Intense Competition Marks End of Combatant Command Seminar

By Daniel L. Kuester, U.S. Naval War College Public Affairs
Nov. 5, 2014

NEWPORT, R.I. – U.S. Naval War College (NWC) President Rear Adm. P. Gardner Howe III presented the Adm. James G. Stavridis Award for Excellence in Theater Strategic Planning to the top seminar group of the first trimester, Nov. 5, as part of the capstone event for students enrolled in the intermediate level Theater Security Decision Making course.

The winning team included: Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Delacruz, Lt. Cmdr. Debra King, Lt. Cmdr. Joseph McGettigan, Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Post, Lt. Timothy Reardon, Lt. Cmdr. Todd Zentner, Army Maj. Thomas Carroll, Army Maj. Dennis Pineault, Air Force Maj. Lisa Corley, Marine Corps Maj. William Walsh, Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Thomassen (Norway), Lt. Dobrin Vasilev (Bulgaria), Lt. Murad Zeynalli (Azerbaijan) and Thomas Medder.

Team leader Delacruz said focusing on macro-level world issues may have helped them with the judges.

“We were looking at Europe and looked at what is happening now with the Ukraine crisis, focusing on what we thought would be the issues eight years from now” he said. ”We didn’t want to react to what was happening today. We wanted to focus and shape things in the future.”

For the students enrolled in the course, it was an intense, two-week struggle to prepare for the final exercise.

What started with 23 seminar groups was winnowed down to a final five.

That’s when the real competition for the Stavridis prize began, with each of the final groups presenting before a panel of judges composed of senior representatives from the five major combatant commands.

“The students actually briefed the actual person who would receive an actual briefing like this,” said David Cooper, chair of the national security affairs department and course professor. “It was a great learning opportunity.”

To keep judging consistent, the groups from each command were presented with the same problem.

“They are all working towards the same objectives,” said James Cook, associate professor of national security affairs and course director. “What they cover within the products is pretty broad and is a result of their own assessment and their own deliberations.

“The differences between presentations vary greatly and are a product of creativity, experience, research and the mastery shown by each group. To some extent, they pick the topics and they pick the points of emphasis, but it is very standardized as to what the deliverables are.”

According to Cooper, the judges look for completeness and cooperation among the students.

“We are looking for the whole package,” he said. “Have they thought creatively but shown they are being realistic? Do they back up the assertions with analysis? We ask for forecasts and see if the main tenets of theater strategy address those. We look at capability gaps and also the implementation process that they recommend. Finally, does it all come together?”

The panel judges included Air Force Brig. Gen. Steven W. Oliver, U.S. Africa Command; Army Col. Ronald Tucker, U.S. Central Command; Capt. James R. Raimondo, U.S. European Command; Air Force Col. Douglas E. Sevier, U.S. Pacific Command; and Steven Wetze, U.S. Southern Command.

Photo Credit: NEWPORT, R.I. (Nov. 5, 2014) Army Capt. Winfield Pinkstaff, a U.S. Naval War College (NWC) Theater Security Decision Making (TSDM) student, participates in a group panel discussion with classmates during the TSDM final exercise and course capstone. The TSDM final exercise requires students to demonstrate their ability to provide an executive-level strategic estimate of the future security environments over the next eight years; develop an outline of a theater strategy that defends U.S. national interests; and determine what capabilities are needed to implement the strategy. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist James E. Foehl/Released)