Steve's 2 Cents - Gratitude And Joy

Ever take a moment to look around at what you have? It’s certainly not a daily or weekly practice for me, but when I do it changes me mentally and physically.

I start with the basics: air, water, food, and shelter. It’s 16 degrees outside with a couple inches of new snow as I write this and I can tell you I am grateful that my physical needs are met.

I don’t spend much time, at this point in my life, on the next level of Maslow’s hierarchy, safety needs. I spent 50 years planning and acting in accordance with my plans to insure my personal security, employment, resources, health, and property were taken care of. But when I do stop and reflect, I am grateful that I had some great mentors and friends who helped me along the way.

When I look at love and belonging I have to laugh at what a strange long trail it’s been. My initial relationship suffered from my unresolved issues. Luckily with help, I was able to right the ship once I learned to love myself. Much harder than I thought, I am very grateful I learned that lesson. I take joy in my family and friendships. And, I feel connected, a part of my new tribe – authors.

Esteem, especially self-esteem, was something I always struggled with. I was never good enough, so I faked it and used status and recognition to cover the cracks in my soul. Today I’m not that Steve. I’m just happy with myself Steve and the freedom of that gives me joy.

The final level of Maslow’s hierarchy is self-actualization – the desire to become the most that one can be. When you can see that all your other needs are taken care of, this is one amazing place to operate from.

Being retired, my goals are simple. Ensure our daughter-in-law and grandson are taken care of. And beyond that, enjoy life and become the best writer I can in the time I have left on the planet. I am grateful for the opportunity and the learning that comes from being a writer connected to so many wonderful authors.

Just my 2 cents, but taking time to reflect on all you have can bring an attitude of gratitude and joy to the most gray and ugly day.

About Steve: Being A Special Forces Radioman At The Dawn Of Digital

In 1974 the US Army taught me all about its various types of radios and how to troubleshoot and fix them at the component, i.e., transistor level. When I got the White House Communications Agency I learned I had to operate those radios and the encryption units too. Luckily with few exceptions, the mode of transmission was voice. 

The radios were Motorola FM band walkie-talkies for the Secret Service and staff when preparing for and during a presidential or veep visit. And we always long-haul Air Force or Navy HF band communication systems as backup in case the phone system became unavailable.

In 1979 when I joined the Special Forces, my first assignment was to the group signal company where the long haul communications systems included one thousand watt HF radios, encryptors, and teletypes. All mounted into the back of a 5-ton truck.

After switching to an Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) I was focused on my new passion, medicine. I was taking nursing night courses at the local community college and excited about attending the special forces medical course.

But like being typecast as an actor the company commander found out about my past and I instantly became a radio operator. NOTE: The two hardest training courses in the special forces at the time were medical and radio operator.

I had not attended the special forces course but that did not matter to a commander overrun by weapons and demolitions NCO’s.

It was also at this time that I realized that gravity and a 90lbs rucksack, not including weapon and load bearing equipment (LBE) sucked!

I remember being on a DEA sponsored and paid for counter-drug mission with a 105lbs rucksack and tripping. I fell face first into the trail, turning my head at the last second. My team kept patrolling, quietly snickering as they walked by then took a security halt while I rolled over on my side. I got my feet under me and stood dirty but not bleeding, shaking my head at my sloppy footwork.

Anyway, back to the radios. When transmitting, as we did in Morse code, it can take a while to tap out a message. The good news was the CIA had created some mechanical devices to speed up message sending for spies, aka, bursting messages. Great more stuff to carry. The devices, which can now be seen in the NSA cryptologic museum, included a device for encoding the message on tape, the tape units, and a device which when wound up would play the taped message out faster than the ear could pick up.

So, we would connect the burst device to an encryption device (that we’d already loaded with the appropriate encryption key) that was connected to the radio that was connected to a long wire antenna that we’d setup to match a certain frequency at a certain time of day in a certain part of the world. Easy day!

In 1981 the US Army took baby steps into the digital world with the production of the Digital Message Device Group that permitted an operator to enter a message and store it then send it whenever time and mission permitted it. It was a 9lbs device with keyboard and backlit dot matrix screen.

We still had to carry the radio, encryptor, extra batteries, and antenna kit but we didn’t need the mechanical devices and those less sensitive items to carry and account for.

In 1998 the next step up was to the heavens, literally. The AN/PSC-3 satellite communications radio which could operate in satellite or Line of Sight modes. I took the DMDG communications speed from 27 baud on HF to 1200 baud per second on satellite.

From there the radios got smaller and the encryption was brought on board, reducing the need for a separate unit and cable that could break.

In the mid-90s we had palm sized digital message devices and encryptors like:

But we started carrying computers so now a special forces communications NCO still carries 75-100lbs in a ruck but it’s all “High Speed Low Drag -- Lite Weight Gear” 

For more information on this subject see:

About Rattrig.com

The Digital Message Device Group - Soldier Systems Daily

Crypto Museum

KL-43 - Wikipedia

Steve's 2 Cents - Evaluate Your Priorities

January 9th is forever seared in my heart and memories as a day of indescribable loss. Our oldest son lay at the coroner’s office, dead at fifty-one. 2023 was going to be a year of fun times. Theme dinners and barbecues at Danny’s house. And we’d talked about trips to the cabin for fishing and to help our six-year-old grandson uncover Red Belly the pirate’s treasure.

