Latest news with #HopeHotel
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'A risky endeavor.' How WPAFB set the stage for historic accords 30 years ago
May 5—On a dreary November evening in 1995, Richard Holbrooke, then an assistant U.S. secretary of state, had had enough. It was time to leave Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and end the attempt to hammer out peace accords between warring nations in the former Yugoslavia, Holbrooke had decided in frustration. Or at least, it was time to make it look that way. Holbrooke ordered his American delegation partners to pack their bags and place those bags outside the doors of their rooms at the Hope Hotel at Wright-Patterson, recalled John McCance, owner of McCance Consulting Group. McCance, then a spokesman for the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson, worked during the talks as an Air Force liaison to Nicholas Burns, a State Department spokesman. McCance had access to much of Wright-Patterson's Hope Hotel and the visiting officers quarters (VOQ), which had been transformed into diplomatic suites, home to the attempt to end a war between Croatia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. "The negotiations had broken down," McCance recalled. "It was a cold, wet, dreary November day. It was very disheartening to everybody — the base personnel, the State Department personnel, the news media." "Everybody was very invested in getting a solution," he said. But Holbrooke was a "master of theater," said Fran Leskovar, project manager for the Dayton Peace Accords Oral History project. Leskovar recalled how Holbrooke, an experienced diplomat, visited Belgrade during a NATO bombing campaign to show he wasn't afraid. He took steps intentionally, with an eye on how negotiators could be affected. "He was very good at controlling and producing a theater," he said. "That's who Richard Holbrooke was ... everything was just a theater setting." "It was very intentional," McCance said. "It was a tool to put pressure on the delegations." "They were told to pack their bags and put their bags outside the door," he added. "And then I went to meet with Nick (Burns) in the American delegation building, and there they were — all the bags were outside the doors of their rooms." The move had an impact. By Nov. 21, 1995, a draft agreement was finalized. It was signed less than a month later in Paris. Celebrating the talks and marking their approaching 30th anniversary are among the reasons the NATO Parliamentary Assembly's spring session will be held in downtown Dayton May 23 to 26. "As the birthplace of the Dayton Peace Accords, our city holds a special connection to Bosnia and the cause of lasting peace in the Balkans," U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, said in March. Turner, who was mayor of Dayton during the talks, is a former president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and serves as vice-chairman of the Defense and Security Committee of the assembly. 'A risky endeavor' Kevin Rusnak, chief historian for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson, said the base offered distinct strengths as a place to try to craft an agreement. "They thought that by isolating everyone and keeping the media, as it were, out of the negotiations, that would help the process," Rusnak said. Given the "relatively expeditious manner in which they reached an agreement, that part seemed to work pretty well," he said. Holbrooke wanted negotiations to happen in the United States. The base's physical environment provided what the State Department wanted. Wright-Patterson was secure, quiet, relatively isolated, yet rich with symbols of American power wherever delegates turned. Rusnak said other host site possibilities initially jostled for attention. The Camp David presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland were one option, but that site was perhaps most associated with the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. Rusnak said talks organizers wanted to avoid "historical muddying" of different moments. Paris, New York City, San Francisco or Washington, D.C. might have offered too many distractions. A relatively "austere" environment was felt to be right, Rusnak said. "Physical sequestration of the parties was really critical," he said, adding moments later: "It worked, right?" Holbrooke and others wanted a location about an hour's flight from Washington, Rusnak said. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. was on the list of possible sites. Langley Air Force Base, in Virginia, was seen as a front-runner, at one point. But Wright-Patterson emerged as the top choice. Presidential aircraft operated out of Wright-Patt. It was a quick flight from D.C. Advance teams checked sites in early October. On Oct. 13, an advance team visited Wright-Patt — and about five days later, the base was announced as the choice. Specifically, the Hope Hotel on Wright-Patterson's Area A — a "sort of off-base, but on-base" site, as Rusnak put it — would host the talks, just a short walk from the base VOQ, where dignitaries and support staff could relax and sleep. There was some surprise that the accords were to be held in Dayton at all. Serbian President Slobodan Milošević reportedly reacted to the choice by saying: "I am not a monk. You can't confine me to a military base." "The Europeans, used to negotiations in more opulent settings, literally had no idea where Dayton was, and expressed open unhappiness," Holbrooke wrote