The Half Percent Podcast

Colonel Dean Rondeau (Ret.-U.S. Army) joins the show. Rondeau's Army career spanned 38 years (17 active duty, 21 Reserve/National guard), and included multiple international deployments to Panama, the Balkans and 2 deployments to Iraq (OIF). Rondeau's unique career saw him enter the Army as it was transitioning from the Vietnam era, and retire well into the GWOT. Multilingual, Rondeau served as an Intelligence Officer, Civil Affairs, Airborne,  Infantry and more. This was a fascinating, wide ranging discussion and Rondeau's insights on leadership, the lessons of history, granular details of Iraqi society and culture, warfare and much more are thought provoking and refreshingly direct. In his civilian life, Rondeau has been a police officer for 25 years and currently serves as Chief of Police for the town of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. 

Adam Martin joins the show. Adam spent 6 years in the US Army as an MP, including a 15 month deployment to Iraq. Adam's unit was responsible for escorting and guarding convoys on the road from Kuwait to Baghdad was under constant attack from IEDs, RPGs and small arms fire. Adam gives a riveting account of his deployment, including a split-second decision, narrowly avoiding a massive IED. In his civilian career, Adam has done virtually every job in law enforcement has to offer, including  corrections officer, patrol, narcotics, firearms instructor, to name a few. Adam is also the founder and frontman for the southern rock band, Blackbird Anthem. Blackbird Anthem is based in Florida and Texas and plays across the country at festivals, veteran events, traditional venues, and more. Their new album is out now, Whiskey Confessions. 
Find out more about Adam and Blackbird Anthem: 
https://blackbirdanthem.com/home

LT. Arabia Shanklin (active duty-US Navy), joins the show. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, Arabia's first tour was as a Surface Warfare Officer on the USS Simpson, where she deployed twice to the Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf.  After the Simpson was decommissioned, Arabia was assigned to the USS Whidbey Island, where she served as the Command Training Officer and Legal Officer. She later served as Flag Aide to the Commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3.  Arabia's naval career has taken her on deployments to the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf.  In addition to her Naval career, Arabia is an actress and model, having appeared in films, TV shows and commercials and in Vogue magazine. She is also one of the twelve servicewomen selected to be painted as part of Proudly She Served, which highlights women military veterans and their service and raises awareness of the challenges many women face when transitioning to life outside of the military.
Learn more about Arabia and Proudly She Served: https://www.proudlysheserved.com
Follow her acting career here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10372407/

We diverge a bit on this show from the military to the intelligence world. J.T. Patten has spent a career working for various government intelligence agencies. He was a counterterrorism intelligence advisor and worked with the military special operations community in support of national defense and policy. J.T.'s areas of expertise include Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force, cyber insider threat detection, transcontinental financial crime, and for Irregular and Unconventional Warfare strategies in counterterrorism, intelligence collection, and social network disruption.  On top of it all, J.T. is also the author of multiple military/espionage thrillers, including the Task Force Orange series  and Sean Havens Black Ops novels. His latest book is Shadow Masters.

You can learn more about J.T. at:
https://jtpattenbooks.com

Order his books at:
https://www.amazon.com/J.T.-Patten/e/B00I3SPP10%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Oakland "Oak" McCulloch spent 23 years in the US Army, holding numerous leadership positions in the Infantry and Armor branches. McCulloch's service took him around the globe,  including Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and Iraq as a General's Aide-de-Camp, support operations in Bosnia as a Congressional Liaison Officer, a peace keeping deployment to Kosovo as an Operations Officer and as an instructor at the Australian Command and Staff College. After retiring from the Army, McCulloch was the Associate Director of the Bay Area Food Bank in Mobile, Alabama. In 2010, he took a job as the Senior Military Science Instructor and recruiter for the Army ROTC program at Stetson University in Florida, where he continues to work today. McCulloch is the author of Your Leadership Legacy: Becoming the Leader You Were Meant to Be, released this year and available on Amazon and anywhere you order books.
To learn more about Col. McCulloch and to order his book, please visit his website:
https://www.ltcoakmcculloch.com

Dave Rogers spent 22 years in the US Navy. From a small town in Massachusetts, Dave's decision to join the Navy would take him around the globe, from the Balkans to the Middle East, to Israel and even a trip to the Vatican to shake hands with Pope John Paul II. Along the way, Dave was lucky enough to gain pearls of wisdom from his superior officers, and later to pass along that wisdom to sailors under his command in a truly fulfilling and meaningful Naval career. 

