My stay at the Spanish Army Infantry Academy at Toledo had come to an end.  These were incredible four weeks, and every day spent at the Academy was a great learning experience for me.  I audited a fair number of classes for their cadets, which were similar to classes taught at our Infantry Officer Basic Courses, and got a chance to listen to classes for their infantry captains attending a transition course.  In the mornings I spent an hour teaching in English classes like Military Decision Making Process, Targeting, or Troop Leading Procedures to the cadets, and in the afternoon I taught the same classes to those faculty members of the Academy that desired to improve their English skills and their knowledge of our staff procedures.  During this month spent at the Academy my knowledge of the Spanish Army improved tremendously, as well as my level of military Spanish.  I have established contacts and friendships within the Spanish Officer corps that will last me a lifetime.  I also got a chance to conduct a daily physical training with the cadets, and I have to admit that I am quite impressed with the level of their physical fitness.  I was able to take part in a Field Training Exercise, and had an opportunity to become intimately familiar with their basic infantry weapon systems, such as H&K G-36 rifle, and their H&K MG2 light machinegun.

On my last two days at the Academy, as my parting gift for the cadets, I gave them an opportunity to try to pass our Army Physical Fitness Test and those deserving cadets who have met the standards will be awarded the US Army Physical Excellence Badge in a near undetermined future.  Sometime in April, I will coordinate for an alternate qualification range, where the cadets will get a chance to qualify with their weapons according to the US Army standards, and these who will meet the standards, will be awarded an Expert qualification badge.

On 6^th of March 2011, I will be flying to Poland, where I will spend 12 days in a staff certification exercise.  The purpose of this exercise is to prepare a Polish Army Brigade staff for their deployment to Afghanistan.  I will have a chance to use my language skills, combat experience and staff experience in order to help prepare better our allies for their upcoming rotatation.  I am really looking forward to this.

Last week I have started attending the Spanish Army Infantry Academy in Toledo.  It is an incredible experience, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who will be doing a FAO In Country Training in Spain in the future.  Originally I was supposed to be there in a character of a student, but during my initial briefing with the dean of studies I found out that the academy had quite different plans for me.  I will be auditing some classes such as tactics, international relations, military history, and actually help out with the English classes for both the students and the faculty.  The faculty of the Academy is very happy to have me there, because it is really hard for them to find native English speakers in order to practice speaking English.   I am happy to announce that my attendance at the Academy will be mutually beneficial for myself and the Academy faculty who will get a chance to improve their English as I am improving my Spanish.  So far I have audited some classes at the Academy and I have helped out with English for both cadets and the faculty.  I am also actively participating in the Physical Fitness Training with the cadets – which honestly is harder than I expected.

Last Monday was a big day for the Academy.  The Commanding General of the Academy, just recently got promoted to Brigadier General, and on Monday 6^th February 2012 there was a ceremony to award him his general’s sash.  The ceremony was very interesting to see; I was very impressed with the whole event.  One Wednesday, 8^th February 2012, I had an opportunity to participate in an official visit of the West Point Military Academy superintendent LTG Huntoon and listened to the main briefing given to him by the Academy staff.  Although by the time of his visit I have already been three days in the Academy, this briefing and the follow on tour of the premises gave me a great insight on the Academy.  LTG Huntoon took a special interest in the concept of women in the Spanish Infantry, and praised the Spanish Army for their efforts in gender integration.

On Thursday I got a chance to participate in a conference in CESEDEN - Centro Superior de Estudios de la Defensa Nacional (Superior Center of the National Defense Studies).  The conference was about the nuclear potential of the North Korea and Iran, and was extremely informative.  The retired general who was the main speaker during the conference, Major General Guillermo Velarde Pinacho was a subject matter expert and was an incredible speaker.  The CESEDEN has actually made this briefing obligatory for all majors, both foreign and domestic, who are attending their Staff College there.  There was a social following the conference, but I did not establish any new contacts during that social.

Next week, in addition to my regular classes that I will be auditing or giving, I will have a chance to go out to Badajoz Training Grounds (near the border with the Portugal) with the faculty, and actually observe the cadets during their Field Training Exercise.  It should be a great experience. On Monday I will be teaching a class on IPB to the faculty of the Academy, in English, in order to help them improve their language skills.  I am supposed to teach a different staff planning process class to the faculty every day.

My last day at the Academy will be 5^th of March 2012.  

