Midrats

How does policy shape, limit, or empower the effectiveness of command at the unit level? Which policies are a net positive, and which ones are counter productive? Are there things we can do to better balance larger Navy goals with the requirement to give leaders the room they need to be effective leaders? In times of austere budgets, can you both reduce end-strength while at the same time retain your best personnel? Are we a learning institution that can adjust policy that answers the bell from DC in shaping tomorrow's Fleet, yet does not break trust with Shipmates? To discuss this and more we will have as our returning guest, Vice Admiral Bill Moran, USN. Chief of Naval Personnel. A P-3 pilot by trade, he held commanded at the squadron, wing and group levels. As Chief of Naval Personnel, he oversees the recruiting, personnel management, training, and development of Navy personnel. Since taking over a year ago he has focused on improving communication between Navy leadership and Sailors in the Fleet.

The large standing Army and active duty military we have known in our lifetime may seem the norm - but it isn't.Is there a way to maintain a strong military capability - available and scaleable if needed - without the structure we have become accustomed to?Is there a better way to balance our Reserve and National Guard forces that is better in line with our economic, national security, and yes - Constitutional requirements?Join us with our guest, General Ron Fogleman, USAF (Ret) for the full hour. Using his article in Defense News, Going Back to the Future: Militia Model Could Cut U.S. Expenditures as a starting point, we will discuss these ideas and more as we look for a way to maintain strength and options as the budget crunch starts.Originally aired 19 FEB 2012.

I want to return to our first Midrats from this year to keep the focus one more week on 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.

A special time this week, 2pm Eastern, in order to have a reasonable time for our guest on the other side of the world.This week we are going to visit an AOR that may have dropped of a lot of people's scan, but in the Long War - it is still the front lines; the Horn of Africa.Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and the waters around the Arabian Peninsular - from terrorism to piracy - America and her allies and partners are at work every day to keep the beast over there, and not here.Our guest for the full hour will be Rear Adm. Alexander L. Krongard, USN, Deputy Commander, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Africa. In this position, he supports the CJTF-HOA Commander to counter violent extremism in East Africa, foster regional security cooperation, strengthen partner nation security capability, and build and maintain U.S. strategic access in the region. Krongard is also responsible for developing relations with senior military leaders in African partner nations and directing CJTF staff and subordinate commanders’ support to deployed personnel and units of all Services across the Horn of Africa. DCJTF-HOA.A Navy SEAL by training, RDML Krongard is a graduate of Princeton University and the National War College.

When it comes to all things maritime, sometimes one Sal is not enough.Whatever confession of maritime strategy you adhere to, there is one linchpin that all will survive or fail on - the Military Sealift Command. Our guest for the full hour to discuss the entire spectrum of issues with the MSC will be Salvatore R. Mercogliano, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History at Campbell University.Sal is a 1989 graduate of SUNY Maritime College, with a BS in Marine Transportation.  He sailed on the USNS Neosho (T-AO 143), Mohawk (T-ATF 170), Glover (T-AGFF 1), Comfort (T-AH 20) during the Persian Gulf War, and John Lenthall (T-AO 189).  Ashore, he was assigned to the N3 shop for the Afloat Prepositioning Force and focused initially on Marine Corps MPF vessels, but later working on the new Army program, including the construction and conversion of the LMSRs.  In 1996, he transitioned to his my academic career.  Receiving a MA in Maritime History and Nautical Archeology from East Carolina University, focused on the merchant marine in the Vietnam War.  He later then went to the University of Alabama and graduated with a Ph.D. in Military and Naval History with his dissertation on entitled Sealift: THe has taught at Methodist University, East Carolina, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the U.S. Military Academy, prior to being an Assistant Professor of History with Campbell University since 2010,  In addition, since 2008, I have been an Adjunct Professor at the US Merchant Marine Academy teaching a graduate level on-line course on Maritime Industry Policy.  He has been published in the Northern Mariner, Sea History, Naval History, and Proceedings.

