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  • Eye-opening' trip takes civic leaders overseas

    'Eye-opening' trip takes civic leaders overseas
    By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian
    26 Sept 04



    The C-17 fell 20,000 feet in the space of 60 seconds.

    Then it dropped 13,000 more feet in 30 seconds.

    "My stomach's still somewhere over Guam," said Bryan Ardouny of
    Missoula, who was on the U.S. military flight. "If you hadn't heeded
    their request and strapped in your briefcase, it was floating 10 feet
    in the air and heading for the front of the plane."


    The C-17 crew had asked the 50 civilians on board if they minded
    participating in a tactical descent landing.

    "They told us it was an exercise," Ardouny, a real estate agent for
    Lambros Realty, said. "When a C-17 is flying in with cargo in a war
    area, oftentimes they come in under hostile fire, so they have to
    practice coming in fast and hard. They asked us first, and not exactly
    knowing all the details, we said yes."

    Ardouny participated in the Defense Department's Joint Civilian
    Orientation Conference earlier this month. The weeklong program has
    brought together 50 civic leaders from around the country every year
    since 1948 to inform them about national defense issues.

    Ardouny was nominated in his capacity as executive director of the
    Armenian American Political Action Committee.

    Other participants included the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts,
    the mayor of Yuma, Ariz., the CEOs of Jelly Belly Candy Co. and Vail
    Resorts, the head of a Spokane credit union and the president of a
    sand and gravel company in Rapid City, S.D.

    "It was eye-opening in two ways," Ardouny said. "One, we all hear
    about Iraq and Afghanistan, but I don't think people are aware of the
    defense of this country taking place in the Pacific. And two, it's
    amazing to see these young people, in their early 20s, how
    well-trained they are, how articulate they are, and confident, and
    really dedicated to fulfilling whatever mission they're assigned to,
    whether they're a guard at a gate or the pilot of a plane or on the
    crew of an aircraft carrier. It really left an impression on me."

    The group met in Hawaii on Sept. 11, and went on to Korea, Japan,
    Singapore and Guam as they visited bases for the Army, Navy, Air
    Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

    The goal of the program "is to reach individuals who have neutral,
    negative, or unformed opinions on DOD or the U.S. military" according
    to the Department of Defense. Participants pay a registration fee and
    for their transportation to and from the conference's origination
    point.

    Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, briefed the
    group on threats facing the United States.

    "The Pacific Command is becoming a center of gravity for security
    measures," Ardouny said. "Especially when you look at North Korea
    possibly developing the technology to reach the U.S. with nuclear
    weapons."

    He was also struck by "how the Coast Guard is really on the front line
    in helping to secure our ports, patrolling shipping lanes, doing cargo
    container inspections, making sure what happened on the USS Cole
    doesn't happen again."

    Ardouny occasionally worked on issues important to Armenian Americans
    while serving as legal counsel for U.S. Rep. Michael Bilirakis,
    R-Fla., and later was deputy executive director and director of
    government relations at the Armenian Assembly of America in
    Washington, D.C.

    The West Palm Beach, Fla., native and graduate of Hofstra University
    and California Western School of Law moved to Missoula 18 months ago
    to be closer to family.

    His grandparents escaped the Armenian genocide in what is present-day
    Turkey in 1915 and came to America.

    Armenia, which gained its independence in 1991 with the collapse of
    the Soviet Union, is a Christian and democratic country surrounded by
    Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

    The political action committee he directs works with politicians on
    both sides of the aisle, he said, on issues important to Armenian
    Americans.

    "Like any American, they're worried about taxes, health care,
    education and affordable housing," Ardouny said.

    But they're also concerned with Turkey's blockade of Armenia. Turkey
    supported Azerbaijan, which engaged in ethnic cleansing of Armenians
    in Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia won a five-year war to take control of
    the territory inside Azerbaijan's borders, and a fragile cease-fire
    exists.

    Ardouny's PAC works to educate politicians about the situation there,
    and hopes the United States will lean on Turkey to end the blockade.

    Ardouny, who left for a conference in Armenia on Saturday, said his
    participation in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference should help
    as Armenia seeks American assistance and training for its military.

    Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 523-5260 or at
    [email protected]
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