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The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Jake Bebber discusses his work related to the concept, challenges, and potential responses to cognitive warfare. Jake explains how cognitive warfare uses technology to manipulate cognition and behavior, emphasizing its distinction from traditional information warfare and its potential impact across various domains. The conversation covers the need for a structured ontology to understand and address cognitive warfare, as well as the importance of maintaining American values while developing strategies to combat these threats. Recording Date: 5 May 2025 Research Question: Jake Bebber suggests an interested student or researcher examine several topics, such as: How to protect personal privacy in an environment of persistent cognitive manipulation. The legal, moral, and ethical boundaries related to cognitive warfare. How cognitive warfare impacts alliance structures. How to fortify critical infrastructure against attacks that blend tangible and intangible elements in the cognitive space. How to ensure democratic systems remain tenable. The best ways to organize and compete in the cognitive warfare space, including identifying key stakeholders beyond traditional national security ecosystems. Lessons that can be drawn from the past, especially the Cold War, regarding competition with a long-term peer competitor. Resources: Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned #212 Libby Lange on Algorithmic Cognitive Warfare Cognitive Competition, Conflict, and War: An Ontological Approach by Jake Bebber Cognitive Competition, Conflict, and War by Jake Beber Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense by James Giordano Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense by Jonathan D. Moreno Minds at War: China's Pursuit of Military Advantage through Cognitive Science and Biotechnology By Elsa B. Kania James Giordano Cognitive Security Institute Link to full show notes and resources Guest Bio: Robert “Jake” Bebber is an officer in the United States Navy. He has served at various locations throughout his career, including Fort Meade, US 7th Fleet, Carrier Strike Group 12, Information Warfare Training Command-Corry Station, and US Special Operations Command. He holds a PhD in public policy from the University of Central Florida. His writings have appeared in Proceedings, Orbis, Journal of Information Warfare, Journal of Political Risk, Comparative Strategy, and elsewhere. He is supported by his wife, Dana, and their two boys, Vincent and Zachary. About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn. Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

This episode is part 4 in our series with Joe McMoneagle.   Joe was a US Army intelligence veteran already before he was chosen to be a part of the psychic intelligence unit at Fort Meade, Maryland, in 1978. He became known as “Remote Viewer No. 1″ within Project Stargate. Project Stargate was the United States' first organized research into psychic phenomena via the Defense Intelligence Agency and contractor SRI International. He is an author and also founder of Intuitive Intelligence Applications Inc. Today, he also teaches Remote Viewing at The Monroe Institute, a leading center in exploring human consciousness. We continue to follow Joe in the deep-end of his experiences. We start with telepathy and lying, language as an inhibitor and a protector, an incredible near death experience in East Germany, love v empathy, a life review and remembering, heaven and hell, being shards of a whole, more out of body experiences, losing the fear of death and dying, and reaching more people who are suffering. “As living entities what we are is perhaps the grand engineer or the architect of reality trying to understand what it is.” 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:19 Telepathy Before Language 00:03:55 Telepathy Tapes 00:10:38 The Link Between Autism and Telepathy 00:12:50 Joe's Near Death Experience - "Which One?" 00:31:55 The Cause of Death in the Near Death Experience 00:40:09 What Exists After Death 00:48:12 Could Humans Just Be Shards of a Larger Being? 00:53:07 What Deja Vu Is 00:58:38 Continuous Learning 01:06:40 Fixing Anaesthesia Complications with Coca-Cola? See here other previous guests mentioned:  - Dr. Diane Hennacy re telepathy (ep 113) https://behindgreatness.org/episode/dr-diane-hennacy/ - Natalie Sudman re NDE (ep 97) https://behindgreatness.org/episode/breaking-down-our-beliefs/ Previous episodes/discussions on Behind Greatness with Remote Viewers: Russell Targ (ep 80) – Co-Founder, SRI Institute https://youtu.be/7Gw3fIFI73k Courtney Brown (ep 131) https://youtu.be/_jCZzPgdzcM Stephan A. Schwartz (ep 155) https://youtu.be/0E6jhiMd7Dk Stephan A. Schwartz (ep 156) https://youtu.be/VATz-Y59UiY Lyn Buchanan (ep 163) https://youtu.be/K2Ig3C88BxQ Nancy DuTertre (ep 167) https://behindgreatness.org/episode/nancy-du-tertre/ Paul H. Smith (ep 180) https://behindgreatness.org/episode/dr-paul-h-smith/ Joe McMoneagle:  - Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joseph-McMoneagle/author/B00MD24CZW?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_5&qid=1728261714&sr=1-5&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true - Parapsychological Association: https://www.parapsych.org/users/jmcmoneagle/profile.aspx - Monroe Institute: https://www.monroeinstitute.org/pages/trainer-joe-mcmoneagle - IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2140996/ Listen to Behind Greatness: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/67B5chxVFze3EWUgs9iPJg - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-greatness-by-inspire-north/id1511953342 To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here (as a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors): https://behindgreatness.org

  Cybersecurity Response Plan w/ Frank Grimmelmann of ACTRA   - AZ TRT S06 EP03 (264) 2-9-2025                 What We Learned This Week ACTRA Arizona Cyber Threat Response Alliance Cyber threats affect everyone from Gov't to business to private and growing Companies need to be responsive with speed to be effective + share information of attacks ACTRA has members from both government and private sector ACTRA helped create a state cybersecurity response model that other states can use     Guest: Frank Grimmelmann https://www.actraaz.org/actra/leadership President & CEO/Intelligence Liaison Officer   Mr. Grimmelmann also serves as Co-Chair (together with Arizona's Chief Information Security Officer) for the Arizona Cybersecurity Team (‘ACT'), created through the Governor's Executive Order signed in March 2018. He also serves as a Founding Member of the National Leadership Group for the Information Sharing & Analysis Organization Standards Organization (‘ISAO SO') at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), created under the President's Executive Order 13691 in February 2015. As ACTRA's leader, Mr. Grimmelmann was invited as the first private sector representative in the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC) and served as its first private sector Executive Board representative from 2014-2019. He presently acts as ACTRA's designated private sector liaison to ACTRA's Key Agency and other non-Member Stakeholders.    Mr. Grimmelmann served four terms as AZ InfraGard's President from 2009-2012, serves today on numerous academic advisory boards, co-Chairs the Greater Phoenix Chamber's Cybersecurity Workforce Collaborative initiative, and is an engaged Member of the Arizona Technology Council's Cybersecurity Advisory Board.  In 2019, Mr. Grimmelmann was honored by the FBI, and the Board of Directors of both ACTRA and Arizona InfraGard as the first recipient of Arizona InfraGard's ‘Visionary Award' for creating the ACTRA framework  over his last 2 terms as Arizona InfraGard's President, and ACTRA's resulting collaboration between law enforcement/ intelligence agencies/USCYBERCOM, and its public, private and academic organizations over the past 7 years.   He was simultaneously recognized by the FBI's then Deputy Director for his contribution over the years. He remains an active Member of InfraGard since 2003 and an active Lifetime Member of the FBI Citizens Academy since 2006.   Since 2002 he has devoted his full-time attention to protecting our nation's critical infrastructure and national security interests, through eliminating unnecessary silos that hinder communication, allowing  us to respond to today's increasing threat from our cyber adversaries, and in turn permitting ACTRA's Member Organizations to protect their critical infrastructure and our national security interests, while protecting their organization's assets .   Educationally, he holds a dual MBA in International Business and Finance from the University of California at Berkeley and brings decades of experience as a senior executive in finance, healthcare and government, prior to focusing on Cybersecurity in response to 9/11.          Notes:   Seg 2   Cyber threats affect everybody, business, personal, and government. Cyber crime is a fact of life that we need to live with it, but stay ahead.   Criminals are on the offense and only have to be correct 1% of the time. Everybody else is playing defense and has to be right 100% of the time.   AI is an advanced tool that is turned out to be a two edge sword, can help and hurt. AI can only catch so much but can give a few of what is going on.   This is a matter of national security, dealing with homeland security and many other departments of the government.   You have threat intelligence to determine roles on how you're going to handle hackers and ransom ware. Hackers can be local or foreign.   All companies need a cyber policy and some sort of rapid tactical response.   Cyber attacks are an ever growing threat to people and businesses, and continue to surge in 2024. There was 107% surge in malware attacks.   These are on corporate computers, computers at work or home computers or even Home devices like Ring. You get a text through devices, phishing attacks.   Company business email can be compromised in an attack, people's passwords come out and it leads to millions of dollars in losses. Elderly people are very vulnerable, 353,000 attacks.   You have supply chain threats by terrorist and nation state actors. There was a recent attack on United Healthcare for 100 million. People‘s information was exposed. This led to a $22 million ransom payment.   Cyber attacks cause $2.9 billion in damages. Companies are paying ransom to faceless criminals. Very tough for the FBI to be tracking down on these criminals and try to fend off the extortion of stolen data.   Payments for ransom could be made through Bitcoin, which is difficult to trace, though it leaves somewhat of a forensic trail. Constant need for regulation and oversight from the government.   Famous incident last year was not even an attack, but the Crowdstrike software update. ACTRA had a quick response that day. One that helps clients and partners recover fast. In a similar instant, Delta was down for weeks with computer problems.   When you think about what goes on with banks back to 2008 - what loans they have on balance sheet and then off balance sheet securitized - not regulated like normal loans.   Issues with underwriting standards on loans. Not even sure what can be affected in a Cyber attack. Off balance sheet loans and debt is similar to crypto or Bitcoin where it is not being regulated.   PPD-41 was a directive to show responsibilities of government agencies and dealing in cyber. You had homeland security as a defensive arm to protect the nation's assets.   Enforcement is done in the US by the FBI. Overseas it's done by US Cyber Command.     Seg 3   Frank background in the 1990s in private business, worked in healthcare. Then was the chief info officer and the only 2000s at clinical in Stanford. Healthcare is very vulnerable.   Post 9/11 he worked with FBI outreach program called InfraGuard on how to share intelligence with cyber threats. Needs to be treated like terrorism or criminal acts, though they're taking stolen IP. Need to move to a more stable world.   2011 study was done by government organizations to review the process and make recommendations on how to deal with counterterrorism and cyber.   90% of the critical infrastructure in the US is in the private sector. They do need Fed level help, but have also have a local response. Cyber threat actors move quickly and act like a terrorist organization.   General Stanley McChrystal had a great quote, ‘It takes a network to defeat a network.' Cybersecurity is everyone's problem. You need education and organization. This is a 5th generation problem and you have to be adaptive.   ACTRA is a nonprofit dealing with cyber security. They've got pillars of empowerment, trust technology and intelligence. Need for the private companies to develop to train and recruit to handle this threat.   They created a model which allows to bring the fight on offense - and all work together sharing information. Virtual response team, small and big with the private sector as a partner.   ACTRA is a hub for info, and keeps its member information private. Some members are public like Arizona State. Actual model can be used for the rest of the nation. Government and private cannot do it alone. Not all states have this type of organization, but probably need it.     Seg 4   ACTRA started in January 2013. Give U.S. states a model for cyber security. Collective defense and share information with public and private organizations. The goal is to breakdown silos between government and the corporate world.   Not just a thing tank, has an active model. Review of ACTRA model is best in the country and a good hub for response and info.   In 2015, they helped Wisconsin create their own state organization for cyber threats. Soon after, Maryland created one using ACTRA as a model. Needs to be an effort of collaboration, merge the construct of entrepreneur spirit to take action.   So the government cyber threats are handled nationally at a Fort Meade, where the NSA is.   Frank's background in business in finance and healthcare fields.   Info is useless if not used for action. You need actionable intelligence that is current to take down a threat. You need more than continuing education and certificates for people, must go beyond this.   Virtual response team like a local militia who can help protect assets. Going after cyber criminals can be a little bit like a whack a mole.   Overtime, hopefully there will be a national strategy for info sharing. A type of decentralized and local organization that work with government.   The private sector owns the vast amount of data so they have to determine who they're going to share it with and how.   Defend vs Cyber fast while still working within the spirit of the law.       Seg. 1 Clips from Related Shows: Cybersecurity, Disruption, Blockchain & Terrorism w Ari Redbord of TRM Labs - BRT S02 EP31 (78) 8-1-2021     What We Learned This Week Cybersecurity is extremely important industry for national security TRM Labs startup in cyber-security, monitors blockchain OFAC - Gov't administers economic and trade sanctions Ransomeware – specific breach, takeover of a computer system, holds data hostage Programatic Money Laundering – bad guys create new addresses, create ‘shell' companies   Guest: Ari Redbord, Head of Legal and Government Affairs w/ TRM Labs https://www.linkedin.com/in/ari-redbord-4054381b4/ https://www.trmlabs.com/post/trm-labs-appoints-ari-redbord-as-head-of-legal-government-affairs   Ari is formerly a US Attorney, and worked in the Treasury Department, now advises the Government on cybersecurity, and Blockchain. Cybersecurity is a fast growing and extremely important industry for national security, and corporate interests. There are Nation States acting as bad players in the cyber realm and targeting the US Government and US business. We discuss the advancements in technology on cyber crime, blockchain, crypto, and online fraud. How is the FBI dealing with Ransomware, and other cyber attacks on prime targets like the Colonial Pipeline, or other big corps. What Regulations are coming in banking, and Fintech, with KYC (Know Your Customer), plus the big banks like JP Morgan Chase and Goldman are on board.  What the blockchain ledger can help solve in security, to monitor criminal activity in real time with the help of crypto exchanges like Coinbase.  Lastly, what TRM Labs does for clients, how they advise, operate, and who they work with.   Full Show: HERE     Phishing, Malware & Cybersecurity - Try Not to Get Pwned - BRT S02 EP47 (94) 11-21-2021   What We Learned This Week:   Have I been Pwned? Means have I been breached / hacked – did someone hack my email or website Phishing – most common type of email threat, like when you receive a strange email with a link – Do Not Open – DELETE (and alert other office staff of the email) Ramsonware – hack your website, or data – hold it hostage for an extortion ‘ransom' payment Dark Web – where stolen data, & info is being bought & sold VPN Connections – direct and secure   Guests: Vince Matteo, Seven Layer Networks, Inc. https://sevenlayers.com/ Vince Matteo is a certified penetration tester, a security researcher, and a senior consultant at Seven Layers (.com) where he focuses on securing small businesses.  Vince is the author of "Hacking 101 – A Beginner's Guide to Penetration Testing", he's a bug bounty hunter with 17 published critical vulnerabilities, and he's presented talks on offensive hacking at security conferences -- most recently GrrCON in Grand Rapids, MI and BSides in College Station, TX.  Outside of work, Vince is an accomplished endurance athlete, an Ironman age group champion, and in his spare time, you can find him in the desert -- training for the next hundred-mile ultramarathon.    Full Show: HERE     Biotech Shows: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Biotech-Life+Sciences-Science   AZ Tech Council Shows:  https://brt-show.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=az+tech+council *Includes Best of AZ Tech Council show from 2/12/2023   Tech Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Tech-Startup-VC-Cybersecurity-Energy-Science  Best of Tech: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=best+of+tech   ‘Best Of' Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Best+of+BRT      Thanks for Listening. Please Subscribe to the AZ TRT Podcast.     AZ Tech Roundtable 2.0 with Matt Battaglia The show where Entrepreneurs, Top Executives, Founders, and Investors come to share insights about the future of business.  AZ TRT 2.0 looks at the new trends in business, & how classic industries are evolving.  Common Topics Discussed: Startups, Founders, Funds & Venture Capital, Business, Entrepreneurship, Biotech, Blockchain / Crypto, Executive Comp, Investing, Stocks, Real Estate + Alternative Investments, and more…    AZ TRT Podcast Home Page: http://aztrtshow.com/ ‘Best Of' AZ TRT Podcast: Click Here Podcast on Google: Click Here Podcast on Spotify: Click Here                    More Info: https://www.economicknight.com/azpodcast/ KFNX Info: https://1100kfnx.com/weekend-featured-shows/     Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts, Guests and Speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent (or affiliates, members, managers, employees or partners), or any Station, Podcast Platform, Website or Social Media that this show may air on. All information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes. Nothing said on this program should be considered advice or recommendations in: business, legal, real estate, crypto, tax accounting, investment, etc. Always seek the advice of a professional in all business ventures, including but not limited to: investments, tax, loans, legal, accounting, real estate, crypto, contracts, sales, marketing, other business arrangements, etc.  

