Profiles in Havok

We don’t want to bang the drum about Afghanistan to the point it is just white noise. And we have a lot of great guests and a lot of great subjects booked for the Weekly Havok. But events in Afghanistan are unfolding rapidly and with great significance for our national security, the future of the country and the future of terrorism. It’s important to note what’s happening along the way. And if we...

There is no way to do justice to a subject like courage in the space of an hour. But there is a way to hit some major wavetops, and that’s what we did this week . Combat vets Dave Hartmann and Douglas Dodge joined the show for a discussion about courage that ranged from the philosophical to the personal. And then Doug talked about Medal of Honor recipient SFC Al Cashe. If you don’t know about Al C...

A brief summary of this episode

Yes, the show is the WEEKLY Havok, but the nature of this week in Afghanistan made this the first Bi-Weekly Havok episode. I went solo only because I wanted to present some Cliff Notes on Afghan history as well as take a swing at some low-hanging fruit on the social media BS tree and none of our guests needed to be around for that. Fair warning – at the rate events are unspooling at HKIA, this may...

Of course we were going to talk about Afghanistan. On the best of weeks, it doesn’t take a lot for me to talk about Afghanistan. Even moreso now. Just for added variety and perspective, we imported two non-Havok Journal folks to talk about it – Dr. Paul D. Miller and “G” an active-duty NSW operator 20 years and 12 deployments into his career. HJ was well-represented with one of our most articulate...

Do vets matter to the media and does the media matter to vets? The answer is of course, yes. But in what ways do vets matter to the media? As props? As confirmation of prior biases? And how do vets engage with the media? Does it give a voice to the voiceless? Does the media generate more heat than light in the veteran community? I discuss all this and more with American Warrior Radio’s Ben Beuhler...

This week, I discussed how vets should maintain their mind, body, and spirit with MSG Geoff Dardia and Meg Kelvington. In my experience, not many of my peers wanted to have conversations focused on the mind, the body, or the spirit. I mean we weren’t in church – or in yoga class. But when you boil down a lot of our conversations, they actually were about mind/body/spirit issues – from dealing with...

This week Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint steps in to cover for me while I was traveling and wifi was sketchy at best. His guests were Greg Drobny and Kevin Wilson - who moves into the lead as our most regular guest for those keeping score. The topic this week was all things guns, an episode I was sorry to miss.    Show Alibis Charlie really stepped up this week. He found out he was solo hosting...

The civ-mil divide is something we kind of always bring up in one way or another on the show. You might even say it’s a large part of why we even do the show. So it was probably overdue for us to do an actual episode about it. I spoke with retired Air Force/Air Guard Chief Master Sergeant Dave Chamberlin, Uriel Epshtein of the Renew Democracy Initiative, and Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint. We t...

This week I spoke with Aaron Kirk, Dr. Donnelly Wilkes, and Charlie Faint about death – what did they think about it before they joined the military, during their time in service, and afterwards. Sure, it can be a dark subject – it certainly wasn’t hilarious – but it wasn’t as dark and depressing as you might think. It’s a conversation that is serious and positive. I think you’ll come away gratefu...

This week I talk with Havok Journal owner (and current Army Intelligence Officer) Charlie Faint about all things Military Intelligence. It is an episode born of necessity – we had cancellations and technical issues which meant we had to find something Charlie and I could talk about relatively easily and with little preparation. I think it worked. I know I had a two-track conversation going on – on...

This week I talk with Havok Journal’s editor, the elusive Mike Warnock, Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint, and Havok Journal writer Jeff Marshburn who came to us live from the front seat of a patrol car. Just in time for July 4th, we discuss how much it matters to have a combat patch, or a CIB, or be a SEAL/SF-type dude. How much should those kind of credentials matter to another vet? What about t...

This week I talked with a scintillating, fascinating, and stunningly good-looking guest – myself. I guess that between scheduling mix-ups, sketchy technical issues and general, well, havoc(k), it was bound to happen at some point. So there you go. I make the best of it, subjecting myself to a pointed interrogation about my positions regarding Azerbaijan-based pipelines and a lively debate about ma...

This week, I talk with the witty and erudite Kevin Wilson and Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint about the importance of pop culture to the military. We talk deployment shows, movies and TV that influenced us to join, why The Hurt Locker is so disappointing to Charlie and Kevin. This was a fun one. If you don’t understand pop culture’s role in the military, you don’t understand the military.   Have...

For several weeks, Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint and I had discussed doing an episode all about China – its geopolitical rise, its potential threats and, of course the fallout from COVID-19. Then Havok Journal writers Matt Trevathan and Christopher Otero got into a collegial back and forth on the private Havok Journal writers’ forum about some COVID-19 theories. After hyperventilating that the...

This week I talk with Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint and Andrew, a 18-year old firefighter on the East Coast. I know what you’re thinking – how much wisdom, insight and life experience are you really going to get from an 18-year old? I