Brick By Brick

The first time someone arrives in Ft. Leavenworth, there are two things any newcomer notices immediately:

1. There are trees everywhere -- almost more so than any other place in Kansas.
2. Almost every building (especially in the eastern part of the post) is made of red brick.

So, as the post's beautiful buildings lay on their pure, green lawns against the blue sky, the fort looks very picturesque. The blocks of red and white houses are lined with trees, which sometimes block the buildings from view.

Fortunately, the Kansas weather has been consistently mild (and it looks like it will stay that way), and walking around Ft. Leavenworth today was a pleasure.

After leaving Lawrence around 10 this morning (or 1000 hours, military time), a few of us from Lawrence drove to KCI to pick up the rest of the participants. There are 17 of us, including journalists from all over the country and one from the UK.

Since my group came in before noon, we were able to make it to Ft. Leavenworth (A.K.A., "the post") by 1400 hours. This gave us plenty of time to walk around the post or to do whatever we wanted.

Just walking around Ft. Leavenworth, I completely forgot that I was on a military base. The occasional signs pointing me to the CAC, CGSC, etc. and military personnel walking around in uniform were my only reminders.

It was a beautiful day to explore this beautiful base.

The post has quite a unique and long-standing history.

Obviously, I can't go into all of its history, but I will share the things that I thought were the most interesting.

For instance, Colin Powell, Eisenhower, George Patton, Custer, Sumner, and Grant have all stayed or lived at Ft. Leavenworth.

In fact, the building I am staying in (which is has really nice VIP suites) was where Ike stayed while he was studying here.

Ft. Leavenworth is about 8 square miles or more than 5,000 acres. There are more than 10,000 people on base, and that includes both military personnel and civilians. The post is under the command of a 3-star general, and hosts the Army's "Intellectual Center." (I'll talk more about that tomorrow.)

The US Army founded the post in 1827, and it is one of the oldest communities (if not the oldest) in Kansas. It hosts the two oldest houses in Kansas, the Rookery (1827) and the White House (1841). Most of the post is part of the National Historic Landmark District. There are also a few houses there, called "Syracuse Houses," which were constructed in Syracuse, NY and floated down the river to Ft. Leavenworth.

At one point, the post was the capitol of the Kansas territory when Kansas' first governor came to the territory.

And, as an old community, there are several "ghosts" that haunt the post. On our evening walking tour of the post, we passed several houses that were supposedly haunted. The most famous Ft. Leavenworth ghost is the "Black Lady," who is supposed to read children bedtime stories and do the dishes for the residents.

As our tour guide told us, there is a certain "spirituality" about this place. He meant that the 'spirits' of the past continue to live on in this community because its residents can still feel their effects even now. The legacies of the leaders who helped build the post inspire those who will come after them.

So far, I have enjoyed every minute of my experience with MilJo. While I am the youngest of the participants, I know that there are many things that I can learn from my fellow journalists and from those stationed on the post.

I hope you are all enjoying the blog so far. I am still trying to figure out a slideshow program, but I hope that the next post will have more visuals.