In this conversation, Chris Glanden interviews Scotch Wichmann, a multifaceted individual with a rich background in cybersecurity and paranormal studies. Scotch shares his journey from a young hacker to a cybersecurity expert at Meta, discussing his experiences with paranormal phenomena and his research into psychic hacking. The conversation delves into the U.S. government's Stargate program, which explored remote viewing for military purposes, and Scotch's own experiments in psychic hacking, raising questions about the intersection of technology and the paranormal. In this conversation,they discuss the fascinating intersection of psychic abilities and cybersecurity. They discuss a blackbox experiment designed to test psychic phenomena, revealing surprising results and implications for security. The conversation explores how psychics can inadvertently gather information, the potential dangers of psychic hacking, and the importance of imagination in cybersecurity. Scotch shares insights on developing psychic abilities, future research projects, and personal experiences with haunted locations, culminating in a creative discussion about a hypothetical cybersecurity-themed bar.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Introduction to Scotch Wichmann and His Journey09:52 - The Intersection of Cybersecurity and Paranormal Experiences19:33 - Exploring the U.S. Government's Stargate Program28:15 - Psychic Hacking: A New Frontier in Cybersecurity34:10 - The Black Box Experiment35:28 - Psychic Insights and Surprising Results39:53 - Collusion and Confidence in Psychic Abilities42:11 - Developing Psychic Abilities44:30 - The Dangers of Psychic Hacking46:14 - Cybersecurity Implications of Psychic Phenomena49:49 - Defending Against Psychic Attacks56:36 - Imagination in Cybersecurity59:53 - Future Research and Projects01:01:29 - Connecting with Scotch Witchman01:02:34 - Haunted Bars and Personal Experiences01:04:35 - Creating a Cybersecurity-Themed BarSYMLINKS:Scotch Wichmann's Website - https://www.scotchwichmann.comA personal website featuring Scotch Wichmann's work, including cybersecurity insights, performance art, and paranormal research.Psychic Hacking Experiment - https://www.psychicexperiment.orgA website detailing Scotch Wichmann's experiment on psychic hacking, including methodologies, results, and raw data for public review.Stargate Project - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project_(U.S._Army_unit)Wikipeida page based on a secret U.S. Army unit established in 1977[1][2] at Fort Meade, Maryland, by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and SRI International (a California contractor) to investigate the potential for psychic phenomena in military and domestic intelligence applications.CIA Declassified Documents on Remote Viewing -https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/The CICONNECT WITH USwww.barcodesecurity.comBecome a SponsorFollow us on LinkedInTweet us at @BarCodeSecurityEmail us at info@barcodesecurity.com

Kenya Sabbat is a Senior Principal Talent Acquisition Business Partner for Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems business unit. Focused on hiring in the Fort Meade area, Kenya is also a former career coach. Be sure to catch her three tips for your cleared resume.3:04 Northrop Grumman has about 100k employees and Mission Systems has about 20k employees.6:07 Most of the positions Kenya is hiring for require a TS/SCI and above and an on-site presence in the Annapolis Junction area. 4/10 and 9/80 schedules are available as well.9:58 The company's shared values include: Do the right thing. Do what we promise. Commit to shared success. We pioneer.Find complete show notes at: https://clearedjobs.net/northrop-grumman-mission-systems-hiring-technical-talent-podcast/_ This show is brought to you by ClearedJobs.Net. Have feedback or questions for us? Email us at rriggins@clearedjobs.net. Sign up for our cleared job seeker newsletter. Create a cleared job seeker profile on ClearedJobs.Net. Engage with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, or YouTube. _

Just a stone's throw from the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, the National Cryptologic Museum displays dozens of rarely seen codebreaking machines that, quite literally, changed the course of history. We revisit our tour and chat with the museum's director, Vince Houghton.

Podcast: PrOTect It All (LS 24 · TOP 10% what is this?)Episode: Episode 37 - Protecting Critical Infrastructure: A Roundtable on Industrial Cybersecurity StrategiesPub date: 2024-12-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this episode, host Aaron Crow shines a light on the collaborative spirit that unites these professionals as they confront contemporary cybersecurity challenges. It features a roundtable discussion with industry veterans: Pascal Ackermann, Senior Threat Protection and Response Engineer; Brett Seals, expert in incident response and threat detection; and Gabriel Sanchez, head of the Advanced Threat Protection Center The discussion takes listeners on a journey through both nostalgic tech, with mentions of the Tandy TRS-80, and the pressing issues of today, such as ransomware threats. The guests delve into the delicate balance between old and new technologies, the intricacies of integrating IT and OT security, and the evolving skill sets needed in the field. From power plant vulnerabilities to global geopolitical ramifications, the episode underscores the critical importance of securing essential infrastructure. Listeners will hear shared histories, stories of past crises, and these experts' proactive solutions. Topics range from cloud and artificial intelligence trends to the crucial need for workforce development. This episode provides a detailed, engaging, and educational experience for anyone interested in cybersecurity.   Key Moments:    10:43 Incident detection parallels between the control room, SOC. 13:58 Integrating safety programs into utility sector operations. 19:24 Balancing risk vs. cost of device replacement. 24:10 Immediate support is needed for 24/7 operations critical. 32:21 OT and IT share the same protection goals. 34:59 Focus: Enhancing asset management and system visibility. 39:42 Early hacking: dialing, shared networks, pranking neighbors. 44:32 Shift towards active technology use in OT. 50:58 If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 55:37 Defending infrastructure and impacting global mission together. 59:52 Issues transcend borders; global cooperation is needed.   Guest Profiles:    Brett Seals is an expert in instant response and threat detection engineering, currently working at the firm 1898. Before joining 1898, Brett garnered a decade of invaluable experience in the United States Navy, where he supported both expeditionary and cybersecurity operations. During his Navy tenure, he served at the Navy Cyber Defensive Operation Command, the Navy's equivalent of a Security Operations Center (SOC), managing a fleet of sensors. Brett also spent considerable time around the Fort Meade area. As the COVID-19 pandemic began, he transitioned from his military role to his current position, continuing his commitment to cybersecurity in the private sector. Gabriel Sanchez embarked on his professional journey in the early 2000s, transitioning from college into what we now recognize as a burgeoning career in cybersecurity. Initially, Gabriel found himself working as a contractor for the Department of Defense, focused on missile simulations and charged with the responsibility of protecting their network—an early, hands-on introduction to cybersecurity before it even had a formal name. Following this formative experience, Gabriel spent the next decade in the electric utility sector, stepping into a groundbreaking role to establish an entirely new cybersecurity program from scratch. His trailblazing efforts in this novel position underscored his capability and foresight in an evolving digital landscape.   Pascal Ackermann is a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in controls engineering and operational technology (OT), having entered the field in 1999. Throughout his career, he has focused on building resilient and secure OT networks. For the past year, Ackermann has specialized in helping customers make sense of security events within their environments. He assists clients in discovering and interpreting security incidents, providing insights into their relevance and impact. Additionally, Ackermann and his team are equipped to respond to security breaches, offering on-site services to recover, remediate, and ensure systems are back up and running efficiently. His deep expertise makes him a trusted resource in cybersecurity for OT environments.   Connect Brett at https://www.linkedin.com/in/iambrettseals/ Connect Gabriel at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielsanchez-1898andco/ Connect Pascal at https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-ackerman-036a867b/ Company Website at  https://1898andco.burnsmcd.com/   Connect With Aaron Crow: Website: www.corvosec.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronccrow   Learn more about PrOTect IT All: Email: info@protectitall.co  Website: https://protectitall.co/  X: https://twitter.com/protectitall  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PrOTectITAll  FaceBook:  https://facebook.com/protectitallpodcast    To be a guest or suggest a guest/episode, please email us at info@protectitall.coThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Aaron Crow, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors Thanks again for joining us at Behind Greatness. This episode is part 3 of a developing series with Joe. Joe was a US Army intelligence veteran already before he was chosen to be a part of the psychic intelligence unit at Fort Meade, Maryland, in 1978. He became known as “Remote Viewer No. 1" within Project Stargate. Project Stargate was the United States' first organized research into psychic phenomena via the Defense Intelligence Agency and contractor SRI International. He is an author and also founder of Intuitive Intelligence Applications Inc. Today, he also teaches Remote Viewing at The Monroe Institute, a leading center in exploring human consciousness. We picked up where we left off from our part 2 chat. We hear about intelligence “collections” in the psychic program, a peculiar collaboration with a high profile Russian remote viewer, remote viewing Mars at the request of the DoD, coffee with a former director of the KGB, a wonderful story about the grey ghost, dinners at the Mermaid Inn, the importance of burping and farting in intelligence work, travelling the cosmos - and dying. … to be continued?… Ingo Swann talk: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SGZ2BAlWTg Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_KWV40aZLc Previous episodes/discussions with Remote Viewers: Russell Targ (ep 80) - Co-Founder, SRI Institute Courtney Brown (ep 131) Stephan A. Schwartz (ep 155, 156) Lyn Buchanan (ep 163) Nancy DuTertre (ep 167) Paul H. Smtih (ep 180) Joe, Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joseph-McMoneagle/author/B00MD24CZW?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_5&qid=1728261714&sr=1-5&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Parapsychological Association: https://www.parapsych.org/users/jmcmoneagle/profile.aspx Monroe Institute: https://www.monroeinstitute.org/pages/trainer-joe-mcmoneagle IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2140996/

Send me a DM here (it doesn't let me respond), OR email me: imagineabetterworld2020@gmail.comToday I'm honored to introduce you all to: Raytheon whistleblower, former Navy firefighter and contractor for Raytheon, Stargate Project and MK ULTRA survivor, travel lover, and a man on a mission to help circumnavigate the gatekeepers of the ‘disclosure commodity' market: Eric HeckerWhen I met Eric, I was familiar with his story of being a whistleblower for witnessing highly advanced directed energy weapons – which we often call ‘DEWs' on this podcast – being used for crimes against humanity during his time at the South Pole Facility in Antarctica he was stationed at and has testified to congress under oath about. Having listened to a few of Eric's interviews, it's shocking, alarming, and very disturbing to listen to his first-hand experiences and to consider the implications on humanity that his claims hold. While we have spoken in length on this podcast about DEWS, electronic mind control, and how these advanced technologies are being used to target individuals – also known as ‘targeted individuals' or ‘TI's' – but what most other interviews featuring Eric haven't touched much on are his experiences as a child having been sold into the CIA's Stargate and MK ULTRA projects. I was really thrilled when Eric agreed to come shine a light on this part of his testimony today, and how his childhood experiences may add context to the path he took as an adult and the things he saw and experienced in Antarctica.We know from listening to survivor testimonies on this show that there are very little coincidences in a survivor's life and that much of their life has been engineered and manufactured to fulfill different roles and duties in society – unbeknownst to them. I believe that Eric's full disclosure of what he went through as a child will really bring validity and insight as to how and why he ended up in Antarctica as a contractor for Raytheon to begin with.For context on Stargate Project - if you are new here - and according to Wikipedia: “The Stargate Project was a secret US Army unit established in 1977 at Fort Meade, Maryland, by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and SRI International – which, if you guys remember, we have had 3 Stanford Research Institute (AKA SRI) survivors on this podcast - to investigate the potential for psychic phenomena in military and domestic intelligence applications. The Stargate Project's work primarily involved remote viewing and the purported ability to psychically "see" events, sites, or information from a great distance.” Eric comes to us today to disclose and share some of the most vulnerable moments of his life out of a personal and moral obligation to shine a light on the darkness that exists in the world that is all but hidden from the general public. While there appears to be a concerted effort to control the mainstream disclosure movement, it will be heroes like Eric who help us break through the controlled narrative by connecting public disclosures of all kinds to child behavior modification programs and government-sponsored child slavery – something very few have the courage to do. It's the piece that is missing from most disclosure movements. Eric is extremely passionate about helping to bring awareness to organized child abuse and crimes being committed against innocent children through our government and governments all over the world, and he is one of the few whistleblowers that was asked to give testimony for both the Senate Intelligence Committee and AARO. His shared testimony will be getting entered into the National Archives.CONNECT WITH ERIC: Website: Home - Deciphering My ExperienceSupport the show

