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Distance learning center opens at FOB Kalsu

Deployed soldiers assigned to Forward Operating Base Kalsu southwest of Baghdad now have a dedicated place where they can work quietly on their education courses using the Army’s distance learning programs.

The FOB Kalsu Distance Learning Center was opened for business May 4, according to a Multi-National Division-Center press release, and has 20 computers where soldiers can work on their military or college courses.

Soldiers can complete a variety of online courses to help gain points for promotion through the Army Correspondence Course Program, and they have access to a number of college education programs as part of the Noncommissioned Officer Education System.

Soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan have had to defer such courses because of a lack of computer availability, creating an education bottleneck for soldiers who have redeployed.

The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command has increased the number of distance learning programs as computer centers, like the one at FOB Kalsu, have become more ubiquitous in the war zones.

Unlike an Internet café, where soldiers usually have to wait to get onto a computer only to face a 30-minute limit, the new distance learning center at Kalsu allocates soldiers two hours each week to work on their studies, the release said.

“Soldiers can sign up for a two-hour block up to a week in advance,” Lt. Col. John Chadbourne, commander of 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division said in the release.

The center will be open seven days a week from noon to midnight.