Midrats

Our show today will have guests that have seamingly unrelated topics - but both are connected to one thing; getting the story of our Navy, its people, and its culture out to the larger population.

For the first half of the hour, we will have returning guest Stephen Phillips. Steve is a 1992 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He began his naval career as a surface warfare officer on board USS Harlan County and USS San Jacinto. He then applied and was accepted into the Navy’s Special Operations community. He subsequently served as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technician at EOD Mobile Units Six, Eight, and Ten.

Steve is the author of the awarding-winning debut novel, Proximity, describes life as a Navy EOD Technician in the war on terrorism. His second novel, The Recipient’s Son, is a coming of age story that takes place at the U.S. Naval Academy in the late 80’s early 90’s.

Our guest for the second half of the hour will be LCDR Chris Servello, USN, director, Navy Newsdesk (OI-31) & Public Affairs Assistant to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations.

Chris will be here on his own behalf to dicuss the role of the PAO in today's media environment. We'll also discuss how someone becomes a PAO along with some of the misconceptions and surprising aspects of what a PAO does.

On 15 OCT, Rear Admiral Terry McKnight, USN (Ret) book Pirate Alley: Commanding Task Force 151 Off Somalia hit the street.

Could we pick a better show for this week's best of than from February?

We have him for the full hour to discuss the fact that the problem with piracy is not going anywhere. Each year in places like Somalia it is becoming part of the local economy. In areas near poorly governed areas, it threatens the free flow of goods at market prices through the world's sea lines of communication.

Is it an economic problem, a global security problem, a political problem, or a mixture of that and more?

What is the impact of international aid, military action, and the paying of ransom? What are the best solutions, and what is working and what is not working to slow the impact of piracy?

Terror attacks on an American embassy. Piracy on the high seas. Political intrigue. Leadership at sea.

Not just the news of the day, but some of the topics you'll find in Claude Berube's new non-fiction book, The Aden Effect. We'll have the author with us for the full hour to talk about the book, writing, and perhaps a few more thing as well.

Claude's articles have appeared in Orbis, Naval History, Vietnam History, Jane’s Intelligence Review, Naval Institute Proceedings, the Christian Science Monitor and other periodicals.  He has worked on Capitol Hill and for the Office of Naval Intelligence.  A lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, he has served twice overseas including a deployment to the Persian Gulf with Expeditionary Strike Group Five.  He currently teaches at the United States Naval Academy.

From the description on of his new book on Amazon; "Murder, politics, seapower, Middle East instability, and intrigue in the White House are all part of this action thriller. Set against a background of modern piracy in the Gulf of Aden, the story begins as the new Ambassador to Yemen, C.J. Sumner, is assigned to negotiate access to the oil fields off the island of Socotra and enlist help countering pirates who are capturing ships at will off the Horn of Africa. Meeting with resistance to her diplomatic overtures, Sumner recruits Connor Stark, a former naval officer turned mercenary who knows the region, as her defense attache. When Stark sets up a meeting with the owner of a Yemeni shipping company and the ruling family, the challenges begin."

This was recorded two and a half years ago, a time prior to our remote switchboard upgrade and to be frank, we had a run of bad audio luck.  As such, have patience with my audio being a bit weak and echoish  - the guests are fine, and this early show deserved another listen if you have patience.

Back in APR 2010, we did a live show from the Navy Memorial in Washington DC as it got ready for the annual Blessing of the Fleets.

The 2010 Blessing of the Fleets debuted the Navy Memorial's exhibit, Supporting the Force: Navy Supply in Action—Ready for Sea, Ready Ashore, and will kick off the Year of Navy Supply.

Following on popular exhibits in previous years that have honored the Seabees, Navy Medicine and Navy Special Warfare, 2010 was set aside to honor the Navy’s logistics, culinary and business specialists.

We had three scheduled guests;

- Rear Admiral Edward K. Walker, Jr., Supply Corps USN (Ret.); President and Chief Executive Officer, United States Navy Memorial Foundation.

- Rear Admiral Michael J. Lyden, USN; Commander, Naval Supply Systems Command and the 45th Chief of Supply Corps.

- Documentarian Brian J. Kelly who will be screening their new work, Discovery Channel's film about Navy operations today "At Sea." Make sure and join us for the show, or better yet - if you are in DC this weekend, come by and see the exhibit.

The "Arab Spring" has not turned out as well as many hoped, and in much of the Arab and Muslim world, the will of the people does not necessarily translate in to freedom and a pro-Western leadership.

With many more years to go in the Long War struggle, how do we navigate through the rapidly changing world which is mostly beyond our control?

