Perimeter Fires

Col. Mike Flatten (Ret.) '92 was a Redpot for Aggie Bonfire '91. He would go on to serve in the United States Air Force as a Combat Controller (USAF special operations/“Special Warfare”). Today, he is a recently-retired, proud family man. We touch on leadership, choosing the hard paths, brotherhood, and more. We do not talk about bananas.

Two separate and wildly different conversations on Wednesday, and another unexpected one Sunday, produced some profound overlap.

At the center of every Bonfire Stack since the first off campus in 2003 are the "Windle Sticks" or "the Windles", tying into Centerpole and securing the architecture. They are named for Levi Garrett Windle.

Levi was one of the first group of leaders of Bonfire after '99 known as "Grey Pots", lines which would become Red Pots in 2006. He passed away in an accident near his home in Bryan on October 19, 2003, before the Stack he helped envision would even begin. Still, he remains at the heart of every fire since.

This is a conversation with those who knew him best: his family. His mother Gayle, father Steve, and brother Brody join us to talk and reminisce about the one and only Levi.

How can your opponent - or circumstance - ever really "win" when they don't feel like they have, no matter what the scoreboard says? Be undefeatable.

River McTasney was a Brownpot for Aggie Bonfire '15, coming from a family tradition of building and leading Bonfire. Today, River is a self-made software guru and owner/inventor/innovator behind Smooth Ag Solutions (https://www.smoothag.com/), a breakthrough system in agriculture. Applying his background in the field and a few lessons from the Woods, River empowers today's ranchers to do more of what they do best.

Something happened to my buddy that never happened to him before. Lucky dog.

Andrew Pekowski '15 was a newly-minted Sr. Redpot standing guard detail alone on Christmas Eve at Stack '13. Burn had been postponed that year on account of rain. What he did that lonely night has become legendary, a moment of pride for Aggies everywhere. Their handling of the Spring-semester Burn to follow changed Bonfire forever.

Once again, Monday Moti comes from preparing for a line of questioning in the previous week. This time, I was answering the questions, not asking them.

Colonel (RET) Carlos Tamez '90 was an Aggie Bonfire Red Pot. He went on to 32 years of decorated service, much of that time as an Army Aviator, and MEDEVAC Aviator. Under his command, thousands of life-saving evacuations were successfully executed. He is well regarded among his peers and contemporaries for his approach to leadership and service.

In preparing to and having a Perimeter Fires conversation with Nathaniel Hall, I realized that I had been looking a little bit the wrong way at a motivating moment we had together 20 years ago.