Eddie Molina joins the podcast. Eddie spent a decade in the New Jersey National Guard and was deployed to Iraq, where he was stationed at Camp Cropper, the holding facility near Baghdad International Airport where high-value detainees were kept. Among those detainees were Chemical Ali, Tariq Aziz, and many other prominent Baath Party members. Eddie is now a feature writer for several online and print media publications, including The Blue Magazine, SOFREP, Law Enforcement Today and Police1. Eddie also authored a book, A Beginner's Guide to Leadership, available anywhere you purchase books.
Eddie is always looking for good stories and interviews. To contact him, learn more about Eddie and to read his work, please visit:
http://eddiemolina.com

Captain Tammie Jo Shults (US Navy, Ret.) joins the podcast. Tammie Jo was a Naval Aviator from 1985-1993 (active duty) and until 2001 in the reserves. During her naval career, Tammie Jo earned her wings in the T-34, then as a flight instructor for the T-2 Buckeye, later qualifying in A-7 Corsair II and EA-6B Prowler and eventually becoming one of the first female naval aviators to qualify in the F/A-18 Hornet. After retiring from the Navy, Tammie became a pilot for Southwest Airlines, where she flew the 737 until her retirement in 2020. On Flight 1380, from New York to Dallas in 2018, an engine fan blade failed and led to fuselage damage and rapid decompression at 32,000 feet. Due to Tammie's (along with first officer Darren Lee Ellisor) calm, steady and heroic actions, the flight was able to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia. For her actions, Tammie was recognized by Congressional resolution and visited the White House to meet with then-President Trump. Tammie wrote a memoir of her life as an aviator, Nerves of Steel , which can be purchased anywhere you buy books. She also volunteers as a pilot (along with her husband, fellow retired Naval Aviator, Dean) with Angel Flight, a group dedicated to providing free transport to those with special medical needs where treatment is not available to them locally.

Find out more about Tammie and order her book at her website:
https://www.captainshults.com/

Learn more about, and get involved with Angel Flights at:
https://www.angelflightsc.org

James Karp is a former US Marine, French Foreign Legionnaire and current archaeologist. James deployed to Iraq during the early stages of the war and participated in the 2nd battle of Fallujah. After the Marines, James enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. After retiring from military life, James started SV Chasing Horizon, a group of veterans who help other veterans  reconnect and regain a sense of purpose by organizing short and long-term sailing excursions, dive training and other ocean related activities. 

Follow James in Instagram @julesduiburg

Learn more about SV Chasing Horizon on Facebook: @SVchasinghorizon

Linda Maloney spent 20 years in the US Navy, first as an enlisted air traffic controller and then as a Naval Flight Officer, flying both the A-6 “Intruder” and EA-6B “Prowler.” In 1993, Linda became one of the first women in US history to join a combat military flying squadron. Linda received a distinguished air medal for combat, awarded for flights flown over Southern Iraq in support of the no-fly zone during her deployment to the Arabian Gulf. Another first for Linda was being the first woman to eject from a Martin Baker ejection seat from her A-6 aircraft in 1991 over the Atlantic Ocean, an experience she takes us through in detail. After retiring from the Navy, Linda worked as a defense contractor and authored Military Fly Moms ~ Sharing Memories, Building Legacies, Inspiring Hope,  a biographical collection of the inspiring true stories and photographs of seventy women who shared the same two dreams—becoming aviators in the military, and being moms. Linda is also the founder and CEO of Women Veteran Speakers and Project Director for Proudly She Served, a series of oil portraits by Steve Alpert highlighting and honoring women veterans and aiding in their transition into civilian life. 

Learn more about Linda and her work: https://womenveteranspeakers.com

And the Proudly She Served project: https://www.proudlysheserved.com