We’d talked about riding our vintage dirt bikes more, and maybe even some racing. And of course, hunting and teaching our grandson rifle safety using his great grandfather’s single shot 22. We even talked about what a big kid I can be when I get to a theme park and see the rollercoasters crazy rides. Maybe we’d join them at Hershey Park this year.

Barely a week into the new year and life has forever changed. The funniest, most loving and helpful among us is gone. Speaking for myself, I’ve only kept two goals I had for 2023 and now the top three ensure his family’s mental and financial wellbeing.

I’ve suffered loss before, it’s not new by any means. And each time I experience loss I take the time to evaluate my priorities, what’s important in life.

My suggestion is to not wait until tragedy strikes. Evaluate your priorities and confirm or reset your goals often. Love your family with everything you’ve got. And don’t leave your love for them unsaid. Tell them how much they mean to you, for one day you or one of them may be gone.

My 2023 will differ greatly from what I planned, but it will still be a great year filled with as much fun, love, and remembrance as I can stuff into each day.

About Steve: The Need For Speed

At 68 years young on the way to 69 this year, it still cracks me up that I hear the siren song of speed, adventure, adrenaline, whatever you want to call it. Cue the danger zone music….

My love of skydiving and flying my body has never waned, but I did make the decision to lower it on my priority list. Finish college, work the career.  After a multi-decade pause, I took up tunnel flying, but while fun it proved more expensive than I wanted.

As did car racing. Most of my time was spent in Miata’s, which are relatively cheap to run. But it's costly to play at the top of the regional level, much less the national level. So, I dropped car racing for vintage motorcycle motocross and enduro racing. Two well prepared 70s dirt bikes cost 50% of my tire budget for the year of car racing.

I was 65 when I broke my first bone during a vintage motocross. I thought I’d dislocated my ankle, but it was a bit worse with a titanium plate and screws. Then I started writing and sold the bikes. Three years later, I bought some dirt bikes to use at the cabin. There are thousands of miles of dirt roads, ghost towns, and mountain tops to climb.

Last year, a copy of the first dirt bike I ever bought with my money became available and I did a two-day dash to California to pick it up. Suddenly, the idea of getting back into vintage motocross came forward, and I bought another dirt bike to use for enduros.

Believe it or not, this will be a slow and measured reintroduction back into racing. It’s a top five goal for the year to get back in, but that’s it versus winning a championship. Last time I raced at that level was 2016… Now the goal is fun. I know I’ll be faster after the race with a beer and friends but that’s okay.

Collecting experiences versus plaques is where it’s at.

Steve's 2 Cents - Gratitude

As we traverse and hopefully enjoy this holiday season, I’d like to talk about Gratitude. 

For many years, into my mid-thirties at least, I was task focused. Knock them down and on to the next. One eye on the promotion ladder, the other on having fun. Running at an all consumed high speed for years on end had some benefit but left little time to be grateful. Material things were to be used and discarded when inoperable. I hunted for titles and badges never stopping to count my blessings, okay maybe for a second after a near double parachute malfunction, but just for a second.

Slowly but surely, and with some professional help, I started to see more value in things, and the people, and relationships in my life. I learned to be grateful for what I had, to include myself, craziness, and all. The idea of an attitude of gratitude seemed silly at first but I soon got to know its power. I learned, I could change my day by asking myself what I was grateful for, focused on what I had. I also learned; I could use that moment to restart my day with a new outlook that made even the grind seem better.

I’ve never met him in person but on Twitter we know him as @ActualMurf. His morning quotes often end with Choose Wisely.

I don’t consider myself wise, but I like to act as if, and this holiday season I choose Gratitude!

About Steve: I’m A+

A+ blood type is the second-most common type of blood. 1 in 3 people. A positive blood type individuals are very important in maintaining the blood supply chain. The blood group is determined by the genes found on chromosome 9. Blood group A contains antigen A on red cells with the antibody B present in the plasma.

Blood group A people are more prone to cancer, allergies, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. I'm lucky I just have two of the four, allergies and blood clotting.

However, on the positive side, type A people are less magnetic to the mosquitoes. Thank You!

Type A blood types have certain generic personality traits to them. 

They tend to be more practical, intricate, innovative, introverted, patient, punctual and sensitive.

On the negative, they are more stubborn and self-obsessive. No, I’m not! Well yeah, I can be.

As a kid I remember holding onto the bunk bed for dear life when my parents wanted to take me to county health services to get shots. Strange, I have no memory of why I was so scared of needles. My mom had to hold me while dad lifted the top of the bunk bed off to unhook my arms.

One of the first things to happen at basic training is inoculations, aka shots. I was scared but thanks to unsaid peer group pressure I manned up and kept quiet. Flinching when the medics are using air guns to give you the shots is not advised and led to some bloody arms on guys in my group.

Six years later at the combat medic course, phase 1 in the SF medic pipeline, I was on my second World Health Organization (WHO) booklet of shots having gotten to travel to so many fun out of the way places. I was a want-to-be medic on a special forces team so had some experience giving shots and IV’s. When we got to the shots and IV’s portion of the course, I played pin cushion for other students. The exciting times were when a student would attempt to find the vein, they completely missed and started digging around.

Now I don’t feel shots, blood draws or IV’s. When you’re in the hospital and sleep through the blood draws you know you’ve made it.

