Summit was McGuire’s first, but he worked with others after the 2018 Summit to create the Team Captain Enhancement Program (TCEP). TCEP brings together team captains from all 29 sports for recurring multi-day seminars and discussions with McGuire, wrestling coach Sam Barber and CCLD instructor Richard Ramsey.

“Leadership issues are a little different depending on the environment,” McGuire says. “The lessons we will continue to discuss are transferable across all contexts. They are team captains, but the lessons can be used in different roles.”

Cadet 1st Class Denise Ssozi, volleyball team captain, agrees with McGuire’s assessment.

“It meant so much to me so I could learn more about the history of the United States, but also I learned how it can apply to being a good team captain and being a good leader in the future,” she said.