 So to get a better understanding of sister services, their capabilities, and their modus operandi is vital to make myself and the faculty more broadened and more capable. Five Naval War College faculty members representing each branch of military service visited U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Seneca this month for a two-day shipboard familiarization training exercise off the coast of Rhode Island. The training was initiated by two War College alumni wanting to increase awareness of the DOD services of the Coast Guard's niche capabilities and interoperability. We thought this might be a nice opportunity for some other faculty members that are not as familiar with the Coast Guard to come out on ship and see what we do in action and then also try to make some better links between the strategy and policy side with the actual tactical operations as they're conducted on this particular ship. Well, the Coast Guard ethos and the DOD ethos are very different. The DOD ethos is to fight and win the nation's wars. The Coast Guard ethos is principally humanitarian. We're a law enforcement agency at an armed service at the same time and sometimes that's difficult to explain and understand without seeing it in action firsthand. For the Army representative, it was an eye-opening and worthwhile experience. The biggest thing that struck me was the fact that when they're underway, they are truly doing what I would consider their wartime mission. It's just a peacetime. And so we don't get this kind of opportunity. When we're doing training peacetime in the Army, it is purely just training. Even if it's a live-fire exercise, there's no real enemy. Here, all the threats are very real. You've got the elements that are a threat and then you've got the unknown with every contact that's out here on the sea with them. For the Marine Corps representative, it was a lesson that will broaden his perspective in the classroom. If my role at the War College was simply to teach Marine Corps operations or Huey and Cobra helicopter operations, then I could do that right from the first minute I walked aboard the campus. But certainly our role is much broader than that. As a military faculty, I'm teaching officers of the whole Joint Service and teaching them military history and operational planning to take back to the operating forces, not just the fleet. It's these types of engagements that advance the college's mission of developing joint leaders, prepared to meet the operational and strategic challenges of today and tomorrow. We like to say we train as we fight, and we fight joint now, completely joint, to include the Coast Guard of course. And so the more we can train and do bilateral type of operations or multi-service operations, the better. The more we get to know each other, the more we understand how each other operate, the more we can communicate with each other, talk each other's language and have a deeper appreciation for what each service brings to the table. The better off the U.S. is going to be and the better coordinated we will be going into any sort of mission or fight. Reporting from U.S. Coast Guard, Cutter, Seneca, I'm Dan Marciniak.