written in Arabic. Throughout the space, there were interactive displays of Army uniforms, body armor, rifles, and night-vision equipment. “They really try to recreate what our soldiers are dealing
with over in Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Jennifer Chagnon, director of national sales for GES, AUSA’s general contractor. “They bring pieces of that back to our displays.” Elsewhere on the show floor, the war was brought home even more direct- ly in Warrior’s Corner, where soldiers told a story — their own story — about life in the Army. This year included Warrior’s Corner broadcasts from active-duty troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, which were “a way to humanize what’s taking place in the daily life of these individuals,” Chagnon said. “Of course you weren’t able to do that 10 years ago, because you didn’t have real-life stories.”
On the Home Front The wars have also left their mark on AUSA’s programming, which is geared toward soldiers and their families, and which increasingly has focused on the spiderweb of effects resulting from the Army cycle of deployment, combat, and homecom- ing. “We’ve often talked, as we should, about the great stress and strain that a decade of war has placed upon our soldiers, placed upon their families, and that’s still true,” Secretary of the Army John McHugh said during a keynote address at AUSA 2011’s opening ceremony. “We’re still at war. We work diligent- ly every day to try to make certain they get what they need, to get it when they need it, that we give them all the support they require to build resilience and all the care that’s necessary when they come home.”
On_the_Web For more information about the AUSA Annual Meeting & Exposition, visit www .ausa.org/meetings/2011/annual.
This year’s show included sessions from AUSA’s Institute
of Land Warfare on “Our Leaders’ Challenge: Taking Care of Soldiers and Families in an Era of Persistent Conflict,” “Army Power and Energy: Enhancing Mission Effectiveness, While Preserving Future Choices,” and “The All-Volunteer Force: Adapting Leader Development and Personnel Strategies for the Future.” And there were four Military Family Forums, all of them well attended, which brought together “a number of ex- perts, both inside and outside of the Army, about support for Army families,” Thompson said. “In this war, the families have carried a huge burden, with their military family members hav- ing been deployed three to five to six times. Those families real- ly deserve a lot of credit.” Chagnon, who has worked the show for GES since 2003,
added: “From an outsider’s perspective, there’s really a focus on Army families. I’ve heard from some folks that have been in the military for a number of years that that’s really been a transition.” That aspect has also registered with Smith, who has worked AUSA for the last five years. “[Soldiers in the Army] have been at war for 10 years, so they are coming home,” he