"Where are the Carriers?"Whenever the expected unexpected happens on the globe, that is the question that is often asked first.  As our nation also faces one of its greatest budget crisis - it is also one that the budget cutters are asking as well.What is the status of our carrier force as we approach 2012 and what possible directions are we heading?  Is the carrier more important in supporting our national strategy than it used to be, or less?  Are we buying the right kind of systems to go on and in our carriers?  Are we buying enough? How are we assessing our technology risk as we bring in new tools?Our guest for the full hour will be J. Talbot Manvel, CAPT, USN (Ret.), presently teaching at the U.S. Naval Academy and is a frequent writer on issues of carrier issues and larger Navy policy issues.  In the course of his career he served on three carriers and led development o f the maintenance plan for the Nimitz class and design of the Ford class carriers.

Louis Zamperini passes away earlier this week, so I can see of no better best of show for the July 4th weekend.This nation has been served by those who come home, and those who never make it back.Some have had their stories preserved and celebrated within living memory, some are almost unknown.This weeks episode will cover both sides of our military experience.For the first half hour our guest will be best selling author Laura Hillenbrand to talk about her latest book Unbroken; an incredible story of survival of Louie Zamperini - olympic athlete, B-24 Liberator bombardier, survivor of being adrift at sea for months and the as a POW under the Japanese.Our guest for the second half of the hour will Michael R. Caputo of  The Intrepid Project. He is here to talk about 12 Sailors who have been abandoned in a mass grave in a mass grave in Libya.After dying at sea after a failed mission, when their bodies washed up on the shores of Tripoli on 04 SEP 1804, the bashaw had dogs to devour them as other American prisoners of war looked on. These 13 heroes are buried in two mass graves in Libya. One of those graves is unmarked and underfoot on the Tripoli plaza where Gaddafy held anti-America rallies for decades. They want to bring them home.

Is the profession of arms, as the Navy believes it is, primarily a technical job for officers - or is it something else?To create the cadre of leaders one needs, do you train them as empty vessels that one only needs to fill up with what you want or an empty checklist to complete - or do you train them by helping them bring out their ability to lead and make decisions through informed critical thinking?Our guest for the full hour to discuss this and more will be Major Matt Cavanaugh, USA. Matt is currently assigned as an Assistant Professor in military strategy at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Prior to this assignment, Matt was a Strategic Planner at the Pentagon, after service with the with Second Squadron, Third Armored Cavalry Regiment with multiple deployments to Iraq from Fallujah, Ramadi, and Tal’Afar.Matt earned his Master’s in Strategic Studies at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand and is currently at work on a PhD dissertation on generalship at the University of Reading (UK). He is a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Civil Military Operations, has been published with several peer-reviewed military and academic journals, and is the Editor at WarCouncil.org, a site dedicated to the study of the use of force. Matt has represented the United States in an official capacity in ten countries, including: Iraq, Kuwait, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Latvia, and Great Britain.

From the USA, Europe, Russia, to the South China Sea, nations continue to signal where their priories are by what type of fleet they are building. What capabilities are they expanding, and what capabilities are they letting drift away?To discuss this and more for the full hour will be returning guest Eric Wertheim.Eric is a defense consultant, columnist and author specializing in naval and maritime issues. He was named to the helm of the internationally acknowledged, one volume Naval Institute reference Combat Fleets of the World in 2002.

In case you missed it the first time, especially for those whose fathers served in uniform, you owe it to yourself to listen to our interview with Stephen Rodrick about his book, The Magical Stranger: A Son's Journey into His Father's Life.You will really enjoy the interview, and I cannot recommend the book any greater. Buy it.Rodrick is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a contributing editor for Men's Journal. He has also written for New York, Rolling Stone, GQ, The New Republic, and others. Before becoming a journalist, Rodrick worked as a deputy press secretary for United States Senator Alan J. Dixon. He hold a bachelors and masters in political science from Loyola University of Chicago and a masters in journalism from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.