in his 1999 book on the talks, To End a War. There was skepticism, particularly among some of the Serbian and Bosnian leaders, said Fran Leskovar, project manager for the Dayton Peace Accords Oral History Project, which is collecting oral memories from retired and former diplomats who took part in those negotiations and implemented its terms. Leskovar and his colleagues plan to be in Dayton for the NATO parliamentary session. "Everybody expected it would happen in Geneva or Paris, and I think probably, I would argue, the Europeans were also not happy," Leskovar said of the peace talks. "So it was a risky endeavor." But the base was not an impediment. On the contrary, he said. "It was a strategic move to have it in Dayton," Leskovar said. "First of all, the base had capacity. All those buildings were easily available, and a lot of work was not required to convert them into a diplomatic headquarters." 'An American product' One message in holding the talks at an American military base was unmistakable, Leskovar said. "This is an American product," he said. "It has to happen here. We're involved. ... We're going to complete it." The ability to create "a base within a base" was "our biggest advantage there," Rusnak said. The base met the moment, he said. At a basic level, leaders wanted to fence off a secure area without making it seem that participants were imprisoned. Fences were raised. Sidewalks were built. Communications infrastructure in the VOQ and the Hope Hotel, for secure calls to D.C. and overseas, was provided, with participants gaining access to cell phones, typewriters, computer systems and more. "They could wander around," Rusnak said. "They could get to and from the negotiation facilities, which were primarily the Hope Hotel, and their own quarters, without interacting with anybody from the outside, whether that was people who work on base or the news media or the general public." Rusnak put the total cost of hosting the talks about $1.8 million. The talks spent $8,000 a day in food. Involved were 43 vehicles, with 84 drivers, many of them base employees, who volunteered to drive participants about. Some 450 hotel rooms were occupied, between the Hope Hotel and the VOQ. About 570 accredited journalists from 20 different nations covered the event. There were no security incidents. "We did the best that we could within those two weeks," before talks began, Rusnak said. The hard work paid off, advocates believe. "It was a success story," Leskovar said. "It provided diplomats with a setting they weren't able to get anywhere else." "We were committed," he added. "It was happening. We were going to get it to the end." "Ideally we wanted an area we could seal off from the press and all other outsiders, close enough to Washington so that senior administration officials could visit, yet sufficiently remote," Holbrooke later wrote. "The hard work, superior performance and cheerful enthusiasm which you and your colleagues brought to this effort were key elements in the successful conclusion of the talks," Secretary of State Warren Christopher wrote to the commander of the 88th Air Base Wing. "It was another kind of feather in our cap," Rusnak said.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
WPAFB event looks to ‘hire our heroes' with workshops, job fair
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — An upcoming job fair looks to help transitioning service members, veterans and military spouses find meaningful employment. The 'Hiring Our Heroes' Career Summit will be held at the Hope Hotel & Richard C. Holbrooke Conference Center on April 24 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Lawyer from Russia, OH to compete on 'Jeopardy' tonight Returning for its sixth year, the event will bring in 50 local employers to help those with military backgrounds find jobs in a variety of fields. In addition to the job fair, there will also be learning opportunities and workshops to help attendees find jobs and increase their skillset. Participants are also encouraged to network and meet with other prospective jobseekers. The Job Seeker Workshops will be available from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Hiring Fair will commence from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Registration is free and open to active-duty service members, National Guard, veterans, and military spouses. Participants are encouraged to register in advance to hold a spot. To learn more or to register, visit the Hiring Our Heroes website. The Hope Hotel is located at 10823 Chidlaw Road at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Two local job fairs offer opportunities for veterans
Apr. 15—Local veterans looking for employment have two opportunities approaching with hiring events. Hiring Our Heroes will happen 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 24 at the Hope Hotel just outside Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. And the "Vets Moving Forward Resource and Job Fair" will be 3 to 7 p.m. May 21 at the Wright State University Student Union Apollo Room. Both events are open to veterans. Hiring Our Heroes, which has hosted Wright-Patterson events since 2019, will have some 50 employers. It's the 10th year for Vets Moving Forward Cassie Barlow, former installation commander at Wright-Patterson and now president of the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education, said hiring veterans makes eminent sense for employers. Veterans tend to be trustworthy, drug-free and