What’s the weirdest shot you remember? Mine was the early rabies vaccine, two shots bright purple. Had to shave twice as often and howled at the full moon. Or maybe that was just a team party. A story for another time.

Steve's 2 Cents - Unsung Heroes

The US Coast Guard, yes, there you go. I said it. Unsung heroes in the drug war. Specifically, for the interdiction of massive amounts of drugs along our 95,471 miles of coastline, in the Pacific, Caribbean, and as far away as the Gulf of Oman.

Some examples include the following:

August 21, the Coast Guard Cutter James brought in a record haul of nearly 60,000 pounds of cocaine and 1,400 pounds of marijuana. The haul was worth an estimated $1.4 Billion.

Between January and March, 21 the drugs interdicted in total worth had an estimated $330 million. They were seized in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean and represented 15 suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America by the following Coast Guard and Navy ships: 

The Coast Guard Cutter Munro crew was responsible for nine interdictions, seizing approximately 10,200 pounds of cocaine and 11,450 pounds of marijuana. 

The Coast Guard Cutter Bear crew was responsible for two interdictions, seizing approximately 66 pounds of cocaine. 

The Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant crew was responsible for one interdiction, seizing approximately 1,870 pounds of cocaine. 

The Coast Guard Cutters Bear and Munro conducted a joint interdiction, seizing approximately 3,747 pounds of cocaine. 

Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 107 deployed aboard the USS Freedom was responsible for two interdictions, seizing approximately 1,600 pounds of cocaine and 2,150 pounds of marijuana.

Just this October the Coast Guard in working the Gulf of Oman in coordination with the Royal Navy seized $45 million worth of meth and ten days later the Coast Guard Cutter Harris sized 5,000 kilos of hashish and 800 kilos of meth.

The crew of the cutter Griesser working the Caribbean Corridor Strike Force seized 721 pounds of cocaine.

In mid-September the cutters James and Legare along with the USS Billings and the Royal Netherlands Navy Groningen seized 24,700 pounds of cocaine and 3.892 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $475 million.

Billions of dollars of illicit drugs interdicted and kept from our shores and those of our coalition partners. The Coast Guard – Unsung Heroes.

About Steve: The Perils Of An Addictive Personality

Looking back on my life, others identified the traits; adventurous and risk taking, compulsive, and a higher threshold for self-regulation. Me? I was fairly clueless. And when I did have a clue, I didn’t care as I had enough money, paid my bills, and had fun, lots of fun.

It started with mechanical things I wanted to figure out and master like pistol shooting and motorcycles. I couldn’t have just one. At one point I had 30 different pistols from the WWI and WWII era. 

Then it expanded to more intellectual pursuits like photography. I bought and used everything Olympus made in the late 70’s. When I added skydiving to the mix, I had two camera bodies and two of many of the wider lenses like 18 and 21mm. I also bought a second skydiving rig, so I was always ready to go. My photography and skydiving bender, so to speak, did have a positive side. I had photos in a stock agency in NYC. My pictures were used in textbooks, Woman’s Day magazine, and calendars. I also was a member of several official and unofficial skydiving records.

Then it was time to buckle down and get a degree. So, I sold all that and found a college that ran five semesters a year. In a little over two years, I finished my degree and all the while the budding triathlon bug was biting me. So, time for more gear. The best bike I could afford and new running shoes and wetsuit, you get the idea. But being a participant wasn’t enough, so I took on the race director role for the Top Gun Triathlon we held on MacDill Air Force Base.

After the first Gulf War and moving north to Maryland, I thought it would be fun to have some animals and save some money on property taxes. So, we got 2 Arabian horses, 6 sheep, cats & a large dog along with 13 acres of land. But that wasn’t enough, so I added sports car racing to the mix to ensure I had no extra time. I didn’t realize of course how much work the animals were until I stopped. To be good at sports car racing also took a lot of time but once again it seemed worth it as I won regional championships and several seconds and thirds at the national level. I almost forgot, during this period I was also a Maryland National Guard Special Forces Team Sergeant with all the work it encompassed. Training and mission planning with overseas deployments to Panama and Columbia to name a few. 

Then there was a period of even more intense work and a deep look at Steve. It’s never too late to discover who you really are and make necessary changes to become who you want to be.

My addictive personality has cost me jobs and people. But I am at peace with that. 

Lately, it’s been a bit of vintage dirt bike racing and hunting for the first motocross bike I bought with my own money. I found one and currently have a genius mechanic sorting out the motor and electronics.

Now my current passion is writing, and I like to think I control it. HA!!! When I started writing what became Shadow Tier, it was just writing for me. When friends and family said I should try to get it published I once again dove in and paid for a 6-month internship with Jerry Jenkins. And off I went and continue to go. Now I trade my most precious commodity, time, for the pleasure of writing. 

Having just retired this past June 30th I have time like never before and I am purposely not piling on with more things. Staying in shape and being healthy late into my life is now the goal so I can continue to bike, hike, hunt, fish, and travel with my wife. I consider myself lucky to have found the perfect person for me at this stage of my life. I now have the experience of turning the peril into pearls and hope your life is where you want it to be or on the way.

I’ll keep writing and look forward to your feedback.

Steve

Steve's 2 Cents - Are The Cartel’s Too Big?

A September 1st  article by Jefferson Morley in Spy Talk suggests that while the capture and extraction of Guadalajara cartel founder Rafael Caro Quintero from the Sierra Madre is important, once again the people at the top are bypassed.

