The 2013 Sandhurst Military Stakes is now history and from my perspective it was a tremendous success! Feedback from the participants has been overwhelmingly positive; for this we are grateful. The Department of Military Instruction (DMI) is currently recovering from the event by cleaning and turning in equipment, conducting after action reports, assessing our own performance and recording lessons learned. We are already brain-storming possibilities and training scenarios for Sandhurst 2014. So far, we've tentatively scheduled next year's event for 18-19 April 2014 and we seek to capitalize-and improve on this year's successes.
To the Friends and Supporters of the 2013 Sandhurst Military Skills Competition: Many thanks for your support, presence, good wishes and feedback, we greatly appreciate it! We sincerely hope we can count on your continued support.
To the 2013 Sandhurst Competitors: Well done! Congratulations on your successful participation! You should all be justly proud of what you have accomplished. Special congratulations and best wishes to the Squad Leader and Cadets from the United Kingdom's Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst (Blue Team) for being the overall winners. All the officers, NCOs and staff within DMI were very impressed with your performance.
You will recall that the intended outcomes for this competition were:
1. Leader Development
2. Show-casing Military Skills and Excellence
3. Building Relationships and Camaraderie
4. Winning
We greatly appreciated all the effort that you devoted to preparing for this event. We saw a lot of determination, skill, hustle, grit, tenacity and esprit-de-corps. DMI also took notice of the great teamwork, exceptional military excellence, warrior ethos and a high level of physical fitness..but most importantly we saw effective LEADERSHIP. We saw young squad leaders leading and making decisions, and prevailing when placed in tough situations. That, alone, is what pleased us and impressed us the most.
DMI purposely designed the competition to be mentally and physically challenging. We wanted to test you and draw you out of your comfort zone. We also wanted to present you with complex problems to solve in an ambiguous environment. You've met our challenge and we salute you. Please review our intended outcomes, which are listed in the order of their priority, and do not overly focus on #4 (Winning). Granted, we all wish to do well and
win, but that is not the sole focus. If you learned something about leadership, improved your military skills and met some other cadets from other schools and other nations you have succeeded! And if you were not satisfied with your performance, please do not dwell on it or being discouraged. But rather conduct a self assessment, adjust your training,
improve your tactics and fitness, and increase your effort. I challenge you to improve and come back next year for another try. Rest assured DMI will again seek to challenge you and provide you another leader development opportunity.
Again, the entire DMI staff offers its highest compliments and sincerest congratulations to all participants...very well done! Your participation has already made you better future leaders.
Best wishes and good luck,
DMI 6