Ammo and Missiles and Rockets--Oh My!

The pen or the sword? Choices, choices, choices.

At the same time that 1,300 communicators gathered last week at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC for the 2005 IABC International Convention, attendees at another conference nearby were targeting another topic: firepower.

Yes, I missed the opportunity to attend "Firepower 2005: Guns, Rockets, Missiles, Ammo," just because I lean more toward the pen than the sword. I learned about the Firepower conference when my flight home was delayed a day. I stayed at a Doubletree hotel near the airport, and spotted the Firepower literature on a table. I nearly cried when I realized what I had missed!

- A birds-eye view of the Armed Forces strategic and ballistic Missile Defense programs
-An understanding of the role of weapons systems in future battlefield supremacy
-How the U.S. Armed Forces is evolving into a joint tactical fighting force
-Compelling case studies of some of DoD's premiere weapons programs

Any program that includes sessions on both high-power electromagnetic radiators (nonlethal directed energy weapons) AND 155mm Howitzers has to be a party!

I was a little worried about the quote from Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that appeared on the cover of the conference brochure:

Our strategy to go after the Army is very, very simple. First we are going to cut it off, and then we're going to kill it.

Hmm...which Army did he mean? Is he a former Navy guy?