Last week a former attorney general was arrested for his part in covering up the 2014 slaughter of 43 students. Another 83 military commanders and police officers were arrested but the people at the top, once again bypassed. 

I posit that Mexico is a failed state, the government only able to offer basic services. Corruption is so deep and widespread that the cancer of the cartels is the only thing keeping the government operating. 

Nearly 20% of Mexico’s GDP comes from the drug trade and it is estimated there is upwards of 80% profit. Hence the inter-cartel fighting for drug manufacturing and distribution throughout Mexico and into the United States.

On the profit side, so many politicians, bankers and small companies make money laundering drug money that it’s the equivalent of a small country's budget. A classic example is Wachovia bank, now part of Wells Fargo. According to the Justice Department, Wachovia accounts took in at least $373 billion in wire transfers that were made from casas de cambio in Mexico between May 2004 and May 2007. 

In addition, more than $4 billion in bulk cash was shipped from Mexican casas de cambio to Wachovia accounts, prosecutors allege. Wachovia also operated a "remote deposit capture" service that took in another $47 billion, according to prosecutors. Some of the money was used to buy planes for trafficking, according to prosecutors. U.S. investigators seized more than 20,000 kilograms of cocaine from the planes.

The bank(s) were fined but no one went to jail.

I could go on, but you get the point.

About Steve: Sapphire Valley North Carolina

I used to rent a cabin there during the late eighties – early nineties. It’s featured in Shadow Tier as the place Kennedy and Maya go to hide from the cartel. In the southwest corner of North Carolina just north of the Georgia and South Carolina borders. 

It’s an hour from the Chattooga River of Deliverance fame. In a good rain year, the runs are full of class 5 rapids. I fell out once in a class 5 and had a hydraulic pull me under a rock, with a life jacket on. I sat there waiting to pop up but was held in place by the swirling water until I got my feet between myself and the rock. I pushed off as hard as I could and cleared the hydraulic popping up upstream of the raft.

The trout fishing was amazing, as were the many beautiful and refreshing waterfalls. From ten-foot stair step falls with cool places to lay in the water to one-hundred-foot shear drops. 

Parts of the movie Last of the Mohicans was filmed nearby, and I have run up alongside the waterfall that Daniel Day Lewis did. Although not nearly as cool as his character.

While not the Colorado mountains that I have access to now, the altitude was a break from the heat and humidity of Tampa and MacDill Air Force Base.

The cabin had started as a cook shack and then bunkhouse for loggers. It sat on the top of a ridge at a point facing west. Over the years the square central section was added to the kitchen and bedroom on the left side of the front door and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the right. There was a porch around the outside except for one twelve-foot section where the propane bottles stood. 

I had two of the porch poles rigged for my hammock and would nap during afternoon rains falling asleep instantly to the sound of the water caressing the metal roof. Looking out back from the kitchen was a series of old but fruitful apple trees. The rest of the view was woods and wildlife. 

To get to the cabin from the road you went through a gate and switch backed up the ridge and around a massive boulder that looked ready to go. You could touch it just beyond the mirror, the track was so narrow. When you got to the top you were on the east side of the cabin with a smile as wide as the state of Tennessee.

Lots of wildlife around the cabin. Beer, wild pig, deer, turkey’s, falcons, and hummingbirds. Never saw a soul when there, only when on the road or at one of many popular lakes nearby.

I’d be remiss if I did not mention it’s called Sapphire Valley for a reason. Semi-precious stones are everywhere you dig. If you have little one’s, there are roadside stands that sell bags of sand with stones in them that children can find. We bought some and brought them up to the cabin for our nieces and nephews and it was a big hit.

It’s memories like this that are easy to incorporate into my writing and for that I am blessed.

Shadow Tier Book #2 News

Hunting The Dragon (working title) is in final edit stage. I will be going to the Crow Fair at the reservation in Montana later in August to confirm some cultural elements of the story, with an eye toward deepening Wolf’s back story. Maybe a novella? Look for more insight to the story and giveaways as we continue our journey with Wolf, Parker, Kennedy and the team.

Steve's 2 Cents - Fentanyl And The Cartels

Fentanyl is an opioid, like morphine, but 50 to 100 times more potent.

The city of Riverside California has seized enough so far this year to overdose and kill the population of the United States. Let that sink in, everyone in this country. The kids in Denver call them blues, they also are sold as M30 pills and Fentanyl is added to many other drugs to enhance addictiveness. Do we have a new addition to the opioid problem in America? YES.. Is it killing upward of 100,00 Americans a year? YES.

So, what is being done about it Internationally?

The Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury have used the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act to sanction the a synthetic opioid trafficking entity. Following a commitment to the U.S. at the G-20 in December, Chinese regulators announced on April 1, 2018 that a wider range of fentanyl derivatives would be declared controlled substances in China by May 1, 2019. This change is a major step in the right direction. However, China already has problems enforcing its current drug laws and continues to deny that its illicit fentanyl producers are a major source of illicit opioids in the U.S. Strict implementation and enforcement will be key, as China has a long history of failing to live up to agreements with U.S. The route illegal Fentanyl takes into the US is from China to Mexican ports run by the cartels then up into the US via their normal routes often in shipments including meth. In July, the Mexican army and national guard seized some 1,196 pounds of fentanyl from a warehouse in Culiacán, where the Sinaloa drug cartel operates, authorities said. 

