My Introduction to my History Class

The following is my introduction to the class of an online history course I am taking. The course is Research Methods in History. Supposedly, we will learn all about what historians do for a living. The school is American Public University.

Greetings, 

My name is Tony Howard and I am a civilian employee at the US Army Signal Center at Fort Gordon, GA. I am originally from North Carolina, but after 23 years in the Army, Fort Gordon is where I ended up, so my wife and decided to settle down in Augusta, Georgia.

I had a lot of memorable experiences in the Army, but what stands out most are my experiences overseas. We particularly enjoyed Germany—I did three tours there—two in the south and one in the north. I was serving in a unit on the East-West border in 1989 when the Berlin Wall opened up. We also spent some time in Izmir, Turkey—and were there when 9/11 happened. Travelling was what I enjoyed best about the Army.
I’m a reader—always got a book going. I try to keep abreast of a lot of things. For instance, in history, I’m interested in American History, Military History (especially from the Korean War to the present), the Civil War, Biography (military leadership), and Church History. I’m a novice blogger also, still trying to learn how to write and post stuff that others might find interesting. Two years into it and I’m still learning.

My time in service allowed me to travel and see a lot of places. Those of a particular “historical” nature include Jonathan Edward’s grave in Northampton, Mass.; the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial, In Luxembourg. General Patton’s grave is there because he wanted to be buried with his men); and the Berlin Wall—checkpoints, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. I actually got to tour a part of East Berlin and part of my work, at the time, required me to interface with Soviet soldiers.

Among the factors that led to my decision to major in (military) history are my current job and the fact that I went to school before and didn’t quite finish and didn’t really like what I had chosen—International Business. As I mentioned, I work for the Army. I am a concepts and doctrine writer working with the capabilities development and integration directorate at the Signal Center of Excellence. As a writer of military doctrine, military history seemed the right course of study to major in. It means taking more courses than if I had simply tried to finish the work required for a degree in international business. But I decided that it was important for me to really enjoy what I was learning. (And, now that I have finished COLL 100 [a mandatory first class in the fundamentals of online learning], I am).


Sincerely,

Tony Howard