Midrats: Episode 135: "Olmsted, Junior Officers, and the Pacific," August 5 on Blog Talk Radio

Foreign language and living experience? Does it make for better officers and help form relations with those in other societies?

We'll discuss it this Sunday - Episode 135: Olmsted, Junior Officers, and the Pacific 08/05 by Midrats on Blog Talk Radio:

In times of peace, no other service has a more sustained presence overseas, and a requirement for a deeper understanding of the parts of the world we sail in, than the Navy. In wartime, double it.

Military officers see the world differently than diplomats. Working with their counterparts in other nations, they also gain an understanding of a nation's culture that is distinctly different than those of a civilian. You cannot truly understand a nation until you live in it and study it, and the time to start is when you are young.

Join Sal from "CDR Salamander" and me to discuss one of the most underrated intellectually strategic resources we have in the Navy is our Olmsted Scholars program, and our show today will be a broad ranging panel discussion not only about the Olmsted program, but the role of the Naval Officer in a broader sense in our dealings with other nations on the personal level.

We will also talk about their impressions of the nations they served in, and what it informs us about the Pacific in the second decade of the 21st Century and beyond.

Our panel will be:
- Lieutenant Joshua Kristenson, USN; Olmsted Class Of 2009--Beijing, China;
- Lieutenant Matthew D. Myers, USN; Olmsted Class Of 2009--New Delhi, India;
- Lieutenant Olivia K. Degenkolb, USN; Olmsted Class Of 2013--Hanoi, Vietnam;
- Captain Gary J. Sampson, USMC; Olmsted Class Of 2009—Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Listen live (or download later) here or on our iTunes page.