３月の例会には、ミズーリ州セントルイス出身の新進気鋭で在札幌米国総領事館勤務のカール・ホジソン大尉・兼海外地域指揮官（ミズーリ州立大・陸軍士官学校卒）をお招きし、講演会を開催しました。演題は「海外地域担当者としての私」。北海道と日本文化、外交、異文化体験についてパワーポイントを使用し、日本語で語って頂きました。上智大学にも在籍経験のあるカールさんは、空手、柔道にも精通されておられ異文化コミュニケーターでもあります。

Our guest speaker Captain Carl Emery Hodgson is a native of Saint Louis, Missouri. After graduating from the University of Missouri in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, he attended Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in November 2008.　Currently, he works as a Foreign Area Officer (48H-Northeast Asia) at U.S. Consulate General in Sapporo. As he also attended Sophia University, he がgave a talk in Japanese with visual materials.

Carl Hodgson ’s talk centered around his home State Saint Louis, Missouri–home of the famous jazz music St. Louis  blues, the professional baseball team the Cardinals, Bud Wiser Beer, Arch and other places of interest.    He is a great athlete in Karate and judo. We also happily found that he was  a tough rugby player.

What interested the audience was his :1) initial encounter with Japan and the Japanese language(He learned it while he was studying at Sophia University and took the Japanese Language Basic Course in Yokohama.).  One photo was taken  at the Imperial House; and 2)  military experiences and careers in Texas where he served as a Platoon Leader and Executive Officer until October 2012, including an OEF deployment to Afghanistan in 2011-2012.  He served as the battalion plans officer until September 2014 in Hawaii. He has obtained many military awards –which include the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Expert Infantryman’s Badge, Ranger Tab, and Basic Parachutist Wings.

His military education includes the Infantry Officer Basic Course, Airborne School, Ranger School, Maneuver Captain’s Career Course, Mechanized Leaders Course, Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course, Mountain Leader Course and Mountain Leader Course and the Japanese Language Basic Course.

We wish him well and the best of luck in the future!