Army commander instills ‘hozho’ into soldiers
WASHINGTON
The Navajo word “hozho” is often heard in political, medical or spiritual settings.
The term, which refers to a condition of harmony, unity or peace, is numbered among the most important of Navajo concepts and its connotations are broad and varied. So broad, in fact, that one Navajo man took it all the way to Afghanistan where he instilled it into a platoon of soldiers.
Meet Capt. Dallas Gilmore, an Army commander who recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan where he taught the soldiers of the 580th Signal Company about his Navajo culture.
“Something I was taught in high school football was the concept of hozho,” Gilmore said in a phone interview from Fort Bragg, N.C. “That has stuck with me my whole life. I’ve always tried to keep that balance physically, emotionally and spiritually, and I taught that philosophy to my soldiers.”
Gilmore, 37, was born in northern Utah and spent his early childhood years there. As a teenager, he returned to his father’s home in Kayenta, Ariz., and graduated from Monument Valley High School. After serving a mission for the Mormon church, getting married and graduating from Brigham Young University, Gilmore joined the Army, where he was commissioned as a lieutenant.
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