The college provides graduate-level instruction for selected military, civilian and international officers to prepare them for strategic leadership assignments and responsibilities. Past alumni include Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton.   

The Harold Keith Johnson Chair, located in the Department of National Security and Strategy, is the college’s most prestigious visiting professorship. The chair holder conducts a seminar, “War, Policy and National Security,” in the fall, then teaches an elective in the spring.

“It’s a great honor,” said Krebs, who, along with his wife, will live in Carlisle for a year. His plans were in motion months before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Krebs said he confirmed his appointment in early April.

Krebs, a military historian, organized an international 2018 military history conference in Louisville that was attended by over 600 military historians. “For history, that’s a fairly big conference,” he laughed.

Afterward, a professor from the War College approached him about applying for the chair. But Krebs, who hails from Germany, declined because he was not yet a U.S. citizen.

That changed last year, and when the War College approached him again, “I said, ‘I am indeed a citizen now, so we can make this happen.’”

Krebs’ elective will address how prisoners of war impact strategic decision-making. Most of his research is related to this issue, which addresses what happens “after the battle,” as opposed to the “planning and crafting of operations.”

“I’ll try to teach them to think of POWs not just while in camp, their treatment,” he said, “but also about what kind of effect POWs have on war-making and the operational and strategic decision-making processes.”

UofL has a strong relationship with the U.S. Army and the education of soldiers. An Army War College Fellow has attended UofL annually for the last six years, an appointment that allows the officer to take classes to help broaden strategic thinking while spending time with university leadership.

In addition, the McConnell Center holds strategic broadening seminars for the Army during the summer months and hundreds of undergraduate ROTC cadets have earned the rank of second lieutenant through UofL.

Krebs has been at UofL since 2007. In addition to teaching military history, he specializes in colonial and revolutionary American history.

The War College’s Johnson Chair is a scholar-in-residence program for visiting professors to teach and conduct research on military history. It is named for Gen. Harold Keith Johnson, who served as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1964 to 1968.

In addition to teaching at the college, Krebs will have an opportunity to pursue individual research and writing projects.  

“It’s my first time on a civilian campus,” the West Point alumnus said. “I’ve been in a uniform school since I was 17. It’s a learning experience from the ground up for me.”

Jette, 43, a native of Norwich, Connecticut, is UofL’s fifth consecutive U.S. Army War College Fellow. He will audit six classes on Belknap Campus for the 2018-2019 school year while also performing outreach for the Army and participating in leadership activities.

The Army War College Fellow program helps Army leaders sharpen their skills and broaden their outlook as strategic thinkers. There are fellows in U.S. universities, U.S. government departments and government-funded agencies, think tanks and industries.

Jette graduated with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the United States Military Academy and commissioned as a Signal Corps Officer in 1996. He also earned a master’s of science degree in telecommunications management from the University of Maryland University College online.

The Army War College fellows are given an office in the McConnell Center to use for the year they are at UofL, and Jette said he shares some of the same concerns as the freshmen he met: “What classes are we taking? What building is it in?”

Jette’s first semester classes are in national security policy, digital politics and human resources leadership. He is considering using his fellow experience toward furthering his Army career in cybersecurity. He has spent the past two years at Fort Knox, where the Army’s human resources headquarters is located and where he was the branch chief responsible for the assignments and talent management of nearly 25,000 Signal Corps soldiers and noncommissioned officers.

The colonel has also been stationed in Germany, South Korea, Italy and Kuwait and served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He has numerous awards and decorations, including the prestigious Bronze Star.

Jette chose UofL because of his fondness for Louisville and the state of Kentucky, and after spending his adult lifetime moving from place to place, he decided he want to settle down and “spread some roots.” He became interested in applying for the fellowship after hearing about it from his friend Col. Archie S. Herndon Jr., who spent the 2016-2017 academic year as the UofL Army War College Fellow.

Although Jette has lived outside Louisville for the past two years and knows many of the city’s highlights, there’s still at least one thing he still wants to experience.

“Two years and I still haven’t had a hot brown,” he laughed.

Signed by the soldiers he served with during his first tour of Iraq, the map shows a refueling route between Kuwait and Baghdad that it was Herndon’s job to create. He returned two more times to Iraq and also served later in Afghanistan, for a total of 45 months served in the region.

The map represents “how the world has changed,” he said from his office in the center, where he described how difficult it was to procure a map at the time. Years later, in Afghanistan, maps popped up easily on computer displays.  “It amazes me,” said Herndon, whose many awards include a Bronze Star, a Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal and the Global War on Terror Service Medal.

Herndon’s U.S. Army journey has now brought him to the University of Louisville, where he is this year’s Army War College Fellow. His fall semester studies in criminal justice, international relations and talent acquisition reflect his broader interests in logistics and officer development.

In its third year at UofL, the Army War College Fellow program allows Army leaders to spend a year conducting research and outreach while auditing classes to sharpen their leadership skills and broaden their outlook as strategic thinkers. There are fellows in leading U.S. universities, U.S. government departments and government-funded agencies, think tanks and industry.

It is one of a series of programs put into place as part of UofL’s mission to “educate, employ and treat” members of the military, according to the Office of Military Initiatives and Partnerships.

The programs are successful: For the past six years, UofL has been named a “Military Friendly” university by G.I. Jobs magazine, and in 2015 was named “Best for Vets” by the Military Times newspaper group.

Military students (a category that includes active duty and veterans) made up 4 percent of the total student body enrolled in fall 2015, or 932 out of more than 22,000. The university keeps tabs on and improves services for those students through the military initiatives office and the Office of Military and Veteran Student Services.

Active duty military members attending UofL receive a special rate of $250 per credit hour, which ensures they can get a degree without paying out-of-pocket expenses. Other military-friendly programs and initiatives at UofL include:

• VetStart, a 10-week entrepreneurial class to help veterans open their own businesses that has graduated about 60 since 2012
• A campus at Fort Knox
• Strategic Broadening Seminars for Army leaders hosted by the McConnell Center
• A partnership between the Army and the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development that allows soldiers to work on a degree in higher education administration
• A partnership between the School of Public Health and Information Sciences and the Kentucky National Guard to assist the small African country of Djibouti
• Full graduate assistant scholarships offered to one military spouse annually for the past three years
• Masters of Social Work interns who work at Fort Knox offering free counseling for military families
• Army and Air Force ROTC programs

UofL’s history is filled with efforts aimed at educating members of the United States military. In spring of 1943, when UofL was struggling with budget cuts and enrollment issues due to World War II, it was reinvigorated when it won a Navy officer training program called V-12. 

The four barracks-style structures built to house the students became UofL’s  first dormitories. The V-12 program is even credited with making basketball a major UofL sport. The team was filled with high school basketball stars from all over the country, and the 1944-45 team set a new record at 16 wins, 3 losses.

Fast forward to 2016. Herndon, a logistics officer by training, said UofL was his first choice when he decided he wanted to be part of the Army War College Fellow program. The Texas native, who during his varied 22-year Army career has served at nearby Fort Knox, said he was attracted to the fellowship because of UofL’s reputation and because the city of Louisville is “a hidden gem.”

“I’m just very excited about this opportunity,” Herndon said.