Sea Control - Sea Control 214 - Meet the Team

Episode Date: December 6, 2020

You wanted naval integration? How about a new team of Sea Control hosts from all three sea services? In this episode, listeners will meet the newest hosts of Sea Control: Andrea Howard, Jon Frerichs, Walker Mills & Anna McNeil! Learn about their backgrounds and where they plan to take their respective versions of the podcast.

Hey folks, Jared here, doing something a little bit different today. I have teased this repeatedly, but the time has arrived. We've got four new hosts at Sea Control, and today you're going to meet them. Andrea Howard, John Frerichs, Walker Mills, and Anna McNeil. You get to hear a bit about each of them, as well as where they plan to take their respective versions of the podcast. As always, we want to advertise and strongly recommend our friends in the SimSec Podcast Network and our second podcast feed, The Bilge Pumps. Find Alex, Drack, Jamie, and a pile of empty iron brew bottles on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify,

and wherever else you download your podcasts. It's a more low-key, slightly less serious approach to current events in the maritime domain and naval history. Check them out wherever you download your podcasts. Finally, from Sea Control to Bilge Pumps to Project Trident, 2020 has been a banner year for SimSec. We need your help to carry that momentum, supporting our Right Fight Win holiday donation campaign

via direct donations on our website or by making SimSec your preferred nonprofit on Amazon Smile so you can support us while you shop. With that, I'll turn it over to Kimber's men. You're listening to Sea Control, hosted by the Center for International Maritime Security. Aloha, Shoemates, and welcome back for a special, what we think will be a midweek episode of Sea Control. And it's going to be a little bit different format today, a little more meta. And I'm already dreading the editing session on this because it means I'm probably going to have to listen to my own voice a little bit more.

I do want to start this episode for one second talking about our editing team. That's Keegan Ingersoll, Ed Salo, and William McQuiston. So when we restarted the podcast last year, well, last year, this year in January, we didn't have an editing team. I would write, record, edit, and publish the episodes myself. And of those four tasks, editing was by far the most onerous, both because of the time involved and, again, because it means listening to your own voice for sometimes hours. And if you're not Casey Kasem or a sociopath, you probably don't want to hear your own voice.

But since the middle of the year, we've had these three incredible volunteers come on board and take that task out of my hands and out of our other hosts' hands. So I want to very publicly thank them for everything that they've done for the podcast. They've dramatically improved the quality of our audio from those first few months. And I continue to learn little tips and tricks from them about sound editing. It's just been a really cool development to watch these three progress, to work with them, and learn from them. Now, if that intro sounds a little morose and reflective, it's not meant to be. We have really appreciated the recent positive feedback from the community. We made it onto the Commandant of the Marine Corps' professional reading list,

and the podcast was heavily featured in a recent article in the International Journal of Maritime Crime and Security. So it's been really great, but now we're going to evolve a little bit more. So for me, I have some new personal and professional obligations in the near term that I think are going to require a little bit of a step back. I'll still be recording some episodes and then handle producing, scheduling, and other behind-the-scenes things that no one but those directly involved cares about. For the listener, though, the bonus is that instead of me every week, we're bringing in a team of four hosts who are going to handle all sorts of different topics from a really

diverse set of perspectives. So one of those, Andrea Howard, has already made her debut, and in the coming weeks, we'll also be rolling out episodes from Walker Mills, John Frerichs, and Anna McNeil. They're all here today, and we're going to meet them. So, Andrea, Walker, John, and Anna, thanks for joining me. Thank you for having us. Thanks, Jared. Thanks for having us. Excited to be here. Awesome. So, at this point, I'll remind the listener, all opinions express our own and

not reflective of any institutions with which we might be otherwise associated. Andrea, we're going to start with you today. Since you're already out there with Sea Control episode 210, a conversation with Dr. Stephen Goff about possible avenues of cooperation between the Coast Guard and Space Force. If you haven't listened already, go check it out. And if this were a movie, Andrea, then this would be the start of the Meet the Team montage. So I'm going to ask you to set the theme for us. What song is playing and what would you be doing when you get the call? Well, you claim that I'm already out there. So I'll roll with that theme and select the fantastic r&b classic i'm coming out by diana ross for three reasons first i picture myself outside when i get

