Midrats

Though nations for thousands of years have been wrestling with the challenge of Joint operations,  we're still trying to get it right.As an island nation with significant global interests ashore, the USA has a rich history of doing Joint right, and blind parochialism as well. Using this as a starting point, this Sunday for the full hour we will have returning guest, John Kheun.Dr. John T. Kuehn is the General William Stofft Chair for Historical Research at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He retired from the U.S. Navy 2004 at the rank of commander after 23 years of service as a naval flight officer in EP-3s and ES-3s. He authored Agents of Innovation (2008) and co-authored Eyewitness Pacific Theater (2008) with D.M. Giangreco, as well as numerous articles and editorials and was awarded a Moncado Prize from the Society for Military History in 2011.We will also discuss his latest book, just released by Praeger, A military History of Japan: From the Age of the Samurai to the 21st Century.

Many continue to focus on the "Pacific Pivot" and/or IndoPac, but the news seems to keep finding its way back to Africa.This Sunday we're going to leave IndoPac and all that in order to focus the full hour discussing the eastern part of Africa with a returning guest Alex Martin who will give us a first hand report from a personal and professional perspective.Alex graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy and went on to lead infantry, reconnaissance and special operations units in multiple combat deployments. Upon leaving active duty, Alex started a private maritime security company that served commercial shipping interests in the Indian Ocean. In July 2013 Alex joined Nuru International and currently serves as a Foundation Team Leader in Kenya.

Though over three years old, this topic remains at the top of the list of importance and if you are a new listener to Midrats and haven't listened to it yet - this is required listening.If you caught it in a previous year, then it is well worth a relisten.Look at the performance of the US Navy in World War II - those ships came in the shipbuilding programs of the 1920s & 1930s. At a time with no computers or modern communication equipment - and working through the naval treaty limitations and the Great Depression - we saw incredible innovation & steadily improving ship designs. Why? A lot of the credit is given to something the Navy had then, but does not have now; The General Board.What was The General Board, what did it do, and is the Navy today suffering for the lack of one?Our guest is John T. Kuehn, CDR USN (Ret) PhD. A former naval aviator, he completed cruises aboard four different aircraft carriers. He flew reconnaissance missions during the last decade of the Cold War, the First Gulf War and

For a maritime power with global requirements, what is the role of the small ship in times of peace and war?What are the tradeoffs between quantity and capability, size and range, survivability and affordable?Does the US Navy need a high-low mix; or a Strike Group-Flotilla mix?  Where do our national requirements influence how we build our Fleet vs. the process other nations build theirs?Do we have a sustainable path towards a balanced Fleet, or are we sailing on based on outdated charts?To discuss this and more for the full hour will be returning guest U.S. Naval War College Center for Naval Warfare Studies Dean, Captain Robert C. Rubel, USN (Ret.)

In less than a month we will be firmly in the middle of the 2nd decade of the 21st Century. What path were we put on at the start 21st Century that got us here? How do we evaluate the right decisions, the neutral decisions, and the less than optimal calls of the last decade and a half? What lessons can we take away now in order to make decisions to best position the Navy on the approaches to 2030?Our guest for the full hour this Sunday to discuss this an much more will be Admiral John C. Harvey, Jr, USN (Ret). Almost a year since he joined the retired ranks, when in uniform Admiral Harvey was one of the of the more engaged, visible, and accessible Flag Officers of his generation - and in retirement he continues to be an influential voice.Admiral Harvey was born and raised in Baltimore, MD and is a 1973 graduate of the U S Naval Academy.In his thirty-nine year Navy career, he specialized in naval nuclear propulsion, surface ship and carrier strike-group operations and Navy-wide manpower management/personnel po

Almost two and a half years ago we had a show that is a fitting ago now as it was then.  Almost a decade of involvement in two land wars in Asia combined with a series of costly and ill timed shipbuilding programs that have yet to produce ships anywhere near promised cost and performance has brought our Navy to the growing budget crisis in a delicate position. The national security arena suffers from SeaBlindness about the critical requirements of seapower to the long term economic and security needs of a maritime, mercantile republic.Using their work at The Heritage Foundation, Thinking About a Day Without Sea Power:Implications for U.S. Defense Policy as a starting point, for the full hour we will returning guests Mackenzie Eaglen and Bryan McGrath to discuss the long view on the future direction of our Navy and Marine Corps team.