In the US law enforcement is making record busts.

Approximately one million pills laced with fentanyl were seized in a bust near Los Angeles earlier in July, according to federal authorities. It marks the biggest seizure of fentanyl pills in California history, authorities said. The Drug Enforcement Administration reported Thursday that the raid occurred on July 5 at a home in Inglewood, a city just south of Los Angeles. The pills have an estimated street value of between $15 and $20 million, officials said. The pills were "intended for retail distribution," the DEA said. 

A record-setting drug bust has led to more than a dozen arrests in Lake County Florida, and deputies say there could be more to come. The undercover operation led to the recovery of more than four pounds of fentanyl, 22 pounds of methamphetamine,2 pounds of cocaine and 13 firearms. “That amount of fentanyl could literally kill thousands,” Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell said during a press conference Thursday announcing the results of “Operation Sneak-A-Peak.” It was a joint investigation between undercover agents from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, surrounding local agencies, Homeland Security, the DEA, and the FBI.

So, what can we do.

Number 1 - Educate our children and the people we care for about the problem and how Fentanyl is now added to many other drugs. 

While I am not advocating there is any safe use of controlled narcotics, my Number 2 is if you suspect someone you care for is trying drugs or a user see if Opioid/Fentanyl test kits are available.

About Steve: Learning To Ski…For President Ford

I learned to ski at Vail, Colorado days before the arrival of President Ford.

Let’s start at the beginning. As a White House Communications Agency radioman, I was part of the advance team which set up radio and telephone communications systems for the President, his staff, and the US Secret Service. We set up radio systems and relays from Grand Junction east along Interstate 70 into Aspen and Vail. The Aspen systems deployed in case the President or member of the first family decided to ski or enjoy the après ski nightlife. In 1975 we traveled in station wagons that made the snow and ice a good test of your driving skills. The on-mountain portions of our work were in all cases accessed by snow cat. Fun the first time, slow and noisy after the initial fun wore off. On the Grand Junction side, a co-worker and I boarded a snow cat at 0500 for a five-hour ride to the top of a mesa covered in what I did not know was ten or more feet of snow. I exited the back of the cat excited to see the vista and was surprised when I caught the bottom of the door frame as I was disappearing into the deep powder. Back inside the cat, the driver and my co-worker were having a good chuckle. We unloaded out the front, next to the base of the tower and control room. I was looking up at the ice laden tower thinking about how much fun it would be to climb loaded down with an antenna while pulling the cable too. I turned at the noise of my co-worker yelping and short of breath. Sitting behind him on the trip up I had not noticed the signs of altitude sickness. But now the climber had been chosen.

Normally we put our antennas on the top of airport control towers and buildings. I’d had to climb towers before but always in warmer weather where I did not need a hammer to break ice while I climbed. Outside I checked and confirmed that I could not use the safety harness as intended during the climb as the rod it connected to was covered with a half inch of ice. But the harness had clips I could attach the antenna and cable to, and I carried a locking carabiner and some tubular nylon in my backpack, So I tied into the harness and would use it for safety if I stopped on my climb or at the top while working. I was glad for my winter gear but found out one third of the way up the tower that it was insufficient when the wind kicked up. Hammering the ladder steps with the hammer was time consuming but it kept me warm, sort of. Near the one-hundred-foot mark I had the line of sight needed. I locked myself in using my expedient safety and started beating the ice off the tower. With the antenna and cabling secure I headed back down whole-body shivering. About sixty feet up I stopped to blow warm air into my gloves, slipped and fell to the end of the safety line I had created. Hanging horizontally to the tower and snow below I thanked my setup, pulled myself upright, and continued down at a slower pace with more attention to secure hand and foot placement. I don’t remember how long we were at altitude but when we got below what the cat driver considered seven thousand feet my co-worker improved.

Bone tired on our return to Vail, we walked into our command center across the drive from where the President was staying. It wasn’t his home in between the 4th and 5th holes on the golf course but a friend’s house near Gondola One. Looking up at the ops board I saw my name and next to it a note - Ski Lessons 0800.

Thinking I was being given some time off, and not sure why, I asked and found the Air Force guys had decided the Army guy (me) should be the one carrying the Army radio that would be the backup to the system we had deployed for the secret service all over Vail. Having gotten more than my money's worth climbing the tower I was pleased and secretly terrified that I had three days to learn how to ski and ten test the radio’s capabilities on runs the President was likely to ski which were blue thankfully not black!

The next morning me, one teenager and six kids under ten started class. My skis (190cm – 6’ 3”) were longer than I was tall. My body ached and my legs were shredded from the tower climb. After the class and snow plowing for what seemed hours. I hit the sauna to work out the kinks. I ate lunch and took the gondola to mid-Vail and fell down enumerable times on my way to Gitalong Road which was the road used to access the mountain during the summer. Lots of pushing and a little skiing later I was finding my balance. So, the next morning, pass and skis in hand I took the gondola to Mid-Vail and the chair lift to Ski Patrol headquarters on top of the mountain. From there I proceeded to make a nuisance of myself slowly going down the one green run then switching to the blue runs. Graceful I was not, scary to some no doubt. But I worked at it all day. I was twenty-two years old skiing Vail with the beautiful and rich. I was also using every large and unseen muscle in my body to stay upright. 