the call hopefully atop one of my favorite mountains in washington state mount eleanor or storm king or walker i'm in east coast atlanta who's been stationed the pacific northwest the past two years and i've fully surrendered to the gravity of the mountains and the incomparable hiking here second i do feel like the new kid on the block who's coming out for a debut amid the established giants of the SimSec team. In the wise words of Diana Ross, the time has come for me to break out of my shell. And seriously, what a privilege it is to have this opportunity. And lastly, the song has become an anthem among several minority communities. And my experience in the Navy has been this balancing act of celebrating the qualities that make me a

different and therefore more visible officer while striving for the goal of serving uniformly on a successful team no it's awesome i like the sound choice i like the vividness of the imagery that you presented there are those the actual names of mountains one of them was stormbreaker storm king yeah storm king pretty epic names here and then you know it does slope downhill to kind of the intuitive mount washington as well so they lost their creative edge as they probably renaming the rest of these mountains. Yeah, they burned out early, but man, Storm King, that's good. I'm putting that on the list for things to do whenever I'm allowed to travel ever again. So then could you start by telling us a little bit about your background?

Absolutely. For starters, I grew up with an incredibly diverse public school system in Atlanta. And every day I was inundated with so many international cultural microcosms that I fell in love with this idea of seeing all these different countries by joining the Navy, seeing the world. And I also fell in love with the holistic leadership model that was promised by Annapolis. But when I showed up to the Naval Academy in the summer of 2011 with aspirations to become an aeronautical engineer and a naval aviator, I, in many ways, instead found myself swimming upstream in paradoxes, both personally and professionally. Firstly, when Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed my freshman year, I lived out this paradox of building a distinct

LGBTQ community at the school, while still leaning into this traditional ideal of uniformity. Professionally, I decided to, instead of taking that engineering route, double major in Arabic and political science at a super STEM-centric school, but I then pivoted into a highly technical submarine career. And to cap it off, I also had the honor of attending graduate school in the United Kingdom as a Marshall Scholar at King's College London in the University of Oxford, shifting from representing diversity within the Navy to then being the sole representative of the American monolith abroad. Most importantly I'll note and I'd be in the doghouse if I didn't that I met my partner Emmy at Oxford who overlapped with me as a Rhodes Scholar and this leadership

laboratory offered by this path really perfectly prepared me to serve in my current role. I'm a division officer on the blue crew of the USS Ohio in Washington state which I'm very proud to say was only the third American submarine to integrate junior enlisted women onto her crew. No, that's excellent. Had you considered doing something like this before you were approached and this being the podcast? I would have never built up the courage to independently start podcasting, but I've been continually engaged in writing for publications these past years, like proceedings, as a way to keep my social science chops wetted while focusing on nuclear power for my day job. Already, though, through these first recordings, I've really come to

appreciate the collaborative nature of podcasting, vice the independence of writing. I've always claimed and appreciated that the submarine qualification process, which is predominantly completed using oral checkouts and interviews, is a social translation of highly technical matter. And I love that podcasting very much so feels the same. And is there a specific area that you're going to look to concentrate on as you go forward? So in pledging allegiance to my dolphins, I would love to grow into the team's wonk on emerging technology, new warfare domains, and of course, all things pertaining to submarines in the undersea arena. But I love interdisciplinary challenges, so I'm seriously up for anything. No, that's excellent. And we do have one of your episodes right now that's in, I will call it, quote unquote, post-production.

So this is your chance to advertise it. Who is it with and what's it about? So I had the pleasure of interviewing Julie Angus, the CEO of Ocean Open Robotics, and Michael Brasser, who served as the first director of the NATO Maritime Unmanned Systems Innovation and Coordination Cell. So they shared their fascinating insider knowledge of the rise of blue tech and a global accelerator network, all in support of an Internet of Things for the ocean. We discussed the ramifications that this would have on tracking oil spills, illegal fishing accountability, and nearest and dearest to my heart, subversive, possibly submerged maritime vessels. Thank you. And then last question for you is where can we find you online? I am on LinkedIn with the tail end of my web link as AndreaTacHowardTacUSN, but where I could really use some support is as a new Twitter user, at AndreaR underscore Howard, especially since we typically announce our new episodes on that platform. Absolutely. So go follow Andrea. You can find all of her new episodes there as well as under the SimSec Twitter account. Walker, I'm going to come to you next.