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors   Thanks again for joining us at Behind Greatness. This episode is part 2 of a developing series with Joe. Joe was a US Army intelligence veteran already before he was chosen to be a part of the psychic intelligence unit at Fort Meade, Maryland, in 1978. He became known as “Remote Viewer No. 1" within Project Stargate. Project Stargate was the United States' first organized research into psychic phenomena via the Defense Intelligence Agency and contractor SRI International. He is an author and also founder of Intuitive Intelligence Applications Inc. Today, he also teaches Remote Viewing at The Monroe Institute, a leading center in exploring human consciousness. We plunge into the deep end again - and immediately into Joe's experience and partnership with the Monroe Institute, out of body experiences, lucid dreaming training, travelling the cosmos, the magic of being human, bubbles, artists and their contribution to humanity, how to live a good life – and waiting in the essence.   …  to be continued…   Previous episodes/discussions with Remote Viewers: Russell Targ (ep 80) - Co-Founder, SRI Institute Courtney Brown (ep 131) Stephan A. Schwartz (ep 155, 156) Lyn Buchanan (ep 163) Nancy DuTertre (ep 167) Paul H. Smtih (ep 180) Joe, Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joseph-McMoneagle/author/B00MD24CZW?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_5&qid=1728261714&sr=1-5&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Parapsychological Association: https://www.parapsych.org/users/jmcmoneagle/profile.aspx Monroe Institute: https://www.monroeinstitute.org/pages/trainer-joe-mcmoneagle IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2140996/

Neal Stephenson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of novels including Termination Shock, Seveneves, Cryptonomicon, and Snow Crash. His works blend science fiction, historical fiction, and cyberpunk, exploring mathematics, cryptography, philosophy, and scientific history. Born in Fort Meade to a family of scientists, he holds a degree in geography and physics from Boston University. As noted by The Atlantic, his prescient works anticipated the metaverse, cryptocurrency, and AI revolution. His latest novel is Polostan, the first installment in his Bomb Light cycle. Shermer and Stephenson discuss: professional and speculative fiction writing, the interplay of genetics and fate, historical contingency (particularly regarding Hitler and nuclear weapons), atomic bomb development and ethics, game theory in nuclear deterrence, cryptocurrency, AI advancement and mind uploading, human evolution, Mars colonization politics, and philosophical concepts like Peirce's Fallibilism and Platonic realism.

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with the National Cryptologic Museum's Associate Director of Education, Jenn Robertson, to learn more about their upcoming STEM Festival taking place this year on Saturday, Nov. 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To learn more about this upcoming event, visit https://www.nsa.gov/press-room/news-highlights/article/article/3918349/stem-fest-engineering-ideas-into-reality/.

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors Thanks again for joining us at Behind Greatness. This episode was recorded with Joe in June 2024 and is part 1 of a developing series with Joe. Joe was a US Army intelligence veteran already before he was chosen to be a part of the psychic intelligence unit at Fort Meade, Maryland, in 1978. He became known as “Remote Viewer No. 1" within Project Stargate. Project Stargate was the United States' first organized research into psychic phenomena via the Defense Intelligence Agency and contractor SRI International. He is an author and also founder of Intuitive Intelligence Applications Inc. Today, he also teaches Remote Viewing at The Monroe Institute, a leading center in exploring human consciousness.   During this introductory episode, we get exposed to some of Joe's military adventures from the Vietnam war – falling out of a helicopter, breaking his nose multiple times while under enemy fire and taping himself to the top of a tree for 14 hours. We learn about his recruitment into the then classified remote viewing intelligence program and the ensuing 40+ years as one of the worlds most accomplished remote viewers. Joe helps us understand what remote viewing is and what it isn't, the operationalization of the practice, using the skills to help police department and detectives across the US in missing children cases, the need to “unlearn your habits” and the uphill battle he's been fighting for a long time. And, so much, much more.  … to be continued… Previous episodes/discussions with Remote Viewers: Russell Targ (ep 80) - Co-Founder, SRI Institute Courtney Brown (ep 131) Stephan A. Schwartz (ep 155, 156) Lyn Buchanan (ep 163) Nancy DuTertre (ep 167) Paul H. Smtih (ep 180) Joe, Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joseph-McMoneagle/author/B00MD24CZW?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_5&qid=1728261714&sr=1-5&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Parapsychological Association: https://www.parapsych.org/users/jmcmoneagle/profile.aspx Monroe Institute: https://www.monroeinstitute.org/pages/trainer-joe-mcmoneagle IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2140996/

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with Fort Meade Suicide Prevention Coordinator Miguel Sierra to talk about the importance of Suicide Prevention Month.

What are the signs of vitamin D deficiency? Vitamin D greatly influences the systems of our body from ensuring calcium supply to our bones to strengthening our immune system. We normally get this vitamin from foods, supplements, and the sun's rays, but when something goes wrong and we face vitamin D deficiency, our body systems may break. For example, sweating that seems a little excessive or not brought on by anything particularly obvious, however, can be a sign that you're lacking vitamin D. So what other signs show a deficiency, how serious is the problem, and what can you do to get more of it? Here at Bright Side, we've studied the most common symptoms of low vitamin D levels and we want to tell you what we've found. TIMESTAMPS: You sweat excessively 1:01 Your bones often ache 1:35 You have muscle pain 2:11 You get sick all the time 2:47 You can't seem to stay energized 3:26 When you get cuts or bruises, they take forever to heal 4:03 You notice more hair falling out of your head than usual 4:52 You can't shake the feeling of sadness 5:25 What can you do to get more of vitamin D? 6:26 #vitamind #vitamindeficiency #lackofvitamins Preview photo credit: FORT MEADE, Md. Sweat drips down the face of a U.S. Army Reserve Soldier from the 200th Military Police Command during a Spin class as part of a Performance Triad program organized by the command and hosted on Fort Meade, Maryland, May 9, 2017. The three-week fitness program took place from May 5-25 to help Soldiers who had either failed the Army Physical Fitness Test or had been on the Army Body Fat Composition program. The camp focused on the triad of overall health: physical fitness, nutrition and sleep, by providing education and personalized coaching to Soldiers in all three of those phases of life and more: By Master Sgt. Michel Sauret/U.S. Army Reserve, https://www.usar.army.mil/News/Images... Animation is created by Bright Side. Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/ Subscribe to Bright Side : https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook:   / brightside   Instagram:   / brightgram   5-Minute Crafts Youtube: https://www.goo.gl/8JVmuC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Silicon Valley couldn't be farther from the confines of Langley or Fort Meade, let alone Beijing or Moscow. Yet, the verdant foothills of suburban sprawl that encompass the Bay Area have played host to some of the most technically sophisticated espionage missions the world has ever seen. As the home of pivotal technologies from semiconductors to databases, artificial intelligence and more, no place has a greater grip on the technological edge than California — and every nation and their intelligence services want access. It just so happens that almost no national security reporter sits on this beat. Nearly all cover the sector from Washington, or in rare cases New York. All except one that is: Zach Dorfman. Zach has been driving the coverage of the technical side of espionage operations for years, and his pathbreaking scoops about China's unraveling of the CIA's network of operatives in the early 2010s were widely read in DC officialdom. Now, he's published two blockbuster features, one in Politico Magazine on the FBI's attempts to intercede in the chip trade between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. at the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, and the other in Rolling Stone on a deep-cover agent and the very human consequences of state-to-state skullduggery. Zach and host Danny Crichton talk about Silicon Valley's history in industrial espionage, the tricky mechanics of intercepting and disabling chip shipments to the Soviet Union, why the U.S.S.R. was so keen on learning the market dynamics of computing in America, the risks for today's companies around insider threats, Wirecard and Jan Marsalek and finally, some thoughts on Xi Jinping and how China's rollup of the CIA's mainland intelligence network affected his leadership of America's current greatest adversary. Produced by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Christopher Gates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Ko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Just a stone's throw from the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, the National Cryptologic Museum displays dozens of rarely seen code breaking machines that, quite literally, changed the course of history. We take a tour and chat with the museum's affable director, Vince Houghton.

In a recent interview on the Fort Meade Declassified podcast, incoming Garrison Commander Col. Yolanda Gore shared insights into her upcoming role and her diverse military career.