My goal for the week following the trip to Turkey was to catch up on administrative matters.  It still costs me a great deal to use the DTS and APACS systems, but I am learning fast to become more proficient with it.  While in Turkey, I caught some kind of virus, which I readily passed onto the rest of my family that was with me on that trip.  Nevertheless, on Saturday we went to visit the Spanish city of Avila, which also serves as the capital of the Avila province.  Avila was founded in 5^th Century BC and is located approximately 120 km Northeast of Madrid.  The city is famous for its city walls, which remain intact since the 11^th century, and it is also one of the cities with the highest ratio of churches to its inhabitants in Spain.

On Saturday night, I had a chance to experience the Spanish Army Military Hospital emergency room, as I took my one-year-old there.  One of the surprising things about the Gomez Ulla Military Hospital that I discovered, is that it actually serves mostly the community that it located in, and there are only a few military personnel that still use its medical services.  Apparently, two years ago the hospital was incorporated into the civilian public health care network.  Although it is still mostly manned by military personnel, its patients are the citizens of the Madrid’s districts of Latina and Carabanchel.

I got a chance to become intimately familiar with the Emergency Room there.  The following day I took my one-year-old there again, and this time he was admitted as an in-patient.  For three days I was able to experience the level of care given to the little patients of the Military Hospital, and I have to admit that it was great.

Thursday, following my extended stay at the Military Hospital, was quite busy.  I found out that in order for me to Observe and Control (OC) the Bagram exercise with the Polish Army, I need to attend the “Train the Trainer” session in Poland in order to get certified as an OC.  After receiving a verbal authorization for the trip I coordinated for my 6 day visit to Poland.  That same day I went to the Conference sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Defense.  The conference was about the Effects of Arab Spring in the North of Africa on the European Union and the NATO, and the material was presented by the Spanish SEGENPOL, or the General Secretary of the Defense Politics.  Alejandro Alvargonzález San Martín has been nominated for that position by the new Spanish president only a week earlier, yet he was able to present the current Spanish policy towards the countries affected by the Arab Spring in a very informative and well researched manner.  Everyone who was anyone in the Spanish Defense community was present at the conference, to include three representatives of the American Office of Defense Cooperation.  Following the conference there as a social which gave me an opportunity to expand my personal network and trade business cards with Spaniards.

On Monday, I received a security briefing at the US Embassy in Warsaw, and I departed via train to Miedzyrzecz, the home of the Polish Army 17^th Mechanized Brigade.  This unit provided the bulk of the OC personnel for the certification process of the deploying unit.  I was pleasantly surprised by the level of professionalism displayed by the American instructors from the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC).  Given an extremely short notice they were able to put together a training package to prepare the Polish OCs for the upcoming training that was both valuable and pertinent.  I was also impressed by our Polish partners, who received the training entirely in English – yet they actively participated in classes, asked questions and contributed to the overall quality of training through their valuable insights and experience.  The facility designated for training and the reception by the Polish Army was outstanding as well.  On Wednesday, at the conclusion of the day’s training I organized a historical trip for the American crew to the German bunker system that was supposed to protect Berlin from the Soviet advance.  The bunkers are connected by a network of 100 kilometers of underground tunnels complete with an electric train, they have all the support facilities, and were designed to be almost entirely self sufficient, with their own water system, plumbing, heating and electricity generation.  These fortifications were designed to be manned by 21,000 military personnel and are the second largest in Europe.

The weekend following my return from Poland I went to visit the Royal Palace in Madrid.  The Palace was first constructed in 9^th century by the Muslims and was designed as a defensive castle.  Destroyed by fire in 1734, it was rebuilt by the Spanish King Felipe V and designated as the Royal Palace.  The Palace is still officially listed as his Majesty the King residence, although the King no longer lives there; the palace is used for hosting official events though.  It is also open to public as the part of the Spanish National Heritage.

Today is a big day for me.  In August I shipped my motorcycle to Spain from New Jersey, I shipped it at a personal expense.  It arrived to Barcelona in September, and I was very naïve to think that to pick it up from customs would be as easy as sending it to Spain.  Two months and couple of thousand of Euros later I finally collected all the documents necessary to pick my bike up from the customs.  It turns out that registering the bike in Spain is a task in itself, and it extremely time consuming.  So today, I will finally pick up my Harley from the shop that worked on it to ensure that it meets the Spanish technical requirements.  I should be able to finally pass the technical inspection, and if everything goes right I should even be able to finally register it.  Although I don’t keep my hopes up to high, since when it comes to Spanish bureaucracy, nothing ever goes right.

I am proud to report that I finally got my go ahead to audit the Spanish Major’s Course for a month – I am supposed to start attending the Infantry Academy in Toledo this week pending an official request from the Army Attaché in Madrid.