You may be the most known quantity of this group, as I don't think it's a stretch to say that you're one of the most, if not the most, prolific military author on the Internet right now. What are you doing in the montage when we call you a host? And then tell us a little bit about your background, too. Well, thanks, Jared. So I think I'd probably be teaching some arcane piece of amphibious operations or military history to Colombian cadets in my classroom at the Naval Academy. So I studied archaeology in college. I had a soft spot for Indiana Jones. And what I'm imagining is are those scenes of him teaching his students, you know, and they're like starting to fall asleep.

But he's really into it. And then, you know, the bell rings and he's still he's getting cut off. You know, he's still trying to get the last word and is there is there leaving class? So background, I'm a Marine Corps infantry officer. Basically means I'm not an expert in anything, but then I can write about, you know, whatever, whatever I want to. I'm currently serving as an exchange officer at the Colombian Naval Academy here in Cartagena, Colombia. And like I mentioned, I teach tactics, military history, amphibious warfare and things like that. And sometimes I help out with other things that we have going on in the region.

And right now, the United States and the Naval Mission are supporting a humanitarian disaster response in the wake of one of the hurricanes that we have here. A little bit more about me. So I studied history and archaeology at Brown for undergrad. I just finished a master's in international relations and modern war from King's College in London, which was a great experience. And then almost immediately started a new non-resident master's in homeland security from the Naval Postgraduate School. So really fortunate to have the opportunities to do that. And then I've written kind of all over the place, starting with book reviews. And then moving on from there, you can find my bylines in Marine Corps Gazette, on West Point's Modern War Institute, USNI Proceedings, obviously SimSec, Defense News, War on the Rocks, Strategy Bridge, Military Review, and probably a couple more that I'm not remembering. Yeah, you mentioned your writing. And from a topic perspective, it is really all over the place. So I've seen you write about seaplanes, narco submarines, the cod wars, which we covered on a previous Sea Control episode. I've really enjoyed this sort of public written stream of consciousness thing that you have going. Is that what we can expect from you as a host as well going forward? So I think in a word, yes. And I don't know whether that's a criticism or a compliment that you're leveling at me. Not a criticism, absolutely a compliment, and why I was excited for you to work with us. So please continue.

Well, yeah, I'm excited to be here. And I think, honestly, Jared, it's going to be more of the same. Like I mentioned, I'm fortunate enough to be working through this master's in Homeland Security at the Naval Postgraduate School. And it's actually a FEMA-funded and Department of Homeland Security-funded program. So it's a little bit different, and I think that's going to start pulling me in that direction. You know, just finished last night, actually, another paper about a term paper about narco subs. You know, I'm looking at criminal innovation, narco innovation and maritime security on the southern border. You know, I'm really trying to dig into the Caribbean as a theme because I'm here in Columbia and I'm always looking for opportunities to learn more about the region. And, you know, I'm always taking little classes at the Naval Academy and jumping in on stuff like that.

And I think that's probably going to show up as a big theme in some of the work that I'm doing as well. But I think probably the biggest running theme in across the writing that I've done and the things that I'm interested in is the future Marine Corps and stuff like the force design that the Commandant's working on right now. I think it's really just an exciting time to be in the Marines and to be talking about this kind of stuff, you know, with the direction the Commandant's going. And I think, excuse me, I think it's, it's kind of a speak now or forever hold your peace kind of time for us. And so I'm definitely trying to get my, get my two cents in. And I've also realized that I kind of use writing sometimes as like an exploratory tool. So what I mean by that is if I want to know more about something, I'll start writing about it, which kind of sounds backwards. But then you end up writing about something that you know a little bit less about and it forces you to learn about it. Right. You have to do your research. You've got to do the readings. And then you have to start putting your arguments down on paper and really understand. It forces you to really understand your topic and your subject.

