European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 13, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday. August 13. 1989 the stars and stripes Page 9 Over Here ass a work of Art that is displayed in the Waterloo museum in Belgium depicts the Chart of a mounted unit in the midst of the Baltic of Waterloo. History enlightening today s Warrior by Ron Jensen staff writer Heidelberg West Germany much of human history is a series of wars interrupted by Peri ods of peace tracing a progression in technology from clubs and Spears to tanks and missiles. But there is a constant in warfare that advanced weaponry has not erased. The Soldier still has the problem of deciding what the Guy on the other Side of the Hill is doing says maj. Roger Cirillo. Cirillo who is with the War planning department of the Central army group believes a study of pre Vious wars no matter How ancient is valuable for today s Soldier. We be got technology but it has t changed the general s Job because his Battlefield is larger he says. In Many cases it takes a general s message the same amount of time to reach the front today As it did in Napoleon s to help teach the lessons of wars Cirillo and it. Col. Brian Rausch created a military history society year ago. Since then the Centag-4ataf 4lh Allied tac air Force military history society has consistently drawn 40 to so people to its monthly meetings to hear speakers explain such topics Asna Poleon s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the reluctant bombing of the Monte Cassino monastery by the allies in world War ii and the lost battalion of world War i. To a degree 1 think there s a Utility to history and that s always a debate says Cirillo who taught military history at the . Army command an general staff College at fort la Yanworth kan., from 1982 to 1985. Some of it is just enrichment. Some of it is not worthwhile at All. And some of it is very meetings held at the nato officers club on Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg do not attract Only military people. Soldiers wives and West German and american civilians also like the fact that everybody comes there with a different Point of View says Rausch the v corps Liaison officer to Cental. We Don t want it for Mal. We Don t want it professorial. We Don t want it so far Rausch and Cirillo have kept the society s meetings and Mia. They have persuaded people with an interest in a particular subject to do the research and report their findings. But they have moved away from this goal when the Opportunity was Ripe. A world War ii fighter War is a set of prob lems that people have to Deal with find solutions it col. Brian Rausch Pilot told of his experiences in the Pacific theater. At a future meeting a German general will discuss his experiences at the Eastern front in world War ii. We Haven t had a historian give a lecture Rausch says. Soldiers who hear the lectures May heighten their understanding of combat and their role in it As Cirillo suggests but others Are there simply for the enjoy ment of learning. Three fourths of the people who showed up for the lost battalion talk did t know what the lost battalion was Cirillo says. They Learned that the american battalion in the Argonne Forest of France was surrounded during the Battle in october 1918. When rescued fewer than 200 men out of the 600 Man battalion were still Able to fight. Future topics include the 1968 act offensive of the Vietnam War in which communist troops at tacked Saigon and the provincial capitals and the desert War of world War ii. For Cirillo and Rausch the military and its history have Long been a part of their lives. Cirillo says his affection for military history was enhanced at Syracuse University where he was an Roth student. The colonel in the Roth program there believed soldiers should study their profession. Let s say i accepted that wholeheartedly Cirillo says. Rausch recalls learning As a youngster to identify the military aircraft flying Over Nis Home near Wright Patterson fab Ohio where his father was stationed. Later when his father was reassigned the two toured the desert of North Africa where Field marshal Erwin Rommel waged War. Cirillo and Rausch came together with their Mutual interest and formed the society a rarity within the military Community they say Rausch think societies like these should be common because sol Diers like doctors who Are required to study the history of Medicine need to know the history of War. War is a set of problems that people have to Deal with find solutions for Rausch says. It s a behavioural business psychologically socially culturally. The answers Are always but strip away that technology he says and the problems confronting a Soldier today arc the same ones faced by a Soldier in the roman army. There May be satellites to track the enemy Cirillo says but the Soldier fighting the War does t see cautions that the study of a War or a Battle May not directly relate to another War or Battle. An event cannot be re created. It can t be a How to. It can t be he says. There arc things that arc parallel. But it just does t work that nonetheless Cirillo is convinced that a Soldier benefits from knowledge about past have always looked at it As a Way for a Soldier to broaden his on what he
