Category: Leadership

IN THE NEWS: Welcome to the Bud Abbott edition of The Digression Podcast; Space Force HQ finally has a home; USS George Washington moving sailors off the ship; More money for Ukraine and cracks in EU resolve; Milley worries about medics; Space Force National Guard fixes bureaucracy with more bureaucracy; So long to the REAL…

Major Donald Townsend experienced some of the most extraordinary events in British history. In My Road to Mandalay, author David Townsend recounts his father's adventures fighting with the "Forgotten Army" in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II. David expertly choreographs this story through a collection of more than 500 letters his father wrote to…

IN THE NEWS: The Digression Podcast Guys are back from vacation; Spotify drops Obamas’; Russia wants a land bridge to Crimea; Biden pours more money into Ukraine–where’s it going?; Unethical PsyOps with Ukraine and Clearview AI; Space Force goes solo at basic training; Air Force Safe Spaces; Land navigation coming back to the Army; What’s…

The Digression Podcast Guys are taking some much-needed time off, so climb aboard the Wayback Machine as we revisit one of our favorite episodes from the early days: Recovering the Kee Bird (episode #8 from 8/25/2019). In addition to a cleaned-up replay of the original episode, we share some additional news and insight about the…

IN THE NEWS: Swift water awareness; 1-10-1 and 2-10-2 Rules; The Russians carve out Donbas; Did we bring the Taliban here?; The biggest troop surge in Europe since 2005; DoD covid policies are affecting readiness; Russia wages war while the U.S. trains on gender identify; A new digital fitness program for Space Force; Our thoughts…

In the autumn of 1944, the U.S. landed on Peleliu, one of the Palau Islands of the western Pacific. Some 28,000 Marines and soldiers hit the tiny island and immediately faced stiff resistance from the Japanese. The brutal, difficult battle lasted more than two months. The island garrison put up a particularly tough defense along…

IN THE NEWS: Early thoughts on Ukraine; Feel-good story of the day; Seems we did leave a helicopter behind; DoD claims data glitch in vax reporting; 6-million man-hours gone woke; Kabul commander whines; The REAL Space Force is live; The other Space Force wants to pick-up garbage; Lucifer's Chariot laid to rest; Army points finger…

Bill Mauldin once said that the infantryman “gives more and gets less than anybody else.” He knew this from his experience on the front lines during the invasion of Sicily and the Allied campaign up the boot of Italy. The talented cartoonist succeeded in ruffling the feathers of the “brass” all the way up to…

IN THE NEWS: Covid misinformation; Pentagon spox refutes woke military claims by explaining how woke they are; Leaked docs prove Biden's Afghanistan failure; Special Forces take out new ISIS leader; Vax injuries skyrocket after military vax mandate; The REAL Space Force is back!; Congress turns down Space National Guard...again!; If that's not bad enough, there…

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Germany’s widely praised “Desert Fox”, met his end not on the battlefield, but at the hands of henchmen sent by his own commander in chief. After more than 75 years, Rommel’s death remains a testament to the depravity of a regime and a leader who, by the summer of 1944, he…

IN THE NEWS: Winsome Sears is the American dream; Accountability Marine held accountable, but still comes out a winner; 1000s of Americans still in Afghanistan; Service members' sue DoD over vaccine mandate; Vaccine in use missing one thing: FDA approval; Let’s have some compassion; Brits kick USMC ass; China’s hypersonic missile and General Milley’s concern;…

Shocker! The military doesn’t nation-build and we've been saying it all along; News sources we like; Artificial Intelligence Assassin; Mossad does the coolest sh*t; Woulda, coulda, shoulda in Afghanistan; Great deals on U.S. guns in Afghan stores; Continuous background checks are coming; New Space Force uniforms and well-deserved mockery; USAF owes for Texas shooting and…

Where were you 20-years ago when the U.S. war in Afghanistan began? It was September 11, 2001 and al Qaeda terrorists hijacked and crashed two American Airlines passenger jets into the Twin Towers, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth, a United Airlines jet bound for the Capitol Building or the White House, was crashed…

