CGSC was a fun time for the Bradens. Fort Leavenworth was very accommodating to CGSC students, and the school was quite a change from the troop units in that it was a mostly relaxed time for reflection and fellowship.

Of course there were the overachievers, students who were actively seeking to win the Marshall Award as the Number One person in the class of something like 900 students. Most students agreed that it would look nice in their records, but that it wasn't worth the effort.

The student body was broken into about sixteen sections of 60 students each. As might be expected, each section took on its own personality. Fortunately we had a really good section leader who recognized that students had responsibility to learn just like instructors had responsibility to teach, so our section - much for the better - never had we/they issues with the faculty.

Bonnie and I had great neighbors in our court of government housing there on the base. We had court parties and tended to do a lot of things together.

Leavenworth was an interesting post. With the prison there we had the benefit of inmate trustees bagging groceries at the commissary and also mowing the lawns. Plus the inmates had small activities for vocational training such as wood finishing that made for good purchases.

Leavenworth was also the place where Karen took an interest in swimming. I recall getting her to practice at 5:30 a.m. so she could work out with the team before school each day. And we spent a lot of weekends at swim meets, often spending most of the time cheering on the team and Karen in the three or so events that she would be in.

I found the time to meet with a group of students interested in Army training issues, and linked up with fellow student Paul Baerman to co-author about five articles on training and operations. About four of these articles were published in Military Review, the CGSC publication. Other articles were published in Engineer Magazine.

Despite not working to be the Honor Graduate, I did get straight As in all the CGSC subjects, making me an Honor Graduate, one of about 20 in the class, and this fact was marked prominently on my Academic Evaluation Report.