FORT KNOX, Ky. — Four Fort Knox civilian employees stood together in the parking lot outside of the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation training building on May 7 with cue cards in hand.
They took turns discussing their part of an upcoming presentation; a pitch to Garrison leaders on how to make MWR training smoother and more efficient. With 22-plus years of government service under his belt in range maintenance at the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security, Whitson “Junior” Daley calmly went over his portion.
Inside the building, Junior’s son-in-law Nathan Reynolds sat in his own group, staring intently at cue cards and discussing his part of a different leadership challenge.
Both found themselves serendipitously attending the same Garrison Leadership Academy class. Both applied to the academy at different times for different reasons. Both walked away with some valuable lessons.
“I took a lot from the class,” said Nathan. “Being a younger leader, it was beneficial to me because I didn't know how a lot of this stuff worked. I was able to meet new faces, network with others, and figure out what everybody else does and a little about how they do it.
“Networking was one of the biggest benefits for me.”
Nathan said he nominated himself for the academy to gain valuable leadership skills.
“I was nervous going in, but I learned a lot. I learned to speak up, speak loudly and be able to talk [in front of people],” said Nathan. “I had a few hiccups in my presentation, but hey, I worked through them.”
Junior was supposed to go through the fall 2025 class, but the class was cancelled because of the government shutdown in October. Instructors moved him to the spring class, which happened to be the same class that Nathan was set to attend.
Junior agreed that networking was valuable but said having a better understanding of what leaders go through proved even more valuable.
“I've never been one to be easy on leadership,” said Junior. “So, now I'm a little more reserved. Now I have a little more sympathy for what leaders go through and how they must act.”
During the leadership academy, students participate in personality testing. The lesson reveals how they may often react differently to situations based on their personality.
The 16 participants are also broken down into four groups of four in preparation for their final project – presenting a leadership challenge they have agreed upon. Junior’s group decided on their topic quickly.
“I had a little insight on what to do going in, so I picked two or three different topics before I found out who was in my group, where they were from and what they did,” said Junior. “Things I wanted to talk about were related to equipment maintenance, but others weren’t dealing with those issues.”
Junior said they quickly settled on the training topic because it fit well with what they all were going through.
“We jumped on board immediately with it from day one and never wavered,” said Junior. “It was fantastic!”
Nathan had a different experience.
“We bounced around a few ideas. One was dealing with safety concerns,” said Nathan. “But we wanted to do something outside of all our work areas – something that everybody on post could relate to and know what we were talking about.”
The idea they landed on received the most feedback and intrigue from Garrison leaders during all the presentations: how to make Right Arm Night more enjoyable by streamlining the ordering process.
“We wanted to better their operations over at Saber & Quill so people could get in, hang out and enjoy their time,” said Nathan. “We wanted to do kind of what we did in this class: help people network with others.”
One of the biggest encouragers for the father and son-in-law duo has been Jamie Daley – Junior’s wife and Nathan’s mother-in-law. She attended the academy years before in preparation for taking over as manager of the Recycle Center.
“My class also got interrupted – because of the pandemic,” said Jamie. “We had attended three or four classes when it happened. By the time the class came back around, it had changed so much and there were so many people who didn’t return, they put us in new teams and started all over again.”
Jamie reflected on the personality tests, and the lessons that came from them.
“It’s interesting how we all go about things so differently,” said Jamie,” but we still have the same goal at the end.”
She also agreed with both men about the importance of networking.
“I'm several years past it now, but I still reach out to the people I went to Leadership Academy with if I have questions about stuff,” said Jamie. “It's almost like having an insider that you can call when you have a question or need guidance on something.”
Nathan said the academy is another in a long line of benefits he has enjoyed while working at the installation.
“It's just amazing to me how much Fort Knox has to offer.”