One of the best-kept secrets of World War II was the CARPETBAGGERS, the code name for a joint OSS-8th Air Force covert ops unit. Assisting French underground groups in the European theater of operations, American Airmen flew agents and supplies to those resistance forces. They flew specially modified, black-painted Consolidated B-24 Liberators, Douglas C-47 Skytrains,…

IN THE NEWS: RIP "RUMMY"; Field refutes SECDEF's denial of CRT in the military; The Joint Chief Chair and the search for 'white rage'; The other racial extremist; US troops don't seek extremist content; Rep Crenshaw's woke whistleblowers; Capitol Police using DoD tech to spy on Americans; US sneaks out of Bagram Air Base; And…

IN THE NEWS: Lotsa "woke"; Military Training Instructor calls home; The bigger picture around the Pentagon's anti-extremism moves; What you need to know about Biden's National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism; Department of Defense doubles down on diversity, inclusion, and equity in the ranks; Diversity essential to national defense; Affirmative action for Special Forces; Navy's…

IN THE NEWS: Social distancing on Mount Everest; Netanyahu says 'no' to Biden; Space Force whistleblower with a book; Vandy is newest Space Force Base; Justice Thomas rags on Feres Doctrine; Pentagon trolling social media; CENTCOM begins Afghanistan drawdown and worries about the vacuum; UFOs are everywhere; U2 talks to F22 and F35; Contractors sell…

The "Go-To" Service; Space Systems Command finds a home; Colorado jumps the gun; The real Spece Force update; SECDEF defines extremism; Still not leaving Afghanistan; Pentagon touts transgender docs; military not ready; Why does God need a starship?; ACC's new alignment is old news; Disney (did not) help Thunderbirds create new airshow; Avenger ditches at…

Ryan Kern is a former news anchor and reporter for a Nevada NBC affiliate. Now, as an independent journalist, he is the host/reporter/producer of the Finding Faces podcast. You may remember Chris and Jody talking about Ryan and Finding Faces in Episode 37. “Finding Faces: The Search for the Missing Pictures of Fallen Vietnam Heroes”…

In early February, in the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol “riot,” Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, ordered a 60-day stand-down within all the military branches in order to address extremism in the ranks. Despite an October 2020 Pentagon report commissioned by Congress that concluded extremist views were not widespread and identified "a low number…

IN THE NEWS: Grandpa Doc; Biden Trips; Space Force growing Techs; SFJROTC; GAO gets in on Space Command HQ relo; UFO report coming due; Space Force NATSEC Nip Slip; National Guard D.C. extension; And we're staying in Afghanistan; Generals acting badly; Where are the cars and buildings we bought in Afghanistan?; Iran satellite psyche-out; A…

In 1812, the United States government tried to annex Spanish East Florida by a combination of covert action and direct invasion. Then the plan went horribly wrong. The “Patriots' War'” in Spanish East Florida during 1812-13 was an early example of a military disaster caused by a secret, flawed political policy. The characteristics of this…

IN THE NEWS: Mike saves Tiger; Space takes a back seat; Trump; Paski mocks Space Force; Floaty Bois; IG probes Space Force relo; Trump; Capitol fence ain't going away any time soon; The National Guard may not either; Biden's Three Stooges Syria Solution; 'American is Back' like it was before; Trump; We ain't leaving Afghanistan;…

IN THE NEWS: We were right about COVID; Space Force is here to stay; Star Gate; Alabama wins Space Force; The Cyber Force?; A General understatement; Specialists; Lockheed to the rescue for $5B; Space Force season 2; Biden locked out; National Guard parked in the garage; "Let them eat cookies"; Extremists in the Guard; 404-1776…

IN THE NEWS: Spotify's #1 Podcast; Space Force theme song; Space Force has new Chiefs; China rivalry; Missile warnings; Vets in Congress at all-time low; Gen Mattis doesn't get it; Military's biggest AI challenge; DISA did Teams; Pandemic stirs bio-attack worries; NASA says mystery object is not an asteroid; C130s to influence election runoff?; Old…