Being a life-long blind person I have never served in the military and thus only understand the military way of life vicariously. There is reading about it, of course and there is talking to military people about their lifestyle. Today you get to hear a conversation not only about military life, specifically the army world, as it were, from a 20-year career soldier, Chase Spears who recently retired from the military as a major in the army. Chase grew up always interested in the news and what was going on in the world around him. He attended college, both undergraduate studies and later graduate work at universities in Tennessee. Along the way an army recruiting officer persuaded him to join the army. By that time, he was well married to a woman who, surprising to him, supported his decision to leave college and join the army. Chase's telling of this story is wonderful to hear. As you will see, he is quite the storyteller.   He and I talk a great deal about the world of a soldier, and he puts a lot of things into perspective. For those of you who have served in the military much of what you hear may not be totally new. However, since Chase served in public affairs/relations duties throughout most of his army career, you may find his observations interest. Chase and I had a good free-flowing and informative conversation. I personally came away fascinated and look forward to talking with Chase again in the future. A few months ago, Mr. Spears retired and entered into a doctoral program at Kansas State University where he is conducting research concerning how military life impacts the citizenship of those who serve. You will get to hear a bit about what he is finding.   About the Guest:   U.S. Army Major (Ret.) Chase Spears is first and foremost a Christian, Husband, and Father to five children who help to keep him and his wife young at heart. Having grown up with a passion for news and policy, Chase spent 20 years in the Army as a public affairs officer, trying to be part of a bridge between the military and the public. He merged that work with a passion for writing to become one of the Army's most published public affairs officers, often to resistance from inside the military. Chase continues that journey now as a doctoral candidate at Kansas State University, where his dissertation research explores how military life impacts the citizenship of those who serve. His other writings focus on topics including civil-military dynamics, communication ethics, and the political realities of military operations.   Ways to connect with Chase:   LinkedIn/X/Substack/Youtube: @drchasespears www.chasespears.com   About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Hi there and welcome once again to unstoppable mindset. And we have a I think really interesting show today are interesting episode we get to chat with major retired Chase Spears. I've been saying ret all morning because he's got Rhett in parentheses. And I didn't even think about it being not a name but retired. But anyway, that's me. Anyway, he has been involved in a lot of writing in and out of the military. He was a major military person for 20 years. He's now in a doctoral candidate program, Kennedy C candidacy program. And my gosh, there's a lot there, but we'll get to it also. Major Rhett major Chase spears. Welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here.   Chase Spears ** 02:13 just thrilled to be with you, Michael. Thanks for having me. Now   Michael Hingson ** 02:17 that now that we've abused you with Rhett, but that's okay.   Chase Spears ** 02:20 I think God worse. Well, there   Michael Hingson ** 02:22 you are. And by your friends, I bet. So that's what really makes them more fun. But we're but I really am grateful that you were willing to come on and spend some time with us. Why don't we start I love to, to start this way to give people a chance to get to know you. Why don't you tell us some about the early Chase spheres and growing up and all that stuff?   Chase Spears ** 02:44 Well, it's yeah, it's been quite a journey. I grew up in the southeast us My family was out of Florida. And when I was a teenager, we ended up moving we went out to Texas, which was really just kind of a an entire change of culture for us. If you can imagine going from the kind of urban parts of Florida that are really highly populated a lot of traffic, a lot of tourism, a lot of industry. And we went up to North Central Texas in my teen years. And if you can imagine going from from that, you know, Florida to a town of about 9000 people it was a an oil and agricultural cattle town, and Graham, Texas and it was really kind of a culture shock at first, but turned into some of the best and most formative years of my life where I I really learned the value of hard work working on the fields with my dad really got to kind of connect with nature and just taking some gorgeous sunsets in the evenings out working in the fields enjoying the views of the wildlife Hall. I was out working. But one thing that I did learn from hard manual labor, was it made sure that I kept on track for college. And so I ended up going to Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee in 1998. Right after I graduated from high school, I was homeschooled and met my Hi my sweetie there, Laurie. We were married by senior year we decided neither one of us we wanted to graduate and leave the other one behind. So we got married start a family pretty young afterwards. Went on to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville afterwards because I thought, hey, I want to work in journalism. And it'd be great to have a master's degree in journalism to prove my commitment to the field make people take me seriously. And it was during that time that I ran into an army recruiter while I was working my part time job at a law firm. I was working at the courthouse one day filing paperwork. And this gentleman and I just struck up a conversation in an elevator he was there in his full dress uniform was very impressive to me as a civilian at the time. And so I started asking him questions about what he did. In what army life was like just trying to be friendly, conversational, I was genuinely curious, though I was not looking for a military career. Well, as a good recruiter does, he managed to coax a phone number out of me. And seven months later there I am raising my right hand, swearing into the army in Knoxville, Tennessee. And so we were in the army for 20 years, we moved to several different parts of the nation, we've landed in northeastern Kansas, just on the outskirts of the Greater Kansas City, Missouri area. And now we're kind of starting a new phase of life after the army enjoying being kind of planted Gayndah. Watch our kids grow in a smaller community. And we're excited about what's next. So   Michael Hingson ** 05:42 what is the postdoc? Where are the doctoral degree in, that you're seeking.   Chase Spears ** 05:47 So I am in a program entitled leadership communication. But I'm kind of a misplaced public policy scholars what I've learned, but the faculty there have been so wonderfully gracious to me, and I've been very supportive of my research agenda. So I'm a career communicator. In the army, I was a public affairs officer. So everything I did was about stuff like this. I didn't community engagement, I did interviews, I was did social media strategy, I was part of the bridge that the military tries to build between it and the public, which is incredibly important in our form of governance. And so I love all things communication. And I also love team leadership, small organizational leadership, I had the chance to, to lead teams, I had the chance to lead a company while I was in the army, so fell in love with that. So when I saw a degree program that merged both of those, you know, they had me at hello, I was a sucker from the get go when I saw the marketing. So I applied and they very kindly accepted me. So I've been studying leadership communication, but my research agenda is actually more in the policy realm. My dissertation work is studying how did we come to this concept that the military isn't a political and air quotes institution, when it is funded by the government when it is commanded by elected leadership? When when we exert our national will, on other nations with it there absolutely political connotations to all of that. And And yet, we kind of say the opposite. So I was curious, I was like, this would be something fun to explore, how did we How did we get to where we believe this in spite of what we do? And so that's what my research Jind agenda is all about. And I'm having a lot of fun writing.   Michael Hingson ** 07:37 Well, and I guess we could go right to why well, so why do you think the reason is that we are not a political but we say we are? Oh, are you still researching it to the point where you're not ready to answer that yet? Well, I   Chase Spears ** 07:57 have, I have some theories and what I believe are pretty educated guesses. I'm trying to make sure that I don't bore your audience going too deep in the weeds on this. It's really kind of comes out of the Second World War. When you look at the history of the United States. Traditionally, we are a nation, our ancestors were part of a nation that were really cautious about the idea of having large standing military forces during peacetime. Because there had been this historical observance over hundreds of years, particularly in Europe, that large forces during peacetime ended up causing problems for society and the nations that bred large armies inevitably found ways to use them, that might not always be to the benefit of the populace. So we come out of the Second World War, and the nation has decided we're going to become the global military superpower, we didn't want to be caught off guard again, like we were for what Germany had done in the years after the First World War. And we also have a rising Russia, we need to counter that. So we decided as a nation, yeah, we will become a global, permanent, large, highly industrialized, highly institutionalized force. Well, how do you gain public support for that when the public has traditionally for hundreds of years been very, very suspect of that and very much against it? Well, Samuel, in walk Samuel Huntington, a brilliant political scientist who writes the book, the soldier in the state, and in it he proposed a theory of military supervision in which officers would abstained from voting and then over time that grew legs into Okay, well, now we're just not involved in politics and then in time that grew legs into where a political, but if you go around the force and ask most people what that means, if you ask them to define that word, few would actually be able to define it. It's one of those kind of discursive terms that we've come up with kind of like for the public good. Well, what is for the public good? Can you actually define that, and it's largely often in the eyes of the beholder. So that that's where I believe it came from, I'm still doing quite a bit of work and reading in that. But historically, it's very fascinating to see where we've come and just 70 years on that topic. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 10:25 And also, we're in a phase of all of that, where it seems to be at least that it's changing and morphing again, I mean, with what's happened in the last seven years in this country, and the, the lack of desire for discourse, the the desire on some people's parts to really involve the military and a lot of things. It seems like we're possibly changing again, or perhaps even strengthening the military in some way. And I'm not sure what that is.   Chase Spears ** 11:04 We there's really kind of been somewhat of a public backlash, the last, I'd say, five to 10 years, we saw an increasing comfort with military members publicly advocating for political policy for political parties, which is absolutely within their constitutional right to do, George Washington himself said, we did not lay aside the citizen to assume the soldier. But again, that that discourse coming out of the Second World War, really kind of conditions the American public to think that when you're in the military, you do give up your rights to expression that you do give up your rights to citizen agency, and, and, and meaningful involvement in civic processes. And while we do rightly give up some expressive rights, and that is captured and codified in military regulations, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, there's some legitimacy to that argument. But I would say, you know, if you're, if you're holding a ruler in your hand, the regulations kind of restrict us somewhere between the two and three inch mark on the ruler, whereas the perception that's just kind of come out of the repetition of these terms and ideas is more that we're up around the nine or 10 inch mark on the ruler, if that makes any sense for you. So we we've seen in the last few years, more military people being willing to get involved politically, and there has been somewhat of a backlash to it. And therein is the problem. You if you're going to hold to a belief to a doctrine to a discursive claim, then you have to match it. And the military is really kind of at a point right now they have a decision to make, are we going to hold on to this discourse to this idea? Or are we going to acknowledge that? Well, the regulations are much less restrictive than what people have been led to believe? It's it's a tough spot to be there's not a perfect answer, to help the institution requires cracking down on constitutional freedoms. And well, what is the institution there to serve? So it's a very sticky issue?   Michael Hingson ** 13:11 Well, it does seem to me that in no way, because the person becomes a soldier. And even in their oaths, do they give up the right to be a citizen of the country? So I'm with George Washington?   Chase Spears ** 13:26 Oh, absolutely. No, I am with with George Washington himself, you know, the greatest American? And I think we would, it's a, it's a good reminder of the importance of knowing our history and knowing where we came from. It's in my interviews with military members on this topic. In my research, I'm finding that that like me, most of them were just kind of told these things verbally. They were never pointed to the actual rules. They were never actually pointed to the actual laws. I only know the regulations because I have a personal fascination on the topic. And I went and looked them up. But no one ever told me where to find them. That was research on my own team and figure out where do I look for this. So it's, we really need to do better, nationally, to know our history and know where we came from.   Michael Hingson ** 14:14 We do have a really interesting paradox in the world, because we've gotten in the last two government administrations, to different views of not only how to govern, but to a degree how the military needs to be a part of it, and that's gonna not be very helpful to things either.   Chase Spears ** 14:34 Absolutely. The the military at the end of the day is controlled by the Civilian governance. Now. I'll acknowledge that General Mark Milley didn't really seem to think so and there have been other figures in military history who MacArthur being one of them who who seemed to challenge who was actually in charge of the military. But at the end of the day, constitutionally, we We are governed by by civilians. And that that is right, that is proper any anything else would be a coup and you don't want that. So we, it comes down to how does the military try to hold a consistent line? When you have governments that change every two to four to eight years and have drastically different perspectives on policy? How do you as a military hold an even keel and another wise stormy sea. And in previous generations, we had senior general officers who were pretty good at that they were pretty good at saying, regardless of what the ship of state is doing, the ship of military is going to remain on a heading to serve everyone. And there's been somewhat of a lack a breakdown of discipline at the senior ranks in the last probably 10 years, that's really kind of shuttered the ship of the military. And I think the current some of the recently promoted, general officers understand that I think General GA is the new Chief of Staff of the Army, I think he understands that and he's trying to do some things to reintroduce some stability, but it's a hard thing.   Michael Hingson ** 16:16 Yeah. And the other part about it is that the military, in some ways is a part of society. So we've had things like the whole Don't Ask, Don't Tell dealing with LGBTQ types of issues. And, and of course, even women in the military, and there's been a lot of things that haven't necessarily been as visible as they have become, and are issues that we are starting to face and deal with more. But it seems to me that the military, like it or not, is part of society. And we do need to recognize that collectively, as well.   Chase Spears ** 17:02 We were absolutely drawn from society. We serve society, we exist, you know, for the protection of society. But I will say there's one thing that's all always kind of set Western militaries apart a little bit, and the US military hails from that Western tradition of understanding that just because society chooses to take a move in one direction, doesn't necessarily mean that it's in the national security interest of the United States for the military, to follow suit. And then there's kind of a reason that the military has always tried to, in some way, set itself apart, of acknowledging that there's some things that society will do or want to that are affected by the times as Shakespeare himself noted, there's always a tide in the affairs and man, the tide comes in the time tide goes out the the, the winds shift. And but one thing that was said at the military part was this idea of, at the end of the day, if it's a societal change that enables us to better defend the nation, then that's the direction we'll move. If it's a societal change that could potentially be a friction point or cause additional challenges in securing the nation, we might, we might think on that one a little bit harder, we might be a little more a little slower to adopt that. And we've seen that has kind of broken down the military is very much going out of its way to be reflective of society. And in some ways that can be good in some ways that's caused additional unnecessary frictions to the force and is rightly being having questions asked about it.   Michael Hingson ** 18:45 And that's where having good solid leadership in the military at the highest echelons, has to be an important part of it, because that's where ultimately, the direction that the military goes, is at least in part, going to be authored. Yes, there is a civilian government that and civilian commander in chief, but still the military leaders have to really be the ones mostly to figure out where the military should go in terms of policies and how it deals with different issues or not, I would think.   Chase Spears ** 19:27 And the key word that you hit on there, Michael is leadership. Back a few months ago, I wrote a piece that was published by real clear defense called seven new things the new Sergeant Major of the Army could do to restore trust in the force. And the argument that I made his predecessor was one who was very kind of reactive to the, to the whims you might say, of a the younger generation of soldiers. He was very much all over Twitter about telling me your issues. Let me get involved in your issues. And he was, in some ways a very divisive, senior official in the military. And I equated it to you, you want to look at kind of the British constitutionalist position, the British Crown, if you're looking overseas, it has traditionally been something that it's kind of the rock, unmovable, unshakable, the parliament will do what parliament will do that the Tories and Labour will do what they will do, but the crown is unmovable the crown serves all. And that's kind of something that the military reflected, and I call out to the new rising generation military leaders to remember that, to remember that we don't own this, we owe nothing in the institution, we all leave it one day, as I left it a matter of weeks ago. All I have are my memories and and hopes that I was able to leave some things better than I found them and that the people I served that I hope I served them well. But at the end of the day, we hand it off to someone else. And it's so important for to have good leaders who recognize that we we steward the profession, that we we want to do the best we can with it in our time, and recognize the decisions that we make, will impact those who serve long after our time and do our best to hand it off in the best possible condition that we can for them. Because then to the to society, we returned. And then we depend on this who came after us for our national defense. And so it's the steward mindset to me as key.   Michael Hingson ** 21:41 Yeah. Well, and going back a little bit. So you're in graduate school you got recruited in and accepted and went into the military. What did you do? What was it like when you first went and that certainly again, had to be quite a culture shock from things that you would experience before? Ah,   Chase Spears ** 22:02 yeah, I figured absolutely was you'll never forget your first shark attack at basic training for for anyone who's unfamiliar with that, it's when you once you've done your initial and processing there, whatever base you get your basic training at, for me, it was Fort Jackson in South Carolina. And then they eventually buss you off to your your training companies, which is where you will actually conduct your combat training. This is after you've received your uniforms and done all your finances, paperwork, and life insurance and all that. And then the buses stop and the drill sergeants, they're just there waiting for you. And it's a moment you never forget. And of course, you jump off the bus and they're giving you all these commands that they know it's impossible for you to, to execute to any level of satisfaction. And then when you fail, as you inevitably will, you know, the entire group just gets smoked over and over and over again. And I remember that moment just having that realization of I have not in Kansas anymore, like the next next few months of my life are about to be very different than anything I've ever experienced. And it was it absolutely was. I got through that. And I think the first thing that was really kind of shocking to me be on to the training environment was the use of last names. So yeah, I go by chase my friends call me chase people who know me call me chase. I'm I'm not hung up on titles. I'm a simple guy. In the military, you are your rank and last name. I was specialist Spears sergeants First Lieutenant spears or LT Captain spears, major spears. And I remember at my first unit, there were other other people who in my unit there were the same rank as me. And so I thought were peers I'd call them by their first name. And they never gave me problems about it. But our higher ups would you know, people have rank spears, we don't go by first names spears. And I never I never 20 years and I still never really adjusted well to that I learned how to how to keep myself from getting as many talking to us about it over the years is I had in previous times. But that was a culture shock. And, and just the the constant what we call the military, the battle rhythm, you know, civil society would call it your work schedule, while in the military. It never really ends your day start very early. You have physical training that you're doing with your unit at 630. Depending on what unit you're in, you may be off at a reasonable time in the late afternoon, early evening, or you may be there. I've remember staying at work one night till 4am Just because the boss gave us a job to do. Frankly, it was an unreasonable job. But he gave us a job to do and an extraordinarily tight deadline and it took us till 4am to get the job done and And I was at work by 630, the next morning. So you never, ever really do get used to that in some ways, because you kind of come to accept it. But it's been really eye opening to me in the last nearly three months now that I've been now, looking back and having some control over my schedule now for the first time in 20 years, and realizing, wow, that was such a foreign existence I lived. But when you're when you're swimming in a fishbowl, you don't know you're wet. So every time you do adapt to it, but it's been neat being on the other side and realizing, you know, can kind of breathe in and start to have some say over what a schedule looks like, because I'd forgotten what that was, what that'd be like.   Michael Hingson ** 25:44 But as you rose in the ranks, and I assume took on more responsibility, did that give you any more flexibility in terms of how you operate it on a day to day basis.   Chase Spears ** 25:56 It all depended on the position, there were there were some jobs I had, where were, regardless of the rank, I had flexibility. And then there were other jobs, where I absolutely did not even as a major want, there was a job that I had, where the boss was very adamant. This is the time you will be here and you will be sitting at this desk between these hours and you are authorized authorized is a big term in the military culture, you are authorized a 30 minute lunch break period. And you will be here until this time every day. And this was when I had you know, I think I was at my 1718 year mark. And I remember thinking to myself, golly, do I need to ask permission to go to the bathroom to see, it seemed I didn't. So it really kind of depended on your job. There's a perception a lot of times that the higher you go in rank, the more control you have over your life. And I observed that the opposite is actually true. The higher you go, typically, the more the more demands are placed on you. The more people are depending on the things that you're doing. And and the bigger the jobs are. And the longer the days are was my experience, but it had been flooded depending on what position I was in at the given time.   Michael Hingson ** 27:17 Now, when you first enlisted and all that, what was Laurie's reaction to all of that.   Chase Spears ** 27:23 I was shocked. She was so supportive. She actually grew up in an Air Force household. And so she knew military life pretty well. Her dad had been been in, he spent a lot more time in the air force than I did the army. And then even after he retired from the Air Force, he went on and taught at the Naval Academy as a civilian. So she is just always had a level of familiarity with the military as long as she can remember. She joked with me that when she got married to me and then had to give up her dependent military ID card that it was kind of a moment of mourning for she didn't want to give that thing up. So one day, there we are Knoxville, Tennessee, and I approached her. And I'm trying to be very careful, very diplomatic, very suave, and how I bring it up to her and let her know I've been thinking about the army. And I'm kind of curious what she might think about that. Because it'd be such a drastic lifestyle change from everything we've been talking about. And I was bracing for her to look at me and be like, are you insane? And instead, she was like, Oh, you won't get in the military. And I get an ID card again. Yes. She was she was supportive from from Jump Street. And so you talk about a wife who just was there, every minute of it, and loved and supported and gave grace and rolled with the punches. milori Did she was absolutely phenomenal. Though, I will admit when it got to the point that I was starting to think maybe 20. I'll go ahead and wrap this up, because my original plan had been to do 30. But when I started talking with her about that she was she was also ready, she was ready to actually start having me home regularly for us to be able to start making family plans and be able to follow through with them. Because we had the last three years we had not been able to follow through with family plans, because of the different positions that I was in. So she was very, very supportive of me joining and then she was equally very supportive of me going ahead and and calling it calling it a day here or the last just at the end of this year. But what a what a partner could not have done it   Michael Hingson ** 29:41 without her. So where did she live when you were going through basic training and all that.   Chase Spears ** 29:46 So she stayed in Knoxville for nonGSA. Yeah. And then from there, she actually ended up moving up to her dad's and his wife's place up in Maryland because my follow on school after base See training was the Defense Information School. That's where all the Public Affairs courses are taught. And it's so happens that that is located at Fort Meade, Maryland, which is just about a 45 minute drive traffic dependent from where her dad lived. So while I was in basic training, she went ahead and moved up there to Maryland so that while I was in school up there, we could see each other on the weekends. And then from there, we didn't have to go back to Tennessee and pack up a house or stuff was already packed up so we could get on the road together there to wherever our next duty station was. And it turned out funny enough to be Colorado Springs, Fort Carson. And here's why that's funny. When, when I approached Laurie, about joining the army, one of the things that she was really excited about was seeing the world if you're in the military, you get to see the world, right. And my first duty assignment was the town that she had grown up in, because her dad had spent the last few years of his career teaching at the Air Force Academy there on the northern end of Colorado Springs. So so her her dreams of seeing the world with me, turned out that our first tour was going to write back home for her.   Michael Hingson ** 31:14 Oh, that has its pluses and it's minuses.   Chase Spears ** 31:17 Yep. So it was neat for me to get to see where she had grown up and learn the town little bit.   Michael Hingson ** 31:23 I've been to Fort Meade, and actually a few times I used to sell technology to folks there. And then several years ago, I was invited to come in after the World Trade Center and do a speech there. And so it was it was fun spending some time around Fort Meade heard some wonderful stories. My favorite story still is that one day somebody from the city of Baltimore called the fort because they wanted to do traffic studies or get information to be able to do traffic studies to help justify widening roads to better help traffic going into the fort. So they call it the fort. And they said, Can you give us an idea of how many people come through each day? And the person at the other end said, Well, I'm really not sure what you're talking about. We're just a little shack out here in the middle of nowhere. And so they ended up having to hire their own people to count cars for a week, going in and out of the fort was kind of cute.   