Midrats

Father's Day Best of from almost a year ago. Can't believe we have waited a year since we talked about Russia ... so with Syria in the news - it might be interesting to see what the view was a year ago. For the full hour we will have returning guest Dr. Dmitry Gorenburg, Senior Analyst, CNA Strategic Studies, an Associate at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and author and host of the Russian Military Reform blog.

Policy is never set - it is never agreed. As the global maritime security situation changes, so must the ideas and plans of nations. In the best Western tradition, it is generally accepted that more ideas, and more discussion is better in working towards the best solution to any challenge - especially national security challenges. One of the newer additions to the discussion are the writers at the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) Since they joined the conversation in force in 2012, what is their view of the state of vigorous debate in the maritime security arena? What do they see as the major issues no only on maintaining a healthy culture of "Creative Friction Without Conflict" - and what do they see as the major subjects that naval thinkers need to concentrate on? Our guest for the full hour will be Lieutenant Scott Cheney-Peters, USNR.  Scott is a Surface Warfare Officer in the Navy Reserve and government civilian on the OPNAV staff at the Pentagon. Scott is the former editor of Surface Warfare magazine and served aboard USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and USS Oak Hill (LSD-51). In 2012 Scott founded the CIMSEC, a non-profit think tank/website/group focused on maritime security issues. Scott is a graduate of Georgetown University and the U.S. Naval War College.

Narrow seas, unseen mines, punitive expeditions, and "come as you are" ASUW on the sea and in the air. Yes, it has been a quarter-century, but little has changed since the USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (FFG-58) struck a mine, and in retribution, the US Navy launched Operation PRAYING MANTIS. The tactical and operational aspects of each, as well as combat leadership, remain constant even while the tools may have changed a bit. To discuss this an more, our guest for the full hour will be BRAD T0N, author of "No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf," recently released by the Naval Institute Press in paperback and on Kindle.

The show we had in July of 2011 was one of our better, as it showed two sides of "leave no one behind" from two very different wars. Especially the second half of the show, you'll shake your head a bit. History does echo, often in the same countries. 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.Unbroken at the time of the airing of this show was #9 on Amazon in general, and #2 in Military History.  Laura's previous works include Seabiscuit. Our guest for the second half of the hour will Michael R. Caputo of  The Intrepid Project - people doing all they can to bring some shipmates home.  He is here to talk about 12 Sailors who have been abandoned in a mass grave in a mass grave in Libya.

How did the US Marine Corps and local tribal leaders turn the corner in Fallujah?  Who were the people on the ground, Iraqi and American, who were the catalyst for the change that brought about a sea change in the tactical, operational, and strategic direction in Iraq? Our guest for the full hour to discuss that and more will be author Bill Ardolino. We will use as a base of our discussion his new book, Fallujah Awakens: Marines, Sheikhs, and the Battle Against al Qaeda. Bill is the associate editor of The Long War Journal. He was embedded with the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Army, the Iraqi Army, and the Iraqi Police in Fallujah, Habbaniyah, and Baghdad in 2006, 2007, and 2008, and later with U.S. and Afghan forces in Kabul, Helmand and Khost provinces in Afghanistan. His reports, columns, and photographs have received wide media exposure and have been cited in a number of academic publications. He lives in Washington, DC.

There could be only one show from last year for this year's Mothers Day: For the career minded Naval professional, to have a chance for the greatest advancement and promotion, you have to push and push hard. The reputation you build in your first 10 years sets the tone for the rest. Except for very rare exceptions, there are no second chances. There are no pauses, one iffy set of orders, one poorly timed FITREP, and you are on an off-ramp. You must work harder, you must sacrifice, and if you are to have a family young, you need a very strong support structure.For men - there is always the RADM Sestak, USN (Ret) option; wait until post O6, then start. For women though, there are some hard biological facts. The average American woman gets married at age 26. For college-educated women the average age at first birth is ~30. If you want to have more than 2 kids, you need to start earlier. You need to time it right - and Mother Nature has her own schedule that doesn't often match yours.With women making up more of the military than ever, what are the challenges out there biological, cultural, psychological, and relationship wise to "making it happen?" You can't have it all - but how do you get the best mix you can?We will have two guests on to discuss. For the first half hour we will have Major Jeannette Haynie, USMCR, a 1998 graduate from the US Naval Academy, AH-1W Cobra pilot, and  currently a Reservist flying a desk at the Pentagon and working through graduate school - and fellow blogger over at USNIBlog. The second half of the hour, our guest will be Robyn Roche-Paull, US Navy Veteran, wife of a Chief, ICBLC, and author of the book Breastfeeding in Combat Boots.

Last month saw the newest shipbuilding plan hit the streets. Is this good news, more of the same, or are there some systemic issues that are being painted over? What can the Navy expect over the next few years as the defense cuts bite deeper and the battle for wedges of the defense budget pie heats up. Using their latest article in RealClearDefense as a starting point, our guests will be Mackenzie Eaglen, Resident Fellow at the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and Bryan McGrath, Director, Delex Consulting, Studies and Analysis.

If the requirement is to be able to operate, fight, and win in the Littorals - is the Littoral Combat Ship the answer? Other nations have the same requirement - yet have come up with different answers. Are we defining our requirements properly in face of larger Fleet needs and the threats we expect? What platforms and systems need to be looked at closer if we are to have the best mix of capabilities to meet our requirements? Using his article in Armed Forces Journal, Go smaller: Time for the Navy to get serious about the littorals, as a stepping off place, our guest for the full hour will be Milan Vego, PhD, Professor of Joint Military Operations at the US Naval War College.

The events of the last week in Boston has brought back to the front of the national conscience what, for the lack of a better description, is known as The Long War. The threats we face are both domestic, foreign, and increasingly a mixture of both. Communication and transportation has created a breed of transnational threats that are not new, and whose causes, resources, and threat vectors are not as opaque as some may try to make them. Starting out and working in, what are the lessons we should emphasize to mitigate the ongoing threat? As we continue in the second decade after 9/11/2013, what are we doing correctly, what still needs to be done - and what things are we wasting time and money on for little gain? To discuss, our guest for the full hour will be Steven Bucci, Director, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

It is all around us; from poor program decisions to significant budgetary stresses that are only recently starting to bite - the large US Navy Fleet straddling the globe is contracting. What are the initial, second & third order effects of the decreasing presence of the US Navy. Is it permanent, relative, or can fewer numbers be made up in other ways? Join Sal from CDR Salamander and EagleOne of EagleSpeak in a wide ranging discussion along with their guest Seth Cropsey, Senior Fellow from The Hudson Institute and author of the new book, Mayday: The Decline of American Naval Supremacy..