When one hangs up the uniform after decades of service, but still wants to contribute to their nations national security needs, what paths can that take? How does one find a path forward, and what are the keys to success?In a budgetary challenge not seen by the US military in two decades, what are the important "must haves" that need to be kept at full strength, and what "nice to haves" may have to be put in to the side?What are the legacy ideas, concepts, and capabilities that the Navy and Marine Corps need to make sure they maintain mastery of, and what new things are either here or are soon on the way that we need to set conditions for success now?Our guest for the full hour to discuss this and more will be Robert O. Work, Col. USMC (Ret), presently CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and former Undersecretary of the Navy from 2009-2013.After 27-years of active duty service in the Marine Corps, Work joined the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), where he focused on defe

Are there lessons one can learn from the most exceptional edges of the military experience that can be useful to the civilian world? Was there something from the experience of American prisoners of war imprisoned at the "Hanoi Hilton" during the Vietnam War that had to do with their success in their subsequent careers? Our guests to discuss for the full hour will be Peter Fretwell and Taylor Baldwin Kiland, authors of Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton: Six Characteristics of High-Performance Teams.

Going back 14 months, this Veterans Day weekend, let's review the war we have been soaking in. There are certain points in a nation's history that define a transition from one era to another.  These moments are so clear that you don't realize it in retrospect - you know it the moment it happens.  No one argues the fact that everything has changed; from all sides, everyone sees it.  September 11th, 2001 was one of those times. 911 was not just a national moment, but a global moment.Our military has changed, our national strategy has changed, the way we perceive the tradeoff between liberty and freedom has changed - the international order has changed. Where was our nation and the world on September 10th 2001, and how did the events the following day bring us to where our nation is a decade later?To discuss this, our extened panel members will include:- J. Michael Barrett, Partner at Diligent Innovations, Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and former Director, Strategy & Resources at the White H

In an arch that spans the immediate post-Cold War era through the Iraq War, what are the observations & lessons a front-line leader at the tactical level and, for those who are injured in service to their nation, through recovery. Our guest for the full hour will be Jason Redman, author of The Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader. Jason joined the Navy on September 11, 1992 and served as an enlisted SEAL until he entered Old Dominion University in August of 2001, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelors Degree in Business Management via Naval ROTC. He was commissioned in May of 2004 and returned as Naval SEAL Officer. He deployed to Fallujah, Iraq in 2007, and in September was severely wounded.While recovering at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, Jason underwent 37 surgeries. His experience led him to create Wounded Wear, a Non-Profit organization that provides clothing kits and clothing modifications to America’s wounded warriors.

If you have only started to think about the budget problems this year, you are late to the game Shipmate. We are years in to it, and almost 2-yrs ago, as many were sobering up to the fact that the military was about to face a budget challenge not seen in a generation. Especially those who have seen this movie before, they knew that this one has the potential to be the most challenging seen in over half a century. For the full hour, our guest will be Col. Robert Killebrew, USA (Ret.)., using his article in the DEC 2011 Armed Forces Journal, Cutbacks & Crisis, as a starting point.In addition to being a contributing editor at AFJ, among the many other things he had done at the time of the interview and since retirement, was writing and consulting on national defense issues as a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Prior to his retirement from active duty he served for thirty years in a variety of Special Forces, infantry and staff duties.  His assignments ranged included duty in Vietnam w

This week, we'll go back to 2011 for an interview with one of the better reports from an embed this decade. For those who listened to All Things Considered on NPR in 2011, you caught an outstanding series on the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines – the  Darkhorse Battalion — the Marine unit that suffered the highest casualty rate of any Marine unit during the 10-year Afghan war. Our guest for the full hour is the journalist who brought the American people that story - Tom Bowman, NPR National Desk reporter covering the Pentagon. In his current role, Bowman has traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan often for month-long visits and embedded with U.S. Marines and soldiers.Before coming to NPR in April 2006, Bowman spent nine years as a Pentagon reporter at The Baltimore Sun. Altogether he was at The Sun for nearly two decades, covering the Maryland Statehouse, the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the National Security Agency (NSA).

While good ideas are often forgotten, bad ideas seem to pop up over an over again - especially the sexy ones that sound so good, but never seem to work well. The answer, of course, is to try again and hope for a better result. Some would argue that sea swap is one of those sexy ideas that just isn't that practical in actual operation. A good idea? One of the good ideas mostly forgotten is that of the Junior Officer in significant positions of authority. LTJG as XO? LT as Skipper? Sure... used to be common; now not so much outside the MIW and PC community. What are the different challenges for the officer on a smaller warship? As JO command opportunities shrink, what is our Navy losing? Our guest for the full hour to discuss this and anything else the squirrels deliver will be Lieutenant Matthew Hipple, USN. We'll start the conversation from his article in the July 2013 Proceedings, Sea Swap - Its a Trap - then we'll be off to the races from there. LT Hipple is a surface warfare officer who graduated from Geor

From long-term issues like sequester, the strategic review, the QDR, to bolt-from-the-blue incidents like the murders at the Navy yard - how does the Navy communicate to the public and the press in an information starved culture? When the race to being wrong first seems to be a standard, how do we maintain the standard of being a useful source of information, but in a timely manner? In some areas like the budget that wander in to the political arena - how do we stay inside the lines but still inform? Our guest for the full hour to discuss the process, method and substance of explaining the an often perplexed world our Navy and those things that impact it will be Rear Admiral John Kirby, USN, the Chief of Information.