That evening I can still remember sitting in the sauna thinking football two a days and wrestling had not prepared me for a sport requiring balance and fine motor control of one’s limbs. The next day was more of the same but a bit more controlled and in the afternoon, I packed up the radio and skied the blues channeling the spirit of the famous 10th Mountain Division. 

The following morning, I got a list of likely runs President Ford would ski and took off to complete the survey. Luckily, I could get line of sight from one side of the runs or the other so the backup plan was set. Once the President arrived my only job was to head up the mountain with the Ski Patrol before the lifts opened and then from Ski Patrol headquarters join the secret service team when the President decided to ski. 

The first two days went well as I stayed on the uphill side of the protective detail keeping my distance. The third day as we collapsed in near the bottom of the run the President slid out, not really a fall, and I had to exit stage from behind the President to not hit him. That got a laugh and a mention from the lead agent skiing with the President that I should back off some more for the President’s safety. That agent Larry Buendorf would later stop an assassination attempt on President Ford and go one to become the security officer for the US Olympic Committee. 

The following day the President was not skiing, and I was requested to support the detail going with the President's son’s skiing the back bowls at Vail. The back bowls are ninety percent black diamond runs except for the road accessing the area and some blue runs of China Bowl. When they went diamond, and double diamond skiing I stayed up on the ridgeline where I could communicate through a repeater, we installed at Ski Patrol headquarters. Luckily the snow wasn’t too good back there that year and it was a short and uneventful day. The rest of the trip I stayed farther back as requested by the secret service and got to join the Ski Patrol on a rescue call at the end of the day on a blue run. A lady had gone into the trees and found one face first. She would be okay, but her ski trip was over.

As you can imagine, when I joined the Army, I had no idea I would get paid to learn how to ski, much less spend three weeks in the winter and another three in the summer for two years in a row in Vail Colorado.

Steve's 2 Cents - Discipline

Discipline

I am taking a bit of a departure here in taking the whole of what discipline is from Focus3.com. It so meshes with my concept of discipline.  What Does Discipline Mean? - Focus 3

To understand what discipline really is and what it really means, let’s look at the origin of the word to find its intent and true form. The root word of discipline is “disciple,” which comes from the Latin word discipulus meaning “student.” Most people believe a disciple is a follower (probably because of the religious context), but in reality it means student—as in, “one who studies.”

The word “discipline” is from the Latin word disciplina, meaning “instruction and training.” It is derived from the root word discere—”to learn.”

So what is discipline? Discipline is to study, learn, train, and apply a system of standards.

What isn’t discipline? Discipline is not rules, regulations, or punishment. It is not compliance, obedience,  or enforcement. It is not rigid, boring, or always doing the same thing.

Discipline is not something others do to you. It is something you do for yourself. You can receive instruction or guidance from one or many sources, but the source of discipline is not external. It is internal.

Discipline is a choice… your choice. It is a decision. Better yet, all of your decisions. The distinction between discipline being an external dynamic or an internal dynamic, a mandatory rule or a personal choice, is important. Understanding this at a deeper level is your gateway into a better, more discipline-driven life.

Do you see how it works? When you understand discipline as a choice, you are in control—not anyone or anything else. More discipline, more choice, more control. Better options. Higher standards. Improved skill. More flexibility. Less discipline, less choice, less control. Fewer options. Lower standards. Inadequate skill. Less flexibility.

My Application of Discipline. When I decided to start writing Shadow Tier, I had a full-time job as the head of a ten-person software and hardware team. With company HQ in Virginia and my living in  Colorado my workday usually started at 7am and went until 3pm mountain time or later. Zoom calls with customers in the UK and Australia often extended workdays to 4:30am and 9pm. 

Knowing myself and having proven over the years that my best work is done between 5am and Noon, I determined the only choice for me was to wake up at 4:30am to write. I kept to the discipline of waking up at 4:30am from Nov 2019 – Jun 2022. Now that I am retired, I have become a lazy no good version of my former self and wake at 5:30 as my new discipline. My ROI from this discipline has been and continues to be worth every penny of personal investment. 

But what about the application of personal discipline when the ROI is well into the future, if at all? When I started, I had no idea if I would get published or not. Let’s explore the positive  results you can achieve by delaying gratification for expectation of more in the future in another installment of Steve’s 2 cents.

About Steve: Corned Elk

I love cooking and everything about creating great meals. Especially, trying new things. I consider myself very lucky. My wife has the same love of food and teaches cooking. You often see in my pictures and videos rows of books. 90% are my wife’s going on 1400 cookbooks. She regularly uses me as her recipe and menu tester, not a bad job!

Recently, I have become interested in creating one of the iconic meats, in our case corned Elk.

The recipe is for corned beef, but in this case we used Elk. When there are only two of you in the house and you harvest an Elk, you give away hundreds of pounds to your kids and friends. And you still end up with Elk two years later. To make sure none of it is wasted, and it just sounded fun, we applied a corned beef recipe to an Elk roast. 

So, what is corning? It's a centuries-old preservation method that used salt to cure beef before the invention of refrigeration. The name came from the corn kernel-sized grains of salt in which the meat would be packed and stored. 