Now, that's a cool perspective. I really appreciate the insight into your brain. You mentioned you were just supporting a hater operation and that your master's is being funded by FEMA. Is there any, like, cross-pollination between those two? Did you learn anything this weekend that you then get to now apply to the master's degree? Did you take away any vignettes that you're going to share in class? So I think so. Yeah. I mean, this is super recent and we haven't had, you know, a class yet since I've been helping out there. But I am definitely excited to kind of see the perspectives of, you know, how they do disaster response here in Columbia and how they, you know, compared to some of my classmates in the back in the States and the program, the CHDS Program Center for Homeland Defense and Security. they do a really good job of bringing together practitioners it's all it's all practitioners from all over the homeland security enterprise so you know i'm kind of representing the military and also this overseas piece but then we have a fireman we have policemen we have

uh secret service we have fbi we have customs and border protection so it's it's just a really cool opportunity to see and kind of share those perspectives so sometimes i feel like i have you know kind of a unique opportunity here but you know then you go to class and it's like every single one of your classmates has an equally, if not more, unique perspective. Thanks. So you've also got an episode in post-production with us right now. What's the topic and who is your guest? Yeah, so I just had the opportunity to record a great podcast with Kelly Moss and Lexi Van

Buskirk of Stable Seas. Excuse me. And we talked about Kelly's recent SimSec piece on Ansar, Alsuna, and maritime security in Mozambique. DLCs has done some really great work there. And Kelly Alves, he wrote a good piece for us in SimSec about the same. And then we also talked to Lexi a little bit more about some of the work that she's done related to gender perspectives on maritime security and, and kind of use and how does, how do we, you know, what's, what's the value of using a gender perspective in the maritime

space? So really excited, was excited to do that, excited to see it up on the website. I have another podcast recording scheduled with Timothy Heck and Brett Friedman about their new volume on Contested Shores about amphibious operations that just came out from Marine Corps University. I'll pitch it. It's free. You can download it on their website. And I'm not just saying that because I have a chapter in it as well. And then our listeners don't know, but Jared knows that I did record another podcast that the audio didn't work out. So we're going to re-attack that one. Pretty big fish, you know, don't want to, but don't want to ruin the surprise. So yeah, we have really gracious, almost, you know, like you would almost say like a

service chief level fish. But no, so he's been really, really generous and hopefully we're going to be able to get back that time. And so we can get that out to our listeners and then just chasing down a couple other leads. So I think we're going to have some really good content coming and obviously super excited to listen to what my, you know, what the other co-hosts have going on. Yeah, that's excellent.

So finally, then, where can we follow you online for more updates? And what else are you working on? Yeah, so I made a Twitter during the pandemic. So it's really recent. So I have like no followers and you can follow me. It's at WD Mills 1992. I also just joined the editorial team at Strife Blog. And Strife Blog and Journal is a student-led blog and journal out of King's College in

London. So they're doing some really cool work. And I'm about to release a call for papers about Caribbean maritime security, which I'm sure will be out by the time this podcast makes it to the website. So excited about that and working with them. I'm also working on an edited volume about it's going to be titled Armies in Retreat. So looking at kind of the flip side of decisive victory, you know, how do armies retreat and how do they how do they withdraw? and what does that look like and perspectives about that. Doing that with Timothy Heck, another Marine officer. We're working with a publisher, and our chapters are just starting to come back from the authors,

and there's some really great stuff that we're seeing, so super excited about that. Probably have about half a dozen papers sitting with editors and maybe another half a dozen or so in progress. But generally themes look at mine warfare, expeditionary logistics, operational energy and Caribbean maritime security. I think the next thing that you'll see of mine is a piece about amphibious aircraft that I wrote with a Navy pilot in the December USNI proceedings issue, but generally looking to do a lot more kind of like co-authored work. I guess you could say looking to get some people who actually know what they're talking about

and start including them on the byline with me so I can keep feeding the curiosity and writing about stuff that's kind of outside my comfort zone and outside my wheelhouse. Thanks, Walker. And we'll look forward to all of that, whether it appears SimSec or elsewhere, and look forward to promoting your work on Twitter as well. But we're going to transition now to John Frerichs. John, probably the second most famous person to come out of Wheaton, Illinois after Red Grange and our third host.