adaptable, she said. "Not only are they willing to learn, but they know how to learn," Barlow said in an interview. "If you think about the number of positions that military members rotate through in a career ... that's still probably 10 different jobs." Barlow recalled that in 2015, then-Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald reached out to 50 different cities, including Dayton, to launch community engagement boards. Dayton was on that list, and this event has been one result of that board's ongoing work, she said. "The key is community, right?" she said. The Dayton area is the nation's sixth largest concentration of veterans in the United States, she said. Barlow said that with a federal hiring freeze in place, hiring for government positions has slowed drastically. "That's my feel, that's what I'm hearing from friends and colleagues in the federal contracting world," she said. "Everyone is in a wait-and-see (mode) right now." But besides a job fair, veterans can expect presentations on the VA PACT Act, assistance with disability claims, helping enrolling with the Dayton VA Medical Center, helping obtaining Montgomery County veteran ID cards and more. Montgomery County RTA and Green CATS will provide free transportation for veterans and family members needing transportation to and from Wright State. Veterans should bring their DD 214 with them to the event. Hiring Our Heroes is free and open to active-duty service members, National Guard, veterans, and military spouses. Participants are encouraged to register. To learn more or to register, visit the Hiring Our Heroes website or contact the 88 FSS community readiness consultant, Stacia Wren at
The Guardian
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘We put all of life into the mincer': These New Puritans on their kaleidoscopic new album
Jack and George Barnett arrange to meet me at the Hope Hotel, an 18th-century pub in their native Southend. With Talking Heads on the jukebox and pints already flowing at midday, it feels like we've stepped back into the good-time Essex seaside town of old. The twins arrive, Jack in a dark grey tweed and black fleece, George in knitwear and leather jacket. They suggest going outside so we don't have to shout over 1980s hits, but if anything the sonic interference of Southend – all amusement arcades and revving motors – is worse. It turns out this chimes with the creation of Crooked Wing, the fifth album from their band These New Puritans. Jack was living on an industrial estate in Tottenham, London, between factories and evangelical churches. 'I think some of the loudness,' he says, 'comes from trying to compete with all the machinery and religious ecstasy.' With its melancholy, exultation and occasional blasts of menacing drums, Crooked Wing is instantly recognisable as a These New Puritans record, but the band are now going to places they have never been before in their two-decade avant-pop career. The album begins with a 10-year-old member of Southend Boys' Choir singing 'I am buried / I am deep underground', over the sound of the organ in St Mary's and All Saints Church in Stambridge, a village outside Southend where the Barnetts' grandfather was once organist. The locale soon shifts to the Peloponnese on Bells, the first song Jack wrote for the album, which stemmed from a particularly fruitful field recording of a Greek orthodox church. Pop singer Caroline Polachek – a fan of the band – is on Industrial Love Song, a duet imagining two cranes serenading each other on a building site, which launched last week with a surreal video directed by Harley Weir with creative direction from George: the protagonist is a middle ages knight covered in a translucent goo reminiscent of Thames mud. Other tracks were recorded across the estuary in Ramsgate, where co-producer Graham Sutton lives. 'It's sleepier than Southend, and probably a bit less edgy,' says Jack. 'But it does have the largest Wetherspoon's in the world.' George was born two minutes before Jack and has the slightly frustrated air of an older brother who is aware of the thinness of his seniority. During the interview, the 37-year-olds put on a united front, constantly checking with one another if what they say is OK to put on the record. But occasionally there is a scrap over who gets to tell a story. George to Jack: 'It doesn't matter. That's irrelevant.' Jack to George: 'Just wait a second. Let me fucking talk.' Jack is the singer, multi-instrumentalist and principal songwriter, George is the drummer and percussionist, but also in charge of visuals, artwork and stage direction. While Jack takes after their organist grandfather, George is more like their steelworking amateur boxer grandad on the other side, and on the face of it their lifestyles could not be more different. George is a successful model for clients including Gucci, and has lived in east London for years with his wife, Pixie Geldof. The couple have a child but, given his partner's experiences growing up in the world of celebrity, he is reluctant to go into detail. Geldof is 'amazing,' he simply says. 