In this episode of Phoenix Cast, host John mentally travels back to the Marine Corps Communication Electronics School in 29 Palms, the place where the cast was basically born, to talk with Col Arun Shankar, MCCES’s commanding officer, and LtCol Steve Morello, who leads Communication Training Battalion. The conversation digs into how the comm community is shifting from being “just plumbers” to owning information management, why how you employ a C2 system now matters as much as the system itself, and the cybersecurity training gaps the schoolhouse is racing to close. John presses them on managing risk, virtualizing hands-on training, and how they’re using AI to compress a three-year curriculum cycle down to days. If you claim comm or cyber, lead Marines, or just want to hear how the schoolhouse is modernizing to keep pace with Ukraine-era threats, this homecoming episode is worth the listen.

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Links:

- Murello bio (MCCES): https://www.mcces.marines.mil/Leaders/Biography/Article/3929785/lieutenant-colonel-steven-murello/

- Shankar bio (MCCES): https://www.mcces.marines.mil/Leaders/Biography/Article/3929593/colonel-arun-shankar/

- Shankar Hoover Q&A (Nov 2022): https://www.hoover.org/news/qa-lieutenant-colonel-arun-shankar-us-marine-corps-national-security-affairs-fellow

- "Assured C2: Pivoting the 06xx Community," MCG Nov 2022: https://mca-marines.org/blog/gazette/assured-c2/

- "Offensive Cyberspace Operations," MCG Feb 2023: https://www.mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/Offensive-Cyberspace-Operations-Shankar.pdf

- USNI News, "Virtual Tech in Marine Comms School Saves Time, Money" (Feb 2026): https://news.usni.org/2026/02/23/virtual-tech-in-marine-comms-school-saves-time-money

Book Recommendations

Col Shankar: Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman; Range by David Epstein.

LtCol Murello: Mindset by Carol Dweck; White Sun War by Mick Ryan; 10 to 25 by David Yeager.