This is the second weekly update sent to all registered participants.  If you know of someone scheduled to participate who hasn't registered yet, please send them to the registration site to receive these e-mails.  A copy of the National Staff Ride Workshop schedule is available at that link as well for your review.  If you would like to read past e-mail updates on Shiloh, they will be posted to our archive page.

Preliminary reading is an important part of preparation for a staff ride.  Our reading list for the major staff rides we lead is available on our website.  For this event, we recommend preliminary reading of Shiloh - In Hell Before Night by James Lee Mcdonough.  If you have read that work, you may recall that Braxton Bragg, commanding the Confederate Second Corps in the Army of Mississippi, was concerned about the lack of discipline in the young Army gathered for battle.  He remarked to G.T. Beauregard (Army Commander) include:  "the mobs we have, miscalled soldiers" and "unrestrained habits of pillage and plunder".  Also written of the young Union Army of the Tennessee by a Chicago Times correspondent:  "some of the soldiers had no respect for anything."

Some questions for you to think about...

How do YOU instill discipline in your organization?  

What leadership techniques do you use to build habit and discipline as you gather young men and women to serve in uncertain environments -- habits and disciplines to ensure they maintain a healthy respect for the environment, each other, and the communities they serve?  

How do you sustain those disciplines with veteran members of your team who have been around a long time and perhaps developed some unhealthy habits? 

How do you integrate other organizations with less discipline or capability into your organization as the complexity of the any particular incident grows?

LOGISTICS NOTES:  

Integration Dinners:  We're planning two integration dinners at The Catfish Hotel on the banks of the Tennessee River - Tuesday night and Wednesday night.  Plan on chow costing you $20 each night for family-style all-you-can-eat fried catfish.  Draft beer is relatively cheap too.  

Lodging:  The Hampton Inn in Corinth has rooms blocked off at the government rate under: U.S Forest Service Staff Ride Workshop (01/23-27/2017). Each individual or crew will need to secure room(s) via credit card by 01/10/2017.  

Hampton Inn Corinth
2107 Highway 72 West, Corinth, Mississippi, 38834

The OMNA Team

Craig, David, Pete, Dominic, Stu, Eric