January 23, 2004

Special Forces in Cody, Wyoming

I had the distinct honor and pleasure last week of attending and invitiation-only "Around the Campfire" session in Cody, Wyoming" on the "The Future of U.S. Special Forces."

Other than that the SF guys are some of the brightest in the military, and that they take their mission incredibly seriously, and are always trying to improve, I can't say anything about the content of the sessions.

But the format and the setting were both extraordinary, and worthy of emulation. Cody, at the gateway to Yellowstone and built by Buffalo Bill himself, is one of the best kept secrets in America. (I'd never even heard of it.) It is a true gem - a cowboy town, (real cattle and bison, real guns) of 8,000 of the warmest people I've met. We got to do a lot, including touring their world-class museum, visiting a trail town of reassembled original frontier buildings, seeing Colt 45 holes shot through various dollar bills and pieces of clothing, and mixing with many of the local residents. At the same time, we got a lot of work accomplished. The 12 or 13 guests, from a wide variety of disciplines, were all invited to answer and discuss a series of questions posed by the hosts. Having a group that small really gave everyone an opportunity to talk at length, and having some excellent minds, including not only several current and retired generals but guys off the line as well, made for an excellent discussion. Beats the big conferences, any day. Thanks guys!

Posted by Marc at 05:06 PM

Spammin' the Blog

I got an email from a reader recently (thanks!) telling me that some of the comments on my blog were "inappropriate." When I checked, I found that a number of the "usual spam" emails (e.g. big p, drugs, etc.) had entered my blog as comments. (One entry had over 40 of them!). I spent a whole morning deleting them.

Has anyone else had this problem and is there an easy solution? (This Blog is in Movable Type). Thanks, and my apologies to any readers who were offended!

Posted by Marc at 04:50 PM