Fort Leavenworth(Leavenworth Times) ROTC commanders training future leaders: Training tomorrow’s military leaders with the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps is a natural job for Lt. Col. Robert Gardner. He began his military career in 1984 as a college student and became an active-duty officer in 1987, serving at a number of locations around the globe. Now, after 23 years of service, Gardner is retiring from a decorated military career that most recently included training cadets at the Missouri Western State University’s ROTC program. Gardner, a Lansing native and an active duty officer at Fort Leavenworth, has commanded the “Pony Express Battalion” for three years. “I’m fortunate to end where I began – with ROTC,” Gardner said. The Pony Express Battalion includes ROTC cadets from Alpha Company at MWSU; Bravo Company at North Western Missouri State; Charlie Company at University of Missouri at Kansas City; and Delta Company at Benedictine College. Park University, Rockhurst University and William Jewell College ROTC programs work through Charlie Company at UMKC.[(KSWO.com) Rebuilding Iraq begins in Lawton:][2] A lieutenant colonel from Fort Sill headed to Iraq as part of a U.S. State Department rebuilding mission is getting ideas for his mission from local governments. Lt. Col. Jeff Madison, who recently came to Fort Sill from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., said the mission he’s getting ready for will help build local governments in Iraq. “The biggest problem in Iraq is the central government controlled everything in the past,” Madison said. “We’re trying to get that control down to the local level to get local leaders involved in making decisions.” In order to make that happen, Madison is taking lessons he’s learned from observing everything from Monday’s county commissioners meeting to school board meetings to church councils. “It’s not my job to rebuild their province,” he said. “It’s to help them rebuild their province. I hope that the ideas I gather here will help them move toward that goal.” [1]: www.leavenworthtimes.com/articles/2007/06/25/news/news06.txt