Cadets filmed in class for upcoming C-SPAN special

  • Published
  • By Amber Baillie
  • Academy Spirit staff writer
U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo. --  Some Academy cadets may soon find themselves a bit more popular now that a major network filmed them in class Feb. 26.

A C-SPAN film crew recorded the History 368 - World War II course, a study of the largest conflict in human history, for their upcoming "Lectures on History" series scheduled to be broadcast later this year on the www.c-span.org.

"The segment will showcase that the Academy isn't simply a military training facility but also a respected academic institution," said Lt. Col. Grant Weller, the History Department's deputy director and associate professor. "The people of America are going to see their investment is paying off in these young men and women. I think any graduate professor who watches the segment and sees the level of engagement of these cadets will say, 'those students could do graduate level work someday.'"

The event also gave cadets the opportunity to gain confidence when speaking in front of an audience, including a remote audience, Weller said.

"That's something they're going to have to get at some point in their careers and better now than later," he said. "The cadets really (grasped) the material. I'm more concerned about their ability to formulate a question than I am their ability to answer a question. I want them to be able to look at the material and say, 'I don't understand this' or 'OK, I understand it, but it raises other questions that need to be answered."

Through discussion and review,  10 cadets in the class completed their chronological survey of World War II with end of the Asia-Pacific War in front of a camera lens.

"This era is important because it's the largest conflict in human history," Weller said. "It forces cadets to stretch their minds and put themselves in another time and place. Historians call this historical empathy. Even if cadets don't do anything with academic history after the Academy, it's an important skill for any officer. The ability to go into a situation and try to put themselves in another person's shoes, be at a different culture and understand a problem from someone else's perspective is vital."

World War II affects the world we live in today, Weller said.

"When we get into the beginning of the Cold War, the Soviet-American rivalry will shape the rest of the 20th century," he said. "We still today have disputes with the Russians that can really only be explained by our historical conflict."

Next, the class is scheduled to read "War Without Mercy" by John Dower, a book examining how Americans and the Japanese came to see each other in terms of nation and race during the Pacific War.