Chase Spears ** 32:23 Well, there's quite a bit of traffic there. Now that basis when   Michael Hingson ** 32:26 I was then to there wasn't just a little shack, of course, it was a whole big forest.   Chase Spears ** 32:32 Yeah, yeah, it's I was back there. Golly, I want to say it wasn't that long ago. But it was about five years ago now is back there. And I almost didn't recognize the place. There's been so much new built there. But oh, I know, as far as army assignments go, it's a it's a pretty nice place.   Michael Hingson ** 32:50 Yeah, it is. And as I said, I've had the opportunity to speak there and spend some time dealing with folks when we sold products and so on. So got to got to know, people, they're pretty well and enjoyed dealing with people there. They knew what they were doing. Yeah,   Chase Spears ** 33:07 yeah, that's a it's a smart group of people in that base.   Michael Hingson ** 33:10 So you went through basic training and all that and what got you into the whole idea of public relations and what you eventually went into?   Chase Spears ** 33:20 Well, I had studied in college, my undergraduate degree was in television and radio broadcasting. My master's was in journalism, I'd grown up kind of in the cable news age, and the at the age of the emergence of am Talk Radio is a big, big tool of outreach. And I grew up thinking, this is what I want to do. I love communication. I actually thought it'd be really neat to be an investigative reporter on if, if you remember, back in the 90s, it was this big thing of, you know, Channel Nine on your side, yeah, had this investigative reporter who tell you the real deal about the restaurant or the automotive garage. And I always thought that would be amazing, like what a great public service like helping people to avoid being ripped off. And so I wanted to be a news. I'm sure you're familiar with the Telecom Act of 1996. That That caused a tremendous consolidation of media for your audience who might not be familiar with it. It used to be that really, if you had the wherewithal to buy a media station or a television station or radio station, you were unlimited in what you could you there were limits, I should say on what you could buy, so that you couldn't control too much, too much media environment, the Telecom Act of 1996, completely deregulated that and so large media companies were just swallowing up the nation. And that meant there's a tremendous consolidation of jobs and the my junior year in college. I was in the southeast us at the time at Lee University. Atlanta. Nearby was our biggest hiring media market, my June Your year CNN laid off 400 people. So I could tell really quick, this is going to be a chat and even more challenging field to break into than I thought. And that's why I ended up working part time in a law firm was in, in Journalism School. Afterwards, because I was looking great. I was looking for a backup plan. I thought if journalism doesn't work out, I also love the law. It'd be nice to get some experience working in a firm to see if I want to go to law school. So it was a natural fit for me when the army recruiter started talking to me. And he was asking me what I was interested in. And I told him, Well, here's what my degree is in, here's what my career plan had been, here's who I really want to do with my life. And he said, we have public affairs, I said, What's that? It turns out, the military has radio stations, and they have television networks and you PR, I had no idea. I was a civilian. And I was like, Well, that sounds good. And so I thought, yeah, sure, I'll I will enlist for that come in, do one four year contract, I'll build a portfolio and and then I'll be able to take that portfolio out into the civilian realm. And hopefully that will make me more competitive for a job in the news market. And of course, a couple of years into that. I was in Kuwait deployed to camp Arif John. And my brigade commander sat me down to lunch one day, and made it very clear that he expected me to apply for Officer Candidate School, which was nowhere on what I was interested in doing was nowhere on my radar, I applied, I really didn't have a lot of confidence. I thought, I looked at officers and I thought they were people who are way, way more intelligent than me, way more suave than me. And I really didn't know if I'd get in, well, I got in. And after I commissioned officer candidate school is about like basic training all over again. So that was fun. And I ended up being assigned to a combat camera unit. And then afterwards, I was able to put my paperwork in to branch transfer right back into public affairs, it was a perfect mess was everything I wanted to do. I didn't get to work in news directly. I wasn't a reporter. But I got to work with reporters, I got to be an institutional insider and help facilitate them and help to tell the stories of what some great American patriots were doing, and wanting to serve their countries. And so it was, for the most part, more often than not, it was a really, really fun way to earn a living living.   Michael Hingson ** 37:34 I collect as a hobby old radio shows I'm very familiar with but back in the 40s was the Armed Forces Radio Service, then it became Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. And so I'm aware a little bit of, of the whole broadcast structure in the military, not a lot, but but some and know that that it's there. And it does, I'm suspect, a really good job of helping to keep people informed as much as it can as they can with the things that they have to do in the world. It's   Chase Spears ** 38:04 definitely it's a comfort over the years, if you're spending a lot of time overseas to have kind of that that taste of home and our forces network does a really good job of that letting I think we're starting to see some debates inside the military. Now. What do we want to continue of it? Because now information is so ubiquitous, if you will, you can pull it down, you can stream whatever you want, wherever you are in the globe. So I kind of wonder in the next 1020 years, will it still be a thing, but during my early career during my early deployment before he could stream stuff, it was really cool to have an AFN radio station to tune into is really cool to have an AFN television network to tune into to be able to get a taste of home. That was much a comfort,   Michael Hingson ** 38:52 right? Yeah, it is. It is something that helps. So you can't necessarily stream everything. I spent a week in Israel this summer. And there were broadcasts I could get and pick up through the internet and so on. And there were stuff from here in the US that I couldn't get I suspect it has to do with copyright laws and the way things were set up but there was only so much stuff that you could actually do.   Chase Spears ** 39:20 And what a time to be in Israel you will I bet that trip is even more memorable for you now than it would have been otherwise.   Michael Hingson ** 39:27 Fortunately, it wasn't August. So we we didn't have to put up with the things that are going on now. But still Yeah, it was very memorable. I enjoyed doing it. spending a week with excessively over there and got into getting to meet with with all the folks so it was definitely well worth it and something that that I will always cherish having had the opportunity to do get   Chase Spears ** 39:51 for you. If it's on my bucket list. I've always wanted to spend some time over there.   Michael Hingson ** 39:56 Hot and humid in the summer, but that's okay. Let's say but they love breakfast. Oh, really? So yeah, definitely something to think about. Well, so you, you joined you got you got the public relations, jobs and so on. So how did all that work for you over? Well, close to 20 years? What all did you do and what, what stories can you tell us about some of that?   Chase Spears ** 40:25 It was it was fascinating. It was fascinating because everything that I got to touch was, in some way a story. And so my first job was in radio and television production. I did quite a bit of that in Kuwait. And it was actually there that I got my first taste of crisis communication, and I was immediately addicted. Do you remember back in? It was December 2004. Donald Rumsfeld said you go to war with the Army you have not the army want or might wish to have it another time? Yeah. I was there. That that was uttered in camp you're in Kuwait. And that was such an interesting moment. For me in terms of a story to tell. I was with the 14 Public Affairs Detachment we were deployed to camp Arif John to provide public affairs support for for Third Army's Ford headquarters. This was back during the height of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so there's a lot of military going over there. We were part of that. And I remember hearing this tasking that had come down that the Secretary of Defense is going to come out here is going to do this town hall meeting with the troops. There's going to be no question that you can't ask. You're going to be allowed to say anything you want to say to the Secretary of Defense, nothing's going to be scripted, nothing's going to be put through for review. And by the way, 14 pad you guys are going to make sure that it can be televised live back to the United States. And so here I am thinking what can possibly go wrong. And so we helped we all the event, Secretary Rumsfeld hindered and handled it really, really well. They set up this big, you know, fighting machinery display, they're in a in a big aircraft hangar epic camp bearing which is in northern Kuwait, just not too far south from the Iraqi border. And he gets up he gives the speech. He's well received by the troops. And it goes to the q&a part. And soldiers were asking him all sorts of questions. Most of them are jovial, you know, hey, when when do we get to go to Disney World, stuff like that. They were kind of big jocular with them.   Michael Hingson ** 42:42 Seems a fair question.   Chase Spears ** 42:44 Yeah, you know, I felt them right. And so finally, this one guy, I'll never forget his name, especially as Thomas Wilson from the 2/78 Regimental Combat Team. Tennessee National Guard asks him a question about when are they going to get the body armor that's needed? And in true Rumsfeld style, he's he says, Well, I'm not quite sure I understood the question. Can you ask it again, which is a great technique. He used to buy him some time to think the answer. And then it came back after the second question. And the whole hangar about 1000 of us in there. It was hast. I'll bet you could have heard a plastic cup hit the floor at the back back of the room. I mean, everyone was like, what? Oh, no, what just happened? What's about to happen? And Rumsfeld makes that remark, you go to war with the army have not the one you want or need. Yeah. And and then the questions went on. And there was not be after that. There was no awkward moment for the rest of the time. And I and I thought, wow, that could have gone south. But it didn't cool. It was just it was neat to watch. I was running the television camera that caught the moment. I was in the room. And so we me and my sergeant had to stay up there the rest of the day because there were some other television network interviews with other officials that we were running the satellite transponder for. And it was a long day our commander was kind of being a jerk to us. So by the end of the day, we were tired we'd been up there sleeping on cots for a couple of days, we were kind of just ready to get back to data camp Arif, John to our beds and put the whole mission behind us. And then we drive to three hours through this pouring pouring rainstorm in Kuwait, and a Canvas side Humvee that's leaking. All you know, water just pouring into this thing on us. So we're done. We're done. We're done. We're like, we just want to get a bed. We get back to our base. We're offloading all the equipment, putting everything away. And at this point in time, I forgotten about the moment earlier in the day when that question was asked, and I walk in and there we had this wall of televisions you know, tracking all the different news networks back in the US and on all of them Their Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, you go to war with the army have not the army won or wish to have another time. And at that moment, I was like, it's about to be an interesting few weeks around here. And it turned out, it turned out indeed to be an interesting few weeks, an interesting few months. And I got to be on the front end of what the public affairs response to that looks like. And I can tell you, I've never seen armored vehicles flow into a place as quickly as they did in the following month. So the power of a message transmitted is a real thing. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 45:39 so whatever happened to specialist Wilson?   Chase Spears ** 45:44 I don't I don't know. I know that news coverage. When that news reporters were asking that very question and coverage that I saw said, Oh, his unit, his assured that nothing bad will happen to him. He was a national guardsmen, so he kind of fall under a different, different command structure than us. From time to time, I have wondered that and I've tried to look him up online, and just try to find out what happened to the sky and what was life like for him? I'd love to talk to him and ask alright, what was it like, man, what is your unit do? But I, I have no idea. I can't find him. I presume he's gone about his life and doesn't want to be famous about it. But it also goes back to National Guard culture versus active duty culture. We talked earlier about the citizenship aspect. And the National Guard gets that way more than the active component. At the end of the day, they demobilize. And they go home. Right, you're running into the same people you serve, with the church, at the grocery store, at the grocery store, at the PTA, places like this, some of them might be your neighbors. And so they have an entirely different outlook. This is what they do to serve the country when needed. And then they go on about their lives. I don't think you would have seen an active duty soldier ask that question. I really don't because the culture is so so markedly different. And there's a level of kind of freedom of thought and expression, present that guard that that is much more lacking in the active component.   Michael Hingson ** 47:19 Should there be more freedom, in that sense in the active component? Or do you think that it's really appropriate for there to be the dichotomy that you're describing?   Chase Spears ** 47:32 And the act of force you need discipline? You need a discipline force, who, when they're given a lawful order, will carry it out hastily, because lives could hang in the balance. That's absolutely important, and we can never lose that. But sometimes we can use discipline I say sometimes, often, more is the more appropriate term often we confuse discipline with silence. We confuse discipline with a lack of willingness to ask tough questions. We confuse discipline with just saying Yes, sir. When you know, in the back of your mind, there might be something you need to dig into more. We we need, unfortunately, since the end of the Second World War, going back to my comments earlier about this large, industrialized, institutionalized force we have it breeds careerists. It breeds a mindset that's fearful to ask tough questions, even if you know they need to be asked. Because you want to be promoted. Right? You want to get assignments, right. And it breeds a culture where you really are much more timid. Or you're much more likely to be timid than someone who's maybe a reservist or National Guard member. We need people who will ask tough questions. We don't need indiscipline, we don't rush showmanship, we don't need people who are being performative just to be seen. But there are valid questions to be asked is, you know, is US defense policy? Better set for a 400? Ship navy or a 300? Ship? Navy? That's a valid question. Is it better for us to use this route of attack versus that route of attack? Given the Give Me Everything we know, those are valid questions. We need people in the military who who are willing to be critical thinkers, and there are a lot of extraordinarily brilliant people in today's armed forces, as there always has been. But there is on the active duty side a culture that works against original thought and that's really to our detriment. And I think the manner in which the evacuation of Afghanistan ended is one more blatant indicator of that.   Michael Hingson ** 49:48 It was not handled nearly as well as it could have been as we have seen history tell us and teach us now   Chase Spears ** 49:56 Absolutely. i It broke my heart. I'm A veteran of that conflict I'm not one who cries easily, Michael but I can tell you that morning when I saw the some of the images coming out of cobbles especially there's a video of a C 17 cargo jet taking off and people literally hanging to and falling to their deaths. Just i i fell off, I fell off my on my run into a sobbing human being on this on the ground for a little bit it is there's a lot to process and it has continued to be a lot to process. And there again, there's a great example of why you gotta be willing to ask tough questions. There was no no reason at all. We should have abandoned Bagram and tried to evacuate out of downtown Cabo. But that's a whole nother conversation. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 50:52 Well, speaking of you, I understand that you weren't a great fan of jumping out of airplanes, but you got used to doing them? I   Chase Spears ** 51:01 sure did. Oh, yeah. I always thought that would just be something that no, I don't want to say no sane person would do. I mean, I enjoy watching skydivers, I think it's really cool. And obviously, they're saying, I never thought I'd be among them. I thought, Nah, that's just something, I don't think I'm gonna do that. And when I was an officer candidate school, I was roommates with a guy who had been to Airborne School earlier in his career. And he was like, man, don't do it. Don't let him talk you into going to Airborne School, though, you'll be stuck at Fort Bragg, you'll just you'll be broke all the time, you'll be hurting all the time, the army takes the fun out of everything. And he's right. To an extent the army does take the fun out of most things that touches. But I got to my first unit as an officer. So I'd done enlisted time for three years, then I went to Officer Candidate School. And then my first job as an officer was at the 55th combat camera company, which is not a full airborne unit, but it's a partial airborne unit. And they had a hard time keeping enough active duty paratroopers on hand. And so I remember day one, when I was in processing the unit, there are all these different places you go, when you're in process, you gotta go see the training room, and you got to go see the administrative room, and you got to go see the Transportation Office and all these places, and they're just checking your paperwork. And so I see the training room, and there's the sergeant in there. And he's looking through my list. And he's asking me all these questions, you know, when was your last PT test? Where's the last physical, you know, making notes on me for the unit record? And then he says, Do you want to go to Airborne School? And without thinking, I said, Absolutely not. I have no interest in going to Airborne School. And his reply to me was go ahead and get an airborne physical. And I thought, There's no way I'm ever getting an airborne physical because I'm not going to Airborne School. So a few weeks later, I'm in the unit, I'm more comfortable. And I'm across. I'm in a different office across the hall from where this guy worked. And I'm joking around with this other sergeant. And I'm like, sir, and you're just such a cool guy. Like you've got all together, you're, you're like everything I want to be when I grow up. What how do you do it? He said, Well, sir, you got to go to Airborne School. That's step one. The other guy across the hall ever hears that, you know, mouse ears, I don't know how. But he darts out of his office across the hall into this opposite we're in, looks me straight in the face and said, Did you say you want to go to Airborne School? Like no, is not what I said, I absolutely have no interest. I'm not going to Airborne School. And he again replies with schedule your physical. And I thought, I'm not going to disappoint me scheduling a fiscal. So I get back to my office that later that day. And I thought this guy is not going to give up. So I came up with this brilliant plan. It was smart, smartest plan you'll ever hear of, I'm going to pretend I'm going to get my airborne physical and then he'll forget about me, leave me alone. So I called him and said, Hey, Sergeant, what's the phone number I have to call them schedule an airborne physical and it gives me the phone number and the the name of the person to talk to and I said, Great. I'll talk to him. There were two or three other lieutenants set to show up to the unit next in the next month. So I thought he will assume I'm getting a physical which I'm not getting and there's other guys will show up and he will convince them to go and I will fall off his radar. I was incorrect. That was a bad bad miscalculation on my part, you might say a flawed operation   Michael Hingson ** 54:39 with your the and you were the one who was talking about brilliant people in the army Anyway, go ahead.   Chase Spears ** 54:43 I know I know. Right? Yeah, I am a paradox. And so that within an hour I get an email from him with my he's already put me in for school. I already have orders generated to go to jump school. And then he calls me he's like Hey, by the way, your report in like three weeks, I need your physical as soon as you can get it. And I thought this guy, I told him I'm not going to Airborne School. Well, at the same time, our unit commander was a paratrooper, and he loves jumping out of airplanes. And I had two or three paratroopers in my platoon who were underneath me. And I thought, There's no way I can go now. Because if I, if I get the commander to release me, one, I'll lose face with the old man. And I'll lose face with the troops that I lead because the soldiers have to compete for this. They're just giving it to me. And so I went, protesting, kicking, screaming the whole way. I hated ground week. I hated tower week. And then they put took me up to the 250 foot tower and dropped me off the side of it under a parachute. And I loved it. I was like, Oh, this is fun. I actually asked if I can do it again. And they said, they don't get what's right. So the next week, we go into jump week in there I am in the back of an airplane, and it comes to my turn to get up and exit it. And I do, and I get to the ground and I survive. And I literally just sat there and laughed uncontrollably because I couldn't believe I just jumped out of a plane. And it was my first of 40 jobs. So I was I was absolutely hooked from that moment on.   Michael Hingson ** 56:20 And what did Lori think of that?   Chase Spears ** 56:23 She was a little bit surprised. She She again, was supportive. But she was surprised she never thought it's something that I would take to and it ended up being a great thing for us. Because having been on jumped status, it opened the door for me to request the unit and Alaska that we ended up going to for six years, you had to be on airborne status to be able to go to that job. And so had I not going to jump school, I would not have qualified to go into Alaska for that particular job. And so it ended up being a wonderful, wonderful thing. But I would have never guessed it, it just it's another one of those poignant reminders to me that every time that I think I've got a plan, it's God's way of reminding me that he has a sense of humor, because what's going to work out is always going to be very different from what I think.   Michael Hingson ** 57:10 And you help Laurie see the world. So well worked out. Absolutely.   Chase Spears ** 57:15 Yeah, she we never, we never got to spend time together overseas. But Alaska was an amazing adventure. And, gosh, if if no one in your listeners haven't been there yet to go see a Sunday?   Michael Hingson ** 57:29 Yeah, I went there on a cruise I didn't see as much as I would have loved to but still, I got to see some of them. It was great.   Chase Spears ** 57:38 It's nothing like it. No. Now you   Michael Hingson ** 57:42 as you advance in the ranks, and so on you, you started being in public relations, being a communicator, and so on. But clearly, as you advanced, you became more and I'm sure were viewed as more of a leader that was kind of a transition from from not being a leader. And just being a communicator and doing what you were told to be more of a leader, what was that transition like?   Chase Spears ** 58:07 That was another one of those things that I would have never seen coming. After I did my three years as the spokesman for the Airborne Brigade. In Alaska, I ended up becoming the deputy communication director for US Army, Alaska, which was the highest army command there in the state responsible for 11,000 troops and their families in multiple locations. And I remember one day, my boss came to me and saying, hey, the general is going to give a speech to the hockey team at the University of Alaska, about leadership. And so I need you to write it. And I looked at him and I said, boss, all right, whatever he told me to write, but the general has forgotten more about leadership than I know, like, how do where do I start with this? And I don't remember the exact words, I think it was something to the effect of, you're smart, you'll figure it out. And so I put together a speech, it was by no means anything glorious, but it was the best I had to give that moment in time and what leadership was fully convinced that I was not one. And then over time, I there are people who spoken to me at their headquarters who called out leadership that I didn't see they were pointing out influence that I had there pointing out people who I was able to help steer towards decisions that I didn't realize that I didn't know and it made me start looking back in other parts of my career and realizing, Oh, my goodness, I actually led that team. This man actually looks to me for decisions. I actually I am a leader, I had no idea. There's something I always thought if if you were in the military and you're a leader, you were some grand master, you know, like, like Patton or Eisenhower and I didn't think think myself anything like that. And so finally, in 2015, I was offered A chance to take command of a company which in civilian terms, that's kind of like being the executive director, if you will, of an organization of 300 people. And I was so excited for it. Because by that point in time, I finally made the mental transition of saying, I'm not, I'm not merely a communicator, communicating is what I've done. But occasionally it's I've worked on delivering us on passionate about, by came to realize, I love that so much because communicating is a part of leading and, and I, I am a leader, it's just something. Looking back. Of course, my life has always been there, I just never knew it. I never saw it, I never believed in it. And so by the time I was offered the chance to command, I was very excited for it, I was very eager for it, because I realized this is going to be an a wonderful adventure getting to lead a team at this level of this size. And it was the hardest job I ever did in the army, and the most rewarding. I don't know if you've ever watched any of the Lord, Lord of the Rings movie. But there's this moment where Aragon is being chided, is set aside the Ranger Be who you were meant to be to be the king. And that meant that came back to my mind several times I had to challenge myself that just because I only see myself as a communicator all these years doesn't mean that I can't do other things. And so it was a joy to actually walk into that. Believing is not easy. There's there are a lot of hard days or a lot of hard decisions. Especially when I was a commander, I agonized every decision. So I made because I knew this will have an impact on a person, this will have an impact on a family this, this will change the directions and plans that people had. And so it's a heavy weight to bear. And I think it's good that those kind of decisions come with weight. And I would question someone who who can make those kinds of calls without having to wrestle with them.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:01 When you look at all the things that you've done, and the work that you do, and the work that you did, at the end of every day, or at some time during the day, I know you were pretty busy. But did you ever have the time to just kind of sit back and reflect on how did this go today? How did that go? What could have been better? Did you do any kind of introspection? Or did you feel you had time to do that?   Chase Spears ** 1:02:24 I didn't really feel I had time. And it would be easy for me to blame the unit, it'd be easy for me to blame people. But that responsibility rests with me. It's a discipline that I didn't develop until way too late in my career. And I eventually did develop it, I eventually came to realize the importance of reflection of introspection of taking a mental inventory of what I've accomplished I didn't accomplish and what I can learn from it. But it was sadly something that I didn't do as much as I should have. And I didn't do it as early, I was really, really bad at assuming well, because the unit needs this right now. I can't take care of this thing that I need to take care of that will that will allow me to be the leader that I need to be you know, I get in a car, someone slams on my car, and I need to get them to take care of it. Why don't have time unit Scott has to have me We gotta move on. Well, I've got six screws in my left hand and my left shoulder right now because I was always too busy to listen to the physical therapist and take care of myself, you know, the unit needs me the unit needs me the men need me. And so it, it was a hard, hard learned lesson. The importance of sitting back and reflecting is something I wish I would have learned much sooner. But once I did, it served me well. And it's a discipline that I still practice now.   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:46 Yeah, yeah, it's, I think a very important thing. And a lot of things can can stem from that. What's the best position your favorite position in the army and why?   Chase Spears ** 1:03:59 The best thing I ever got to do is company command. And it's hard to say that because it's really it's really closely tied with being a brigade director of communication. And t