While we cannot back away, we also cannot control. Is there a better way - and how do we more towards a more honest discussion of the world as it is, not how we wish it to be?

Using his latest article in Defense News, Navigating Chaos, as a starting point for our discussion, our guest for the full hour will be returning guest J. Michael Barrett, CEO of Diligent Innovations and a former director of strategy for the White House Homeland Security Council.

What does an officer do with the opportunistic "white space" the Navy can provide you in your career path?

What does a curious intellect and an operational mindset need to look at doing to meet both?

What are some of the demands and opportunities out there who want something a bit different in their career path?

To discuss this for the full hour as well as a bit about the last props on the carrier deck, will be Captain Herb Carmen, USN.

CAPT Carmen is Naval Aviator with over 4,000 flight hours in the E-2C Hawkeye and C-2A Greyhound, previously commanding the VAW-116 "Sun Kings." He is an Executive MBA student at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, and he was previously a senior military fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

His views are his own and do not represent the Department of Defense or the United States Navy.

In their formative years from 10 to18 – they rose in a different world; the post-Cold War world.  No 30-minutes from nuclear annihilation, no existential threat to their existence.

As they approached adulthood, they made the decision to join the military of the world’s only superpower; a superpower at peace, economically strong, culturally vibrant. They were admitted to the United States Naval Academy in 1998; the class of 2002.

Roughly nine months prior to graduation and commissioning, it all changed.

Our guest for the full hour to discus the journey, acts, and experiences of the United States Naval Academy Class of 2002 will be Graham Plaster, a member of the class of 2002 and one of the editors of the book - In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America's Longest War.

Everyone knows CENTCOM, many know PACOM or EUCOM ... but what about NORTHCOM?

What is their role in national defense, and what special role does it have inside the United States - specifically in disaster response?

This Sunday, September 9th from 5-6pm EST, our guest for the full hour to discuss this and more will be Brigadier General Donald A. McGregor, the Deputy Director of Operations for Domestic Operations, Headquarters, United States Northern Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

As our listenership in the last year is up four-fold (!), I decided to roll back this weekend to the 14th episode.

For the full hour, we will look at what are the plusses and minuses of working with other nations at sea. Are we leveraging the capabilities of other nations enough - or are we in danger of relying on them too much? How does the American Navy see working with other naval forces - and how do they look at working with us? What special capabilities do other nations have that we don't, and what could we learn from them? What do the lessons from multilateralism in ground combat in Afghanistan, and multilateralism against pirates tell us?

Our guests will be Hans de Vreij and James S. Robbins. Hans de Vreij is the Netherlands correspondent at Jane's Defence Weekly, and the Security and Defence specialist at Radio Netherlands Worldwide. He received his education at the University of Amsterdam. Previously, he was Economics, web editor, and EU & NATO correspondent for Radio Netherlands World.

Also, James S. Robbins; Senior Editorial Writer for Foreign Affairs at the Washington Times. He is also author of the book, Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point, and a political commentator and contributing editor for National Review Online. Dr. Robbins holds a Ph.D. and Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts. He also has Masters and Bachelors degrees in Political Science from the University of Cincinnati. In addition to contributing to a wide variety of publications, h served in government for ten years, and in 2007 was awarded the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

For the career minded Naval professional, to have a chance for the greatest advancement and promotion, you have to push and push hard. The reputation you build in your first 10 years sets the tone for the rest.

Except for very rare exceptions, there are no second chances. There are no pauses - one iffy set of orders - one poorly timed FITREP, and you are on an off-ramp. You must work harder, you must sacrifice, and if you are to have a family young, you need a very strong support structure.

For men - there is always the RADM Sestak, USN (Ret) option; wait until post O6, then start. For women though, there are some hard biological facts.

The average American woman gets married at age 26. For college-educated women the average age at first birth is ~30. If you want to have more than 2 kids, you need to start earlier. You need to time it right - and Mother Nature has her own schedule that doesn't often match yours.

With women making up more of the military than ever, what are the challenges out there biological, cultural, psychological, and relationship wise to "making it happen?"

You can't have it all - but how do you get the best mix you can?

We will have two guests on to discuss. For the first half hour we will have Major Jeannette Haynie, USMCR, a 1998 graduate from the US Naval Academy, AH-1W Cobra pilot, and  currently a Reservist flying a desk at the Pentagon and working through graduate school - and fellow blogger over at USNIBlog.

The second half of the hour, our guest will be Robyn Roche-Paull, US Navy Veteran, wife of a Chief, ICBLC, and author of the book Breastfeeding in Combat Boots.