John would be familiar to Sea Control listeners from episode 162, Redesigning the Marine Corps, as well as his articles in the Marine Corps Gazette and War on the Rocks. So, John, what's going on in the background when we get to your part of the montage? And what are you doing when you get the call? Jared, first, it's funny you mention Red Grange because more often than not, I guess I get asked about Wheaton College alum Billy Graham. So it's actually really refreshing to have the sports history reference, and I sincerely appreciate that.

In terms of the montage, difficult to be able to follow Andrea and the enthusiasm that she brought, but I'm going to bring a darker tone here. And I'll say, picture me with headphones on, listening to the Russian Navy hymn by the Alexandrov Ensemble and quietly enjoying reading a book. But break, break, that scene is quite quickly shattered

by my two and five-year-old boys crashing into the frame in a wrestling match with my wife yelling at me to take out the diaper trash And my new newborn baby sitting next to me, enjoying her quiet sleep. So while peaceful and dark and seemingly academic to begin with, it is often much not truly the case. I'm going to tell you, my Marine Corps default is always like bodies by drowning pool. So it was refreshing to hear with you go Russian Navy hymn. And I just pictured the scene from Hunt for Red October, although I don't believe that that's the Russian Navy hymn that they're singing there.

So, yeah, tell us about your background then. I mean, you introduced yourself on Episode 162, but it's been quite a while. So, yeah, tell us all about yourself. Thanks. And I'll expand a little bit. So initially commissioned in the Marine Corps, despite starting Reserve Officer Training Corps as a Navy option at the University of Pennsylvania, coming out of the basic school for the Marine Corps, selected as an infantry officer. And I found myself over the next five years as a company grade officer really with some unique opportunities.

So three different deployments as part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit working alongside the Navy, along with Platoon Commander Tom in Iraq and Company Commander Tom in Afghanistan. And ultimately, it was kind of this diversity of travel and experience that's been a key part in terms of continuing to stoke my desire to continue to serve within the Marine Corps. Following that, a year at school, which is where I had the opportunity to meet you. And then afterwards, a dark three-year tour on recruiting in San Francisco. For anyone who survived recruiting duty, much respect and much admiration. Following that, a year at the School of Advanced Warfighting back in Quantico, Virginia. And I'm currently serving my payback tour at Marine Forces Europe and Africa as a planner focused on the Russia problem set.

So I want to go back to the part of your bio where you said that you were originally a Navy option midshipman. Where do you think it went wrong for you that diverted you onto the Marine Corps path? So it's funny, in a story I've told with other, with some of my recruiters in the past, it actually started by going wrong in a Marine Corps recruiter's office. I walked in a Marine Corps recruiter's office, and I had a terrible first impression. The Marine Corps recruiter smelled like smoke, cigarette smoke, just looked terrible in his uniform. And I just, it didn't resemble what I was looking for in terms of a service to be part of. When I walked next door to the Navy recruiter's office, here was a guy in crisp, clean whites, spoke very intelligently and just really represented the service very well.

So quickly, I found myself signing up to depth into the Navy. It was actually during core training for midshipmen during my sophomore year where I got re-exposed and had the opportunity to be able to spend a week with the Marines. where I realized that a lot of my values and the things I was looking for in terms of some of the challenges and travel and adventure were more readily available within the Marine Corps. So it's not that it was a wrong turn from the Navy, but I think just an identification that an open door was available to me within the Marine Corps. Thanks. And then what sort of body of work are you looking to produce in your version of the podcast? So my interests are pretty wide and far, you know, things that I've recently been, I think, increasingly focused upon partially

because of the work I do. Broadly, great power competition, particularly within the maritime domain. Innovation across kind of particularly with regards to some of the opportunities that technology can offer us with regards to gaining an advantage over the adversary. And then organizational management. I'm continuously interested in how we can make our organization better and more capable. I think oftentimes we look purely towards technology to solve our problems, where oftentimes the answer comes back to, are we appropriately organized to be able to handle the problems that we encounter?

I'm going to ask this final question. It'll be kind of a two-parter. One, where can we find you online? And then two, I don't think you've actually recorded anything yet, but I think you're working on lining up your first episode. So without overpromising, can you give us like a little taste of what you think your first episode or two is going to be? Yes. So two stories currently working. One is with regards to an article that came out concerning the interoperability of the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard.