Send us a Text Message.Prime Time Consulting is a smaller company working primarily in the Fort Meade, Maryland area and focused on intelligence analysis. Cynthia Liscoe, Chief Operations Officer, discusses upgrading CI Polys to Full Scopes, their big company knowledge with small company c-suite access, the Interview Ambassador Program, and more.“It's one of the best ways to get that Full Scope. There's only a handful of ways that you can do that. One is going directly to a government agency. Another one is going through a contractor like ours to get that Full Scope upgraded. And I always tell people this, once you have your Full Scope, hang on to it, because it is a pain to try to get that reinstated. So once you get it, just hold on to it.”Find show notes and additional links at: https://clearedjobs.net/prime-time-consulting-intelligence-analysis-podcast/

The month of July is a very special month. July has many reasons to celebrate. Though not widely known, it was on July 2nd, not July 4th, that the Continental Congress passed the resolution declaring the independence from the colonies. We celebrate Independence Day on July 4th. Are you a celebrator? Having lived several years in the Fourth of July city, Seward, Nebraska, Independence Day has very special memories for me. Singing the Star Spangled Banner has inspired millions and moved many to tears. It is symbolized with the flag, what it really does mean to be a loyal American. Are you aware that it was here in the state of South Dakota, that the Star Spangled Banner received the first impetus which eventually led to its adoption as our national anthem? I was very impressed when I first learned about the history of this stirring song. It all happened in 1892, when Colonel Calb H Carlton assumed command of the 8th US Calvary Regiment at Fort Meade near Sturgis. Carlton writes in his memoirs, that he and his wife discuss the fact that the United States had no official song. Mrs. Carlton suggested they do something about it. It was at Fort Meade that Colonel Carlton ordered his Calvary band to play the Star Spangled Banner at all parades and formations. He further states that "all persons, including civilians, should rise respectfully and all men not under arms would remove their hats." Colonel Carlton promoted the idea beyond his own South Dakota base, and consequently the practice was adopted by other commanders. There was something patriotically contagious about the show of respect for the song and the flag it honored. It was a one sentence bill that passed on March 3rd, 1931, and signed by President Hoover that designated the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem of the United States of America. The patriotic custom began in the Black Hills, and so it gives our national anthem its roots in South Dakota. Patriotic Thoughts: Francis Scott Key, a lawyer, wrote the lyrics for our national anthem during the morning of September 14th, 1814. At the dawn's early light, he saw the American flag fly and in a burst of patriotic fervor, He hurriedly penned the immortal words, "We thank the father of our national anthem." With renewed patriotism, let's celebrate Independence Day. Happy Independence Day! Warm Thoughts from the Little Home on the Prairie Over a Cup of Tea by Dr. Luetta G. WernerPublished in the Marion Record, June 25th, 1998.Download the Found Photo Freebie and cherish your memories of the past.Enjoy flipping through the Vintage Photo Book on your coffee table.I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode! Please follow along on this journey by going to visualbenedictions.com or following me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcast,Spotify,Stitcher, and Overcast. And don't forget to rate and review so more people can tune in! I'd greatly appreciate it.Till next time,Trina