What is the role of ground forces as the conversation revolves around the Air Sea Battle Concept? Is an emphasis on air and sea power sending the right message, driving balanced thinking, and sending the right messages to our friends and competitors? Building off his article in the May 2013 Armed Forces Journal, Back To Reality, Why Land Power Trumps in the National Rebalance Towards Asia, our guest for the full hour will be Major Robert Chamberlain, USA. He has served two tours in Iraq (2003-4 and 2007-8), studied refugees at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, and is currently finishing his dissertation in Political Science at Columbia.  He teaches International Relations at the West Point and, of course, the views he is about to express are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Military Academy, the Army, or the Department of Defense.

When a few years turns in to many. When all of a sudden you seem to be the oldest guy in the room. When you have but days of memories of your kids and in the blink of an eye they are a year older - eventually everyone on active duty reaches the point where it is time to pack the sea bag one more time and put it in the attic. It is time to retire or leave active duty. Better or worse - it is time to go. What are the paths someone follows to reach that point? What decisions and inputs lead to that point where you say, "It's someone else turn." What are the important things you learn in the process of leaving going out that you wish you knew earlier? What are the myths about transitioning to the civilian world - and what are the no-kidding hard truths? How do you interact differently with the civilian world? What must someone leave behind, and what are those things that if you want them or not, they will always be with you? To discuss this and more on the subject of "what's next" when you leave active duty will

This episode from 2011 came up three times this week, so it is a natural for a Best of. How do you intellectually prepare combat leaders?  If you are given a young man or woman at 18, how do you best educate that person so they have the cultural, ethical, technical, and historical knowledge to make the right decisions for the right reasons, and lead others to do the same? What are unchanged, timeless fundamentals, and what new things are coming over the horizon that today's Ensigns and Second Lieutenants need to have inculcated in to their intelect so they have the best foundation to become this nation's Admirals and Generals for the mid-21st Century? Our guest for the first half of the hour will be Vice Admiral Michael H. Miller, USN, the 61st Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy. For the second half of the hour we will have Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, PhD, author, professor, nationally syndicated columnist, and the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military Histo

Is there such a thing as Military Intellectual Entrepreneurialism? Large, sated, and complacent organization do not have a good track record of survival. Organizations of any size that nurture the mentality of small, hungry, and driven by creative destruction and friction based on competing ideas - that is the path to success. Always has been, always will be. How do we get that attitude to permeate the military? How do we harness the power of an entrepreneurial mindset to build a better national security and defense structure? As we just start to enter another period of resource limitation in the face of an ever changing international security landscape - do we take advantage of the need for change, or do we buckle under our own moss-covered and hide-bound habits? To discuss this concept for the full hour, as well as the upcoming Defense Entrepreneurs Forum 12-14 OCT will be our panel: - LT Ben Kohlmann, USN – Founder of Disruptive Thinkers, F/A-18 pilot and member of the CNO’s Rapid Innovation Cell, Co-Found

We're going to go back a couple of years this weekend to our Lawfare episode from 2011. We'll be back live next week. Never in our history have we fought a war where law, lawyers, and layers of legalese have impacted all levels of the war, Political, Strategic, Operational, and Tactical. Why do we find ourselves here and in what direction are we going?   From Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and even domestically, the legal definition of the use of military power is evolving. To discuss the impact of Lawfare for the full hour with Sal from the blog "CDR Salamander" and EagleOne from "EagleSpeak" will be David Glazier, CDR USN (Ret.).   David is a Professor of Law at Layola Law School in Los Angles.  Prior to Layola, he was a lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law and a research fellow at the Center for National Security Law, where he conducted research on national security, military justice and the law of war. He also served as a pro bono consultant to Human Rights First. Before attendin

If the CNO's #1 priority is warfighting, how do leaders focus on that priority inside a 24-hr day? In a complicated structure of Administrative and Operational Chains of Command and the unending hunger of a bureaucracy for metrics and the reports that feed them - when does a system itself become and "Administrative Burden." On person's administrative burden is another person's critical requirement - so how does an organization's leadership balance subordinate priorities so they do not interfere with #1? Our guest to discuss this and more will be Rear Admiral Herman Shelanski, USN, Director, Assessment Division, (OPNAV N81). Specifically, we will discuss the CNO's crowdsourcing initiative "RAD" (Reducing Administrative Distractions) specifically looking at removing those non-value added distractions in the Fleet keeping Sailors away from the Navy's top priorities.