This week continues our tribute to Lee Gossett with his second Spycraft 101 episode. Not only did he appear on the podcast twice, but he and Justin were regularly in contact via email from 2021 and on. He was an avid listener to the podcast and on many occasions had some inside knowledge of the events that we discussed. Today's interview originally aired as episode 75. In late 2022, Lee came back to discuss life after Laos, including his time in Central America and Somalia, and his work with early UAV programs. Even with the many stories he has shared, we likely  only know a fraction of his true adventures all over the world. Rest in peace, Lee.

Check out Lee's book, Smoke Jumper to Global Pilot: a True Odyssey, here.

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This week, Spycraft 101 returns to the archives to say goodbye to one of our earliest guests. Lee Gossett got his start as a smoke jumper with the US Forest Service in the late 1950s and later served with Air America and Continental Air Services during the Secret War in Laos. He worked and flew all over the world for the Central Intelligence Agency and various special operations units. He appeared twice on the podcast. Although these interviews were recorded several years ago, Lee and Justin stayed in touch on at least a monthly basis, and he's been a regular listener since that time.

He was a friend as well, and we'll miss him. But we're grateful that we had the chance to get to know him in the first place. Rest in peace, Lee.

Check out Lee's book, Smoke Jumper to Global Pilot: a True Odyssey, here.

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This week Justin sits down with Shane Osborn. Shane is a veteran of the US Navy and a graduate of the University of Nebraska Lincoln. From 2007 until 2011, he served as the treasurer for the State of Nebraska. He's also the founder of the Nebraska Soldiers Foundation, which helps soldiers and their families cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. In early 2001, Shane was serving as a pilot with Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron one based in Okinawa on April 1st of that year while flying a mission over the Pacific Ocean. His EP3E Orion was involved in a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter jet. Shane was forced to land his badly damaged aircraft on a Chinese island where he and his crew were detained and interrogated for 11 days in an event that made headlines worldwide as The Hainan Island incident. He's here today discuss his career in Navy aviation, the near fatal collision over the Pacific, and his time in the custody of the Chinese government, which he wrote about in his book.

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Justin's guest for today is Julian Fisher, a former British intelligence operative espionage specialist and author of Think Like A Spy. Following a stint in government service, Julian headed up Africa operations for a private military company and then founded his own intelligence boutique specializing in Africa. In 2017, he was the lead trainer on the Channel Four reality series Spies, which put 16 ordinary members of the public through a series of challenges to find out if they had what it takes to be a spy. Julian has led an unusual life in his time. He's seen off camel wrestlers in Somalia, faced down gun toting soldiers in Congo, trained a newly formed intelligence service in South Sudan, and been invited to help plot a coup in West Africa, which he declined. Julian can show you how to take the hard lessons learned over centuries of international espionage and use those same strategies to accomplish your goals in almost any environment or context.

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Today's guest is Paula May. Paula graduated from Appalachian State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice, and later a Master's degree in Public Administration. She worked for more than 35 years in law enforcement, primarily in Waga County and then in King, North Carolina. She spent more than 20 of those years in major crime investigations, and the last 10 as Chief of Police directing major criminal incident response and investigations in King. Since retiring, she has also served on the board of directors and as the interim director of the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police. Paula is here this week to discuss a major case she investigated beginning in 1993 with the murder of Viktor Gunnarsson in North Carolina.

Years before his death, Viktor was a suspect in the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palma, which we previously discussed on episode 155 of the podcast. Now Paula can tell us how that investigation changed Viktor's life and what happened to him here in the United States at the hands of a local police officer. She also wrote two books about the case.

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Today Justin talks with Michael Hershman. Michael served as a special agent with US Army Intelligence beginning in the late 1960s. He then went to work as an investigator for New York City, New York State, and then as a senior staff investigator for the Senate Watergate Committee led by US Senator Sam Ervin. Later, he joined the Federal Election Commission as chief investigator and was responsible for audits and investigations of candidates and their campaign committees.

After leaving government service, Michael founded the Fairfax Group. For the past 40 years, Fairfax Group has helped tackle complex and sensitive challenges related to crisis and risk management, compliance and security all over the world. He's here today to discuss his military service, his work as a US government investigator, and the world of high stakes, private investigations, consulting and risk management.

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Today Justin sits down with Lisa Story. Lisa graduated from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas, where she studied Communications and Journalism. Since then, she has worked in and around Nevada as a public relations professional. She's the author of two books, both of which focus on her uncle Walter Reca. Walt was an airborne soldier, professional, skydiver, occasional criminal, and conman possible CIA operative, and one of the primary candidates suspected to be D.B. Cooper, the infamous American skyjacker. She's discuss her latest book covering Walt's life, his exploits, and the evidence against him.

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Today Justin talks with Tim Scherrer. Tim earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in History from Truman State University and is a Distinguished Military Graduate of the Army ROTC program. He served as a military intelligence officer in the Army Reserve for 28 years. His assignments included an intelligence briefer to the commander in chief of US Transcom during Operation Desert Storm, basic training company commander and chief of the asymmetric threat division at US Transcom. After the 9/11 attacks, he later taught at the Army Reserve Command and General Staff College until he retired in 2015. Tim is now the Dean of Academics at Friar Tolton Catholic High School in Columbia, Missouri. He's also the author of seven books. He's here today to discuss how different disciplines of military intelligence work together to provide a complete picture of the battlefield and allowed US commanders to win the fight and then preserve the peace afterwards.

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Today Justin sits down with Matthew John Heath. Matthew served in the US Marine Corps from 1999 until 2003, including a combat deployment to Iraq. Afterwards, he worked with the US State Department as a private contractor in Afghanistan. In 2020, Matthew was arrested inside Venezuela, near the Colombian border, and charged with multiple false offenses, including treason and arms trafficking. He spent more than two years captive in prison in Caracas before he was released in a prisoner exchange in October, 2022 along with several other American citizens. He's here today to discuss his service in the Marine Corps, his time working in Afghanistan and elsewhere, his arrest and imprisonment in Venezuela, and readjusting to life back home after the ordeal.

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Today Justin sits down with Dr. Brian J. Ellison. Brian has a Master's degree in International Security from American University and a PhD in War Studies from King's College London. He's worked as a senior research scientist at the Center for Naval Analysis and at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory where he has specialized in Chinese strategic affairs, naval warfare and intelligence. His work has led to significant policy, operational, and institutional changes within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the overall intelligence community. In 2014, Brian was awarded the commendation for Meritorious Civilian Service by Commander Mar Fork Pack for his research and analysis of the Marine Corps's organizational challenges in the Indo-Pacific. He's here today to discuss human intelligence operations by the US Navy in the Pacific Theater of Operations, which he details in his new book.

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