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with Fort Meade Director of Emergency Services, Maj. Joseph Smith and Fort Meade Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Business & Recreation Chief, Wendy Gibbs to talk about all you need to know in preparation for this year's Red, White & Blue Celebration. For more information about this year's event, visit https://meade.armymwr.com/calendar/event/89414.

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with Elizabeth Morgan from Fort Meade Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Leisure Travel Services to talk about the services available to the Fort Meade community through LTS and the Fort Meade Recreation Center. To learn more about Fort Meade LTS, visit https://meade.armymwr.com/programs/leisure-travel-services.

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with from all service branches of the Fort Meade Exceptional Family Member Program to learn more about how EFMP works and benefits our community. To learn more about the Fort Meade EFMP, visit https://home.army.mil/meade/my-fort/for-families/EFMP.

The United States entered World War One on April 6th, 1917. Going to war in Europe meant the United States had to greatly expand its Army.  It had enlist, train, organize, equip, and deploy hundreds of thousands of young men.  One of the units that was part of this expansion was the 79th Infantry Division which was activated in August 1917.  Many of the soldiers in the 79th Infantry Division were draftees from Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia.  By the time they were deactivated less than two years later, 6,874 of their Division comrades had been killed or wounded.  Gene Fax tells the story of the 79th Infantry Division focusing on its involvement in the final yet bloody months of World War One's Western Front. 

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with Careasa Greer, U.S. Army Garrison Fort George G. Meade Workforce Development Specialist, to discuss workforce development opportunities available to Team Meade.

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, in honor of Earth Day earlier this week, we sit down with George Knight, U.S. Army Garrison Fort George G. Meade Directorate of Public Works, Environmental Division Chief, to discuss Fort Meade's environmental initiatives.

BRAVO ZULU Celebration of a service officer who helped a Army veteran recieve the funeral honors she deserved' THE INTERVIEW Noelle Austin-Jones, Director of the Armed Forces Wellness Center Director at Fort Meade in Maryland discusses the AFWC global mission to improve and sustain health, performance, and readiness of the Total Fighting Force. SCUTTLEBUTT Celebrity veteran Shaggy's unique vocal style inspired by his Marine Corps drill instructor Woobies are forever Kansas Sons of The American Legion supporting homeless veterans Special Guest: Noelle Austin-Jones .

This week Justin interviews Vince Houghton and Eric Driggs. Vince grew up in Miami, Florida, and is a veteran of the U. S. Army, where he served in The Balkans. He went on to receive a master's degree and PhD in Diplomatic and Military History from the University of Maryland. He spent more than six years as the historian and curator for the International Spy Museum in Washington, D. C., and is now the director of the National Cryptologic Museum, located on the National Security Agency campus at Fort Meade, Maryland.  Eric also grew up in Miami and earned his bachelor's degree from Brown University and his Master's degree from Harvard Kennedy School.  He has worked as a Cuba analyst at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies and later served in the US Coast Guard as a Governmental and External Affairs officer. He's currently a congressional liaison for the United States Southern Command, which oversees all US military activities and operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean.They're here today to tell the story of Miami, Florida in the second half of the 20th century and beyond, and how much the city itself was shaped by the CIA, the CIA. By Cuban exiles, and by the conflicts that define the Cold War.Listen to Vince's first episode, number 130: Nuking the Moon with Vincent HoughtonConnect with Vince and Eric:Vince on Twitter/X: @IntelHistorianCheck out Vince and Eric's book, Covert City, here. Dropping Tuesday, April 23rd.https://amzn.to/4d70HRMConnect with Spycraft 101:Check out Justin's latest release, Covert Arms, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: spycraft-101.myshopify.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.History by MailWho knew? Not me! Learn something new every month. Use code JUSTIN10 for 10% off your subscription.Tenderfoot TVReal. Powerful. Storytelling. Tune in to To Die For on March 26th wherever you listen to podcasts.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with Command Sergeant Major Andre Welch, U.S. Army Garrison Fort George G. Meade Command Sergeant Major and Tim O'Ferrall, Fort Meade Alliance General Manager, to discuss the Career Transition Program presented by FMA in partnership with Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation and Howard County Workforce Development. This program will connect you with employers that are the right fit for you and your skillset. You will choose from a pool of more than 20 employers and connect with them during one-on-one scheduled interviews during the Career Transition Showcase on Thursday, Apr. 25. You could walk away with immediate job placement opportunities! Register for the Career Transition Program by Friday, Apr. 12 at https://www.ftmeadealliance.org/initiatives/career-transition-program/.

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with parents of students in the Anne Arundel County Public Schools' Meade Cluster, Rita Wharton and Keyontay Lashley as well as Fort Meade's Child Youth Services School Liaison Officer, Meredith McCandless, to discuss Meade Cluster schools, redistricting and resources available to Meade Cluster students as members of the Fort Meade community.

What inspires someone to donate an organ, then do it again? Meet Lindsay Gutierrez, a veteran, advocate, and incredible woman who turned selflessness into her life's mission. In this episode of the Becoming Immune Confident Podcast, Dr. Kara welcomes Lindsay Gutierrez, a veteran, social advocate, and living organ donor, to share her remarkable journey. From her early ambitions in special effects makeup to finding her purpose through service in the Air Force and beyond, Lindsay's story is one of resilience, self-discovery, and profound generosity. Join us as Lindsay discusses her work with veterans, her experience as a living organ donor, and her advocacy through beauty pageants, highlighting her life's mission: to be the change she wishes to see in the world. Listen to this episode and discover the incredible power of organ donation. Get inspired by a story of courage, compassion, and the life-changing impact one person can make. EPISODE IN A GLANCE00:00 Intro00:14 Meet Lindsay Gutierrez: Air Force Veteran and Social Advocate01:52 Lindsay's Transition from Military to Social Advocacy03:50 Beginning of Lindsay's Organ Donation Journey05:50 How do you become a Living Organ Donor?08:02 Differences in Recovery: Kidney vs. Liver Donation09:03 The Ripple Effect of Organ Donation14:09 Lindsay's Experience with PTSD and TBI Post-Deployment19:31 The Evolution of Patient Care and Advocacy23:19 Advocacy and Future Endeavors: Pageants and Beyond ABOUT LINDSAY GUTIERREZ Originally from Midwest City, OK, Lindsay Gutierrez dual resides in Nashville, Georgia and Fort Meade, Maryland with her active duty Air Force husband, Anthony, and many fur babies. She's a veteran of the United States Air Force and works for the Department of Defense. It was through the military and outside experiences that Lindsay was able to find her calling as a social advocate. After she separated from the military in 2016, Lindsay first became involved in pageants to bring awareness to veteran needs and issues. Since then, Lindsay has held the titles of Ms. Veteran America, Ms. Georgia US Continental, Ms. Georgia American Women of Service, Ms. Georgia South, Mrs. Hahira Honeybee, Miss Georgia Military Star Honorary Veteran, Mrs. American Elegance. She is the reigning Ms. Nation's Capital Achievement, and Lindsay will be competing for the title of Ms. Achievement USA in July 2024. Lindsay attended undergrad at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. She continued her graduate studies at the University of Oklahoma, receiving a master's in Human Relations and Arizona State University with her master's in Social Work. She is an active volunteer in her community and loves the outdoors. Furthermore, Lindsay is an ambassador for various living organ donor foundations. On 25 May 2022, Lindsay donated her kidney to a fellow veteran; on 30 April 2024 she's scheduled to undergo liver donation surgery. Sharing her donation experiences not only brings awareness of the need for living donors, but helps to close the wait time gap for recipients on the transplant list so more lives can be saved. Her favorite quote to live by and encourage others with is “be the change you wish to see in the world.” CONNECT WITH LINDSAY GUTIERREZInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/linds_gutierrez/ Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/msncausa2324 Dr World Productions → https://www.drworldproductions.com/ ABOUT DR KARA WADAQuadruple board-certified pediatric and adult allergy immunology & lifestyle medicine physician, Sjogren's patient and life coach shares her recipe for success combining anti-inflammatory lifestyle, trusting therapeutic relationships, modern medicine & our minds to harness our body's ability to heal. CONNECT WITH DR WADAWebsite → https://www.drkarawada.com/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/karawadamd/ Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/immuneconfident/ Podcast Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/becomingimmuneconfident/ Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/KaraWadaMD Twitter → https://twitter.com/CrunchyAllergy TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@crunchyallergist SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER → https://www.drkarawada.com/newsletter Get Dr. Kara's weekly dose of a naturally-minded and scientifically-grounded approach to immune system health.