So taking partially after Andrea's Space Force and the Coast Guard, taking a slightly different look and looking at some of those, particularly those operational opportunities that the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard can employ, particularly within the Indo-Pacific. And then the second is with an academic from one of the Norwegian universities that focuses on Russian operational and strategic decision-making. And she specifically focuses on decision-making within the maritime domain of the Russian forces. With regards to where to find me, Hoplite Marine on Twitter is my handle. That's the best way to be able to find me. You can find me on LinkedIn and Facebook as well. But professionally, Hoplite Marine on Twitter is the best way to reach me.

Thanks, Sean. And we'll go to our final new host, Anna McNeil. Anna, welcome. What is your background? Hey, thank you so much for having me. My background is that I am a third culture kid. I grew up in the expat community overseas. I've always really loved the ocean, its lore.

And I also heavily considered joining the Naval Academy, but was swayed by the attitudes of the folks in the Coast Guard who are really amazing. And ever since I met my first Coast Guard recruiting opportunity, all the way through to today, the attitudes of the Coasties around me are why I joined and why I continue to serve with them. I did earn my SWO pin on the USS Stout doing a Navy exchange tour in 2011. So shout out to the Double Nickel family and any SWO Coasties who happen to be listening. I enjoyed three years of patrol boat command, followed by postgraduate school at the National Intelligence University. So I spent about nine years of my 13 year military career on sea duty. And I'm excited to be back at sea again this tour. But it does mean that scheduling podcast interviews is a little bit different, difficult for me.

So I'm going to express ahead of time my gratitude for the patience of our episode guests. No, I really appreciate that. And it's good to hear all three of you kind of have these operational backgrounds going on. I think it's going to add some good depth and perspective when you come into contact with your guests. So, Anna, I didn't ask this up top, but what would you be doing in the training montage when you get the call to join the team? And did you pick out a song? You know, I didn't, but I know exactly what I'd be doing as I was hiking a trail with my dog along the rugged cliff of the California coastline. And that would be, I'd be listening to anything by the band Soul Rebels, particularly there's got a great song named Down for My City. They're from New Orleans and it's just, there's so much good music coming out of that city. So that's exactly what I would be listening to. Thanks. So like a lot of Coast Guard officers, you have a really varied background that includes

some intel along with your operational experience. What do you kind of expect to focus on in your time hosting? Well, I really value diversity of thought and opinion. I don't really consider myself to be a history buff, so I don't lend a lot towards a lot of naval history, but I am increasingly convinced that the most impressive stories come from true experiences, from people who we may not often live or work with in the same circles. So I really want to hear from people whose lives are being impacted by the success or failure of sea control initiatives or whose personalities are shaping today's understanding of the maritime domain.

Thank you. And then a final question, where can we find you online? And then what are you working on project-wise for your first couple episodes? I am on Twitter. I'm at 2BatSea, which is spelled 2-Bravo-A-T-Sierra-Echo-Alpha. Probably have to redo that one, but yes, 2BatSea. And my projects, I have an anticipated episode in January, fingers crossed. Very excited to be interviewing the author Andrea Pitzer of Icebound.

She is writing on William Barron's experiences in the Arctic. Outside of the Sea Control podcast, I have to say I'm equally, if not more, excited about my current project, which is diversity coaching certification as part of the Coast Guard's Diversity and Inclusion Change Agent Program. Well, thank you very much. So if you weren't keeping track, we are now Naval Integration Personified here at Sea Control. We have all three of the sea services represented, broad swath of experience at levels ranging from the sub-tactical to strategic. and I'm excited because I think it's going to make for an excellent mix going forward. So I don't want to over-promise on productivity, but I do think you can expect even more frequent episodes than we've been producing to date. And it's only going to benefit you, the listener.

Andrea Walker, John and Anna, I want to thank you all for joining me today for this. And to the listeners, thanks for tuning in. We'll see you in the very near future. This episode of Sea Control was produced and edited by Keegan Ingersoll, Ed Salo, and William McQuiston. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 Thank you for watching.