'I adore her. I just think it's a side note.' Jack is now back in Southend and has a regime for writing songs, but is also restless. While working on Crooked Wing, he broke off to travel with a Brazilian circus, accompanying his then-girlfriend Ephyra Ana, an accomplished aerialist who sings on the record. He also spent time living in Athens. I first saw These New Puritans playing upstairs at the Grand Hotel in 2005, a large, now defunct pub in Leigh-on-Sea, close to Southend, where the band (and I) grew up. By then they were already steeped in local musical lore. Their father, a quick-witted builder born in London, would sink pints at the Grand with Lee Brilleaux, singer with Dr Feelgood, whose guitarist Wilko Johnson taught their mum to play. She even stitched together Dr Feelgood's white suits – though, George says, 'the sweat took the pink lining through the suit and turned them pink, and so their manager refused to pay'. After years playing in various bands, the brothers enlisted their friend Thomas Hein, and later their cousin Sophie Sleigh-Johnson. A Fall song inspired their name and their scratchy sound fitted with the 00s post-punk revival, so they were quickly subsumed into a vibrant Southend scene that also included the Horrors. Their dad drove them to gigs in his work van. 'All his tools were still in the back,' says Jack. 'It almost felt like doing a heist.' In 2008 they recorded Beat Pyramid, a frenetic album bristling with electronics and ideas. But instead of riding the wave of a period now known as 'indie sleaze', the band recoiled from being 'subtly channelled into areas that aren't the most interesting', Jack says. 'And so from that point on, I decided that, whatever the cost, we would just pursue the music to the bitter end.' The result was 2010's acclaimed album Hidden, which provided the blueprint for future These New Puritans records, fusing the propulsive battle-rap-meets-Beefheart rhythms of Beat Pyramid with the pointillism of Steve Reich and choral arrangements of Benjamin Britten, who loved the east of England coastline as much as Jack. Jack learned to write stave notation at the age of 21 for Hidden and the band later performed the album live with the Britten Sinfonia, London Children's Choir – and their mate Rory smashing melons with a hammer. To a UK music press still searching for the next Liam and Noel, it was a befuddling about-turn, but to the brothers it made perfect sense. 'It was closer to what it was like when me and George were making music when we were seven or eight,' says Jack, 'on an old four-track in the loft with one microphone and a pair of bongos and an acoustic guitar.' Hidden set in motion an astonishing – though slowly gestated – run of records whose fans included Elton John, Björk and Massive Attack. With its wide-eyed Edenic feeling, Crooked Wing nestles back into the same territory as the band's masterpiece, 2013's Field of Reeds – an album that riffed on the intensity of Jack's internal world as well as Essex's beguiling islands – rather than the slick, propulsive, Berlin-penned Inside the Rose, which came out in 2019. There's more space between the notes again, and the organ influence is greater , while Jack's piano playing sounds more accomplished and natural. Since Hidden, the way of working has been set: music written by Jack is then sent to George, a process George describes as 'finding a diamond in the rough'. Once the shape of the music has been agreed, Jack writes out the notation like a film score. The Barnetts are now the only constant Puritans after Sleigh-Johnson left to become a writer and artist and Hein retrained as a neuroscientist (though he returned for a percussion cameo for this record). The band expand to make each album, with additional musicians sought, booked and recorded as quickly as possible so as not to run up too large a bill. Jack lays down vocals outside the studio, improvising in a trancelike state, sometimes in hotel rooms. 'All of life was sent into the mincer' for the lyrics this time around, he says. The Ukraine war was a background influence: 'Maybe in the back of my mind, it makes you realise life can be harsh and brutal, but you do your best to build a little edifice of beauty around it.' How have they steered this ambitious artistic project through the turbulent economic headwinds of the 21st century? 'It's always a battle,' Jack says. 'It's just the way it is for musicians now.' When making the album Inside the Rose, he was existing on one euro a day: his top tips are to live on tinned food and 'get fruit at the end of the day at the market'. He also composes music for adverts: clothes, cars, perfume, food. 'It makes a nice change from working on stuff that is yours. A palate cleanser.' George says the modelling industry isn't what it once was, but his earnings have funded projects such as We Want War's music video in 2009, with its slo-mo aquatic acrobatics. Part of the reason it has taken six years for Crooked Wing to appear is because the Barnetts wanted to make the full album before securing a label to release it. 'So sometimes we have to stop,' says Jack. 'Oh, we want to do this session. Well, we have to wait until we have enough money to do it. So you have to be prepared to take a massive financial hit.' Luckily Domino, home to Arctic Monkeys and Wet Leg, snapped up the finished album: a series of songs that seemingly sit outside of time, sounding like both the future and the past. While Jack's songwriting prowess is obvious, the band is a complete collaboration. Jack gives the example of album opener Waiting, with George paring it back to just an organ and that choirboy's voice. 'That completely transformed it,' Jack says. 'It's almost like I'm up close looking at all the cells and the bacteria – and George is looking at the whole body.' Crooked Wing will be released on 23 May by Domino. The tracks Industrial Love Song and Bells are out now