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with Lisa Terry, Howard County Office of Veterans and Military Families manager and Howard County Commission for Veterans and Military Families administrator, to learn more about the services and resources Howard County has to offer our veterans and military families. The Office of Veterans and Military Families (OVMF) provides guidance, information and access to Howard County veterans, military families, their dependents and survivors; promotes activities that serve veterans of all ages; and collaborates with other service providers to address more complex issues. To learn more, visit https://www.howardcountymd.gov/veterans-military-families.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are words that have become politically charged. Kevin Wayne Johnson is a student of leadership and a leadership coach.  He believes that DEI is a core component of great leadership and that all organizations benefit from leaders who value diversity, understand equity, and practice inclusion.  To me, what he says resonates with the core principles of lean leadership. He joined me at the Edges of Lean to share his experience and his insights with us.      Kevin Wayne Johnson   Kevin Wayne Johnson, Founder and CEO of The Johnson Leadership Group, is a powerhouse in leadership development and executive coaching. With over 25 years of diverse experience in administration, leadership, coaching, mentoring, and training, Johnson customizes learning experiences to enhance efficiency, growth, awareness, and effectiveness. He is an 8-time bestselling author. He is also a former Chief of Staff for the United States Department of Defense, Johnson boasts a distinguished 34-year career spanning government and private sectors. He has spearheaded workforce development, organizational change, acquisition/procurement, customer service, and more at the Department of Defense headquarters in Fort Meade, MD. Notably, Johnson's leadership was pivotal in national initiatives like the National Performance Review for Procurement and Customer Service Reform during the Clinton Administration. KEY TOPICS IN THIS PODCAST: 0:03:38 - Kevin Wayne Johnson introduces himself and his career path 0:07:16 - Kevin shares examples of leadership in different cultures and the impact on people 0:10:54 - Discussion on the importance of listening and valuing others' input as a leader 0:14:32 - Definition and discussion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) 0:18:10 - The importance of diverse thoughts and opinions in decision-making 0:21:48 - The value of having a diverse team in meetings and decision-making 0:25:26 - Addressing the lack of diversity in a client's leadership team 0:29:04 - Approaching the conversation about diversity with a client 0:32:42 - The positive response when asking for different perspectives KEY TAKEAWAYS    Diverse leadership cultivates innovation and better problem-solving by embracing varied perspectives and backgrounds. Fair treatment and equal opportunities are vital for creating an environment where all individuals can thrive, irrespective of their background. An inclusive environment, where everyone feels valued and heard, boosts morale and productivity by encouraging the best contributions from each person. Leadership with a servant's heart, characterized by respect, empathy, and compassion, sets a positive example for the team. Actively listening to team members fosters open communication and collaboration, signaling the value placed on their contributions. Embracing inclusive and participatory leadership approaches acknowledges the importance of diverse perspectives over traditional command and control methods. Addressing systemic barriers and biases within organizations is crucial for establishing equitable environments where everyone has an equal chance to succeed. Mentorship and coaching opportunities significantly enhance professional development for individuals starting their careers, aiding them in overcoming challenges effectively.   Memorable Quotes From Kevin Wayne Johnson “Leadership with a servant's heart is about matching what we know with what's in our heart. It's about demonstrating respect, honor, value, empathy, and compassion as leaders.”   CONNECT WITH Kevin Wayne Johnson   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwaynejohnson  Website: https://thejohnsonleadershipgroup.com/   

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with Dr. Vince Houghton, director of the National Cryptologic Museum, to learn more about the National Security Agency museum and there is to see when you come and visit. The National Cryptologic Museum is NSA's gateway to the public and educates visitors about the role of cryptology in shaping history. The NCM collects, preserves, and showcases unique cryptologic artifacts and shares the stories of the people, technology, and methods that have defined cryptologic history. To learn more, visit https://www.nsa.gov/museum/. You can check out a tour of the museum over on our YouTube channel on Tuesday, Mar. 5 at https://www.youtube.com/@FortMeadeMD

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sat down with Jim Hopper, Homeland Security Signature Program Coordinator, and three participating students to discuss their partnership with different agencies like the National Security Agency and their experiences since joining the program

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors.  Thanks for joining us again at Behind greatness. We are tuned in today with Paul Smith. Paul is a retired major in the US Army. He is most known as being a key member in the US government's secret Psychic Espionage Program, Star Gate, during the 1980s and 90s. He is a leading expert on ESP, Remote Viewing and applied consciousness. He was only part of a handful of people trained by the father of remote viewing: Ingo Swann and he in turn became one of the few trainers in the unit of other remote viewers. Paul brings us through the Men in Black scenario of his recruitment at Fort Meade … to his time in the unit and the stories of his remote viewing exercises … to unofficially using his skills when he served in Desert Storm … and to his wife figuring out about his psychic military duties. We discuss non-local consciousness and the difficulties that main stream scientists still have with non-physical realities. We discuss applied intuition and ESP-informed intuition, bilocation and when Ingo Swann saved the world. We also learn about Pat Price (the country's most capable remote viewer at the time and Police Commissioner) finding 4 presumed UFO bases on the planet in the 1970s using remote viewing - and Paul's experience in remote viewing the same and his discussion of the “people” he viewed there. See other remote viewers: Russell Targ (ep 80) , Dean Radin (ep 122), Stephan Schwartz (154, 155), Lyn Buchanan (ep163), Nancy DuTetre (167). Paul, Website: www.rviewer.com/paul-h-smith/ Book: Reading the Enemy's Mind: Inside Star Gate: America's Psychic Espionage Program - https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Enemys-Mind-Americas-Espionage-ebook/dp/B00545H3K6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28LYSLB2FTSZY&keywords=paul+smith+author+reading+the+enemy%27s+mind&qid=1706654910&sprefix=paul+smith+author+reading+the+enemy%27s+mind%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1 Book: The Essential Guide to Remote Viewing: The Secret Military Remote Perception Skill Anyone Can Learn - https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Remote-Viewing-Perception/dp/1938815017/ref=sr_1_2?crid=28LYSLB2FTSZY&keywords=paul+smith+author+reading+the+enemy%27s+mind&qid=1706654987&sprefix=paul+smith+author+reading+the+enemy%27s+mind%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-2 Link to Ingo Swann: Ingo Swann Speech, Human Super Sensitivities, 2006: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cOEY-c7_gI An Experimental Psychic Probe of the Planet Jupiter: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040010-3.pdf Documentary – Ingo Swann: A Life Gone Wild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fedjP3EJAGQ

On the latest episode of Fort Meade Declassified, our team took a field trip to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center! After giving us a tour of the facility, Rob Garner, News Chief for Goddard's Office of Communications, sat down with us to discuss the Center's history, its STEM education initiatives, and the programs and internship opportunities they have to offer! Located just 30 minutes away from Fort Meade in Greenbelt, MD, the Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study Earth, the sun, our solar system and the universe. To learn more about the Center, please visit https://www.nasa.gov/goddard/

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we sit down with Army Blood Program Director, Col. Christopher Evans, and Armed Services Blood Program Blood Donor Recruiter, Shawntel Trowell to learn more about ASBP and how the Fort Meade community can contribute to their mission.

Today, Justin sits down with Vince Houghton. Vince is a veteran of the U.S. Army and served in the Balkans. He went on to receive a Master's Degree and PhD in Diplomatic and Military history from the University of Maryland. He spent more than six years as the historian and curator for the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, and is now the director of the National Cryptologic Museum located on the National Security Agency campus at Fort Meade, Maryland. This week Vince discusses Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board.  As you can already surmise from that title, it's a close look at some of the most incredible plans never put into action spanning the 20th century and beyond. Connect with Vince:Twitter: @IntelHistorianCheck out Nuking the Moon here.https://www.amazon.com/Nuking-Moon-Intelligence-Schemes-Military/dp/0525505172Connect with Spycraft 101:Check out Justin's latest release, Covert Arms, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: spycraft-101.myshopify.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show

Happy New Year Team Meade! Ring in 2024 with Fort Meade Garrison Commander COL Michael A. Sapp and Fort Meade Director of Public Affairs Chad Jones!

Former Fort Meade City Manager Jan Bagnall declined to be interviewed for the second part of our interview series after receiving multiple threats since our first interview aired on December 13th, or Episode 29. On New Year's Day, I received an email from a stranger named Greg King. I would later learn that he was the campaign manager for Jaret Williams, who one his Fort Meade commission race in November.  I was unsure how to proceed and a little concerned based on some of the things Bagnall had shared. However, I was uncomfortable putting just one-side of the story out there without giving the "other side" equal time to make their case. So, I decided to respond to King's inquiry and we discussed the situation in Fort Meade on the phone. I recorded the call and feature it in this episode of the podcast. We also discussed the impending arrival of Pat Oman, the incoming city manager who was recently hired by the governing body without he input and consideration of Mr. Williams.   SHOW NOTES: In the introduction, I mentioned Mark Moses book: The Municipal Financial Crisis. SUPPORT THE PODCAST: Please rate and review the podcast on Apple or your preferred platform if you enjoy the show. It helps tremendously. But more importantly, refer your friends and peers to podcast through personal conversations and posts on your social media platforms. Joe Turner's LinkedIn Page Note: Page may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Happy New Year Team Meade! Ring in 2024 with Fort Meade Garrison Commander COL Michael A. Sapp and Garrison Director of Public Affairs Chad Jones!

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we look back at all the exciting events that took place on and around Fort Meade in 2023.

Jan Bagnall enjoyed a long, successful career in the private sector working for electrical utility companies. But the $350,000 salary came at a cost -- 45 weeks of travel per year. Looking for some work-life balance and to ease into retirement, Jan thought municipal utility work would be a new and interesting challenge. Shortly after becoming the first electrical utility director for the City of Fort Meade, Florida, he would transition and assume the role of city manager. However, his experience was so surreal and traumatic that he would resign a couple of years into his tenure and renounce the city management profession. From being physically accosted to having his wife suffer public harassment and hectoring at the local grocery store, Jan and his wife have endured quite a bit. We discuss it in much detail in Part 1 of this interview series. SUPPORT THE PODCAST: Please rate and review the podcast on Apple or your preferred platform if you enjoy the show. It helps tremendously. But more importantly, refer your friends and peers to podcast through personal conversations and posts on your social media platforms. Joe Turner's LinkedIn Page Note: Page may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

On this episode of Fort Meade Declassified, we discuss Meade High School's Homeland Security Signature Program with some of their participating students.

The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, US Army COL John Agnello discusses the Army's pursuits related to Information Advantage. Our conversation traverses the meaning of Information Advantage, the functions of Information Advantage, how Information Advantage fits within the larger Information Environment, as well as related initiatives. One such initiative is the Theater Information Advantage Detachment (TIAD) concept which will be Army theater-level teams that influence and inform–especially during the competition continuum phase of operations. Research Question: John Agnello suggests an interested student examine ways to help commanders “see” the information dimension; take every piece of information, bring them together into a decision space which enables speed and accuracy. Resources: Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned #24 John Davis on Modern Warfare, Teamwork, and Commercial Cognitive Security #125 Journey from conception through JP 3-04 #131 Brian Burbank on the Ghost Team, Transparent Battlefield Concepts and Multi-Domain Operations FM 3-0 Operations 3.0 (October 2022) Like War by Peter Singer Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War by Paul Scharre Art of Invisibility: The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data by Kevin Mitnick Link to full show notes and resources Guest Bio:  Colonel John Agnello is a United States Army Cyber Branch officer currently stationed at the United States Army Cyber Center of Excellence (CoE), at Fort Gordon, GA, as the Director of the Army Program Office for Information Advantage, where he oversees the development and implementation of Information Advantage across elements of DOTMLPF-P for the CCoE. Prior to that assignment, COL Agnello was the Director of the Commander's Planning Group, where he was responsible for Public Affairs, Protocol, strategic engagements and planning on behalf of the Commanding General. Prior to his assignments to the Cyber CoE, COL Agnello was assigned to United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), in Fort Meade, MD, as the Chief of the Development Branch in USCYBERCOM's Acquisition and Technology Directorate (J9), responsible for all offensive and defensive tool development as well as data science and data analytics. Prior to that, he was a Joint Cyber Operations Team Leader in USCYBERCOM; responsible for supporting Combatant Commanders' objectives include planning, coordinating, directing, and executing daily cyber missions through four separately focused cyber teams, in addition to maintaining infrastructure, training, capability development, mission execution, and support services.  Prior to his assignments at USCYBERCOM, COL Agnello was stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany as the Research & Development subject matter expert for the Defense Science and Technology Center – Europe, where he reviewed international technologies on behalf of the US DoD; followed by the Deputy Director of the Ground Intelligence Support Activity – East; where he was responsible for managing nine different networks at over 45 various locations throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and established the first Intelligence Support Cell for Defensive Cyberspace Operations in US Army Europe (USAREUR).  Prior to his cyber specific roles, COL Agnello was a Field Artillery Officer and spent nine years in the 3rd Infantry Division in roles including Sustainment Automation Systems Management Officer, Rear Detachment Commander, Company Commander, Assistant Operations Officer, Battalion Fire Direction Officer, and Division Fire Control Officer. Prior to his assignments at Fort Stewart, GA, COL Agnello was a Battalion Fire Direction Officer, and a Battery Executive Officer at Fort Sill, OK. John is a combat veteran of Operations Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn, and his various military decorations include the Bronze Star with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Meritorious Service Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Army Achievement Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Combat Action Badge, and Basic Parachutist Badge. His military training includes the Joint Network Attack Course, Joint Computer Network Operational Planners Course, the Information Systems Management Course, and many more. About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn. Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Karen Kwiatkowski grew up in western North Carolina. She was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force in in 1983 and served tours in Alaska, Massachusetts, Spain, Italy and Fort Meade as a communications-electronics officer. She later served in political military analysis at the Pentagon, retiring after 20 years as a Lt Colonel. Since her retirement in 2003, she has spoken out against an interventionist foreign policy and written numerous essays and articles, most of which are available at lewrockwell.com. She has been featured in several documentaries including the award-winning, Why We Fight (2004). She was awarded the Sam Adams Award in 2018 and is a member of the Eisenhower Media Network. She holds advanced degrees from Harvard University, the University of Alaska and a Ph.D. from Catholic University in world politics. She and her husband of 41 years now raise cattle, sheep and horses in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.  

In this episode I speak with Paul H. Smith, Phd, (ret) Major US Army, who served for seven years in the U.S. government's remote viewing program at Fort Meade, Maryland, author of, "The Essential Guide to Remote Viewing," President/Chief InstructorPresident/Chief Instructor Remote Viewing Instructional Services, Inc., whose wakeup call was after being fascinated by science fiction and ESP as a child and then growing skeptical of it, discovering a division of the US Army that utilized it in reading the enemy's mind. https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-h-smith-ph-d-996316a/

On today's episode the guys take a deep dive into Project Stargate. Project Stargate was a secret U.S. Army unit established in 1978 at Fort Meade, Maryland, by the Defense Intelligence Agency and SRI International to investigate the potential for psychic phenomena in military and domestic intelligence applications. Plus, the guys get into the Canadian forest fires, Baby Gronk's rizz, The Dozen and finish up with voicemails.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/macrodosing