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Corned Elk/Beef Brine

1 cup kosher salt1/2 cup sugar3 teaspoons pink curing salt, such as Prague Powder1 teaspoon mustard seeds1 teaspoon black peppercorns10 whole cloves10 allspice berries10 juniper berries2 bay leaves3 pounds Elk roast or beef brisket

Add 2 cups water, salt, sugar, curing salt, mustard seeds, black peppercorns, cloves, allspice berries, juniper berries and bay leaves into small saucepot over medium heat. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Pour into a large bowl and add 4 cups of ice water. The brine mixture should be cool to the touch. Place the brisket into a large zip-top bag and pour the brine mixture into the bag. Seal the top, carefully removing as much air as possible. 

Refrigerate for at least five days, and up to seven, flipping over and rotating it every day. 

Rinse thoroughly under cool water before cooking. We soaked the meat for 2hrs after tasting how salty it was knowing the cooking process would draw out additional salt.

We cooked the Elk for 2:45hrs at a simmer, then let cool before slicing across the grain to your desired thickness (we like it very thin)

Steve's 2 Cents - Tactical Cyber And The Drug Cartels

All warfare can be reduced to time and resources available. From large units to small teams the ability to affect the battle space and achieve the results desired are a function of time and resources. The time and resources necessary to enter, clear and maintain a security presence in area are on a different timeline and require different resources than a small team mission focused on capturing a high value individual. In each case there are tools in the military inventory that are likely readily available to support the mission, artillery, air support, transportation, etc.

Supporting the first mission with cyber likely will not require physical affect. Thereby focusing the cyber element on influencing a population, setting conditions for entry, and positive reinforcement of the value of our involvement. If there is a request for a physical affect there is time to research the options, look at the second and third order affects and work the plan.

In the case of short duration missions like HVI captures and the follow on missions resulting from sensitive site exploitation, SSE the likelihood of using cyber is possible for the first mission and unlikely for all follow on missions as the set runs its course. RF systems that jam cell and radio transmissions are easier to acquire and apply.

An example is, I might use cyber to affect alarm and video systems at a lab/plant and have a plan to affect systems between the lab/plant and my exfiltration site. All good until the team makes a call that takes it out of the plan. In books and movies not a big deal, they research and attack systems they have never seen in mere minutes if not seconds. In real life, planning cyber missions that require physical effects can take weeks and months as the team recons the systems, engineers covert entry, and then surreptitiously tests its control in prep for the real mission.

The reality is there is little in the way of off the shelf cyber tools that can be applied to a specific problem like streetlights or the power grid in a section of countryside. Most cyber tools are custom built against a specific target or set of targets like industrial control systems for oil or gas production plants.

An example of how hard it is to coordinate physical and cyber affects is the problems the Russians are having in Ukraine. The Russians are at the top of the cyber pyramid but yet we see them struggling to converge BTG tactical movements with cyber in any meaningful way.

We are lucky as authors, with your suspension of belief, we can write cyber affects that are not achievable in the timelines we portray.

A final note: Drug Cartels and Cyber, the cartel’s are ramping up their cyber capabilities to both influence populations, affect campaigns and voting, and to achieve physical affects against their enemy cartels and governments. The next decade will see them buy cyber services as if buying an Office 365 subscription and build out some level of organic capability. Integrated with cyber intelligence this will become another battle space in the war on drugs.

About Steve: Cross Training Vs. Singular Focus

What is better? Stay in a financial controller job your whole career or take on roles in other parts of finance? Stay in a project manager job your whole career or take on other roles inside professional services? Are you more valuable to your organization with 15 years of experience in one job or that same time split between two or three roles?

I am a product of my experience, in the military being good at two or three jobs is more valuable, that is why in Special Forces we cross train. It also provides coverage if you’re a person short. The same is true in a commercial setting. Employees that are capable of doing more than one job are more valuable if someone is out sick or quits. The work can still get done.

Another benefit that multi-job experience brings is that you have a better perspective on your role and its place within the organization. And what you need to do to enable the people in your direct process lines and those that are indirectly affected.

If you love being in finance, stay there and be the best you can be. Expand your knowledge and experience for your benefit and that of your employer. The same with Professional Services or software engineering.

As my 50 plus years of work experience comes to a close, at least from a full-time perspective, I can look back and see my time post military in leadership positions in professional services, customer support, software development, sales, and business development have shaped my value to my organization. And more importantly to my customers in the US Government, Military, and Intelligence Community, and 5VEY partners.

Steve's 2 Cents - Leadership

1 – Leadership starts with discipline. You can do as Admiral McRaven says and start by making your bed. If you are present and pay attention you will quickly find that discipline has many benefits. The discipline of keeping your word and delivering your work product on time will see you move forward.

2 – Leadership takes being a good follower. Before you can lead you must demonstrate you can follow. Be the best you can be at the task(s) you are given. Interact with the other team members, take in their experience and determine how it can help you.

3 – Leadership requires continuous learning. It does not matter where you are on the spectrum, individual contributor, team member, manager, or leader. Continuous learning is required to move forward. Classes, books, video, other team members are all viable options. One great way to accelerate your path to become a leader is to find a mentor in your line of business. He/She does not have to work in the same organization, but an aligned company makes sense for obvious reasons.

4 – Leadership demands ownership. If you have not read Extreme Ownership do so as soon as possible. The title might turn you off, but there are real lessons inside you can apply to many work or life situations. To be an effective leader you need to own the tasks and people you are leading. Taking responsibility to ensure tasks are completed on time and at a high level of professionalism is key. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your teammates is key as is being aware of where they are on their individual journeys. 

5 – Leadership is best combined with a servant mentality. Will Kenton says - Servant leadership is a leadership style and philosophy whereby an individual interacts with others—either in a management or fellow employee capacity—to achieve authority rather than power.

This leadership style requires an individual to demonstrate characteristics such as empathy, listening, stewardship, and commitment to the personal growth of others.

Servant leadership is not suitable for all situations. A military commander must assume complete authority in order to make swift life and death decisions.

Two leadership books I recommend are:

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

Hear These Truths

About Steve: The Benefits Of Volunteering

I was born with ants in my pants and a severe aversion to doing the same thing day in and day out. So, starting in Army basic training I decided to volunteer to do new things every chance I got. The first payoff was volunteering for KP duty. I knew it meant working in the mess hall, aka kitchen, for our basic training company. The normal regimen was washing pots and pans, taking out the garbage and cleaning the grease pit. But once the Specialist Seven found out I could cook, that is what I did starting with breakfast. 

After breakfast, others cleaned up as I watched the company head to the field. Lunch was C-rations, food in cans. So, once the truck was loaded and sent out to where my teammates trained, I worked on stocking the cooler and helping the Specialist with a side project where a flat of eggs was traded for car repairs. 

Later that afternoon we began preparing dinner which would be served to the trainees hot via insulated mermite cans. About 4pm it started raining, and it lasted throughout the rest of the day into the night and early morning. I found out that my buddies not only got soaked but also gassed with riot gas and marched into the mud.

I, on the other hand, ate well and slept in my warm and dry bunk.

Later in basic training, some guys in suits and longer hair showed up and said they were looking for a few select soldiers to join a unit they could not tell us about, but there was an opportunity for travel around the world if we qualified. Once again, I raised my hand to find out later it was the White House Communication Agency. My first trip out of the United States was Paris, New Delhi, then Dhaka Bangladesh.

Again, volunteering worked out for me.

If you ask me, I will tell you to not be afraid. Volunteering is a great way to learn new things and meet people you might not otherwise.

How Do You Come Up With A Colorado Fishing Trip For An Arc Giveaway?

How does one decide to give away round trip tickets to Denver, accommodations, and two full days fishing, for reading and promoting the Advanced Reader Copy of Shadow Tier?

The seed for this idea was planted long ago by a father and his brother who were known as unconventional. I started to emulate my role models in a second generation Redwood forest in northern California and then in the suburbs of the San Francisco bay area.

Teachers, Boy Scout leaders, church leaders, the California Highway Patrol, and others watched, counseled, but mostly warned me about the path I was on. Looking back, I see what a pain in their backsides I was.

Steven is a handful was a common sentiment. 

I was always questioning, why do we have to do it that way? That’s stupid….

That’s the way we always do it was like nails on a chalkboard. I’ll be honest, it still is.

Several times during my active-duty Army time and as Technical Security Specialist for the Secret Service, leadership put me back in my place, at least temporarily. Then I found the world of special operations and in particular US Army Special Forces.

Now you are thinking, what’s the big deal? It's still part of the Government and it’s the Army. How is that any different or less structured? Well, it’s one of those matters of degrees. It is the Army with all its structure, labels, guidelines, and policies. But regular Army as we call it, is structured days of physical training, formations, work in your career field (tanks, helicopters, infantry) get off duty at 5pm: rinse and repeat. Boring right? Chain of command. Rigid. Same, same, same…

To be fair there are many good reasons why regular Army is like it is. And while not perfect, ours is the best in the world.

Now let’s look at US Army Special Forces, aka Green Berets. Masters of many warfare and training disciplines. If you are not deployed, you are usually at a school learning a new skill in your job category, a language, or cross training in one of the jobs on the team. You are constantly challenged to think on your feet, adapt, and overcome whatever obstacles might be in your way. When deployed as training advisors, an advanced force, or in combat you are always working to get better and find new ways to accomplish your mission. Where regular Army moves at a measured pace, special operations forces innovate rapidly, outside the normal Defense Department channels. Simply stated, unconventional warfare requires unconventional thinking.

So that was a long-winded way to say questioning why, combined with unconventional thinking, and an innovative mindset is who I am. 

I surveyed the book marketing business and saw a well understood and followed model for new authors. Build a website, join in the social media community, go to conferences, and build your pre-publication platform. Of course, there are authors that do it differently, and very well. Jack Carr is a great example of an author who has harnessed the US Navy SEAL platform and taken it multi-media while writing great books that thousands of loyal fans read.

So, acknowledging that I am an unknown new author who wants to get his name and debut book out to a wider audience I looked at my assets and thought, what can I offer? I hunt, fish, ride dirt bikes, skydive (in wind tunnels like iFly), mountain bike, and in general love being outdoors. Fishing was an easy winner, low risk, easy to teach, and I live in Colorado. My wife loves fishing too, if it's not too cold out. 

Some of the other assets I have accumulated over the years include air miles, from visiting my cyber security customers in the Intelligence and Military communities, and a cabin in Colorado.

The final piece -  I knew I needed help to formulate the giveaway and more importantly, help execute the plan, while I continue my day job. So, I turned to BTS Designs and here we are.

I hope you are as excited about the giveaway as I am. I look forward to interacting with everyone that joins Steve’s Squadron and having a fun time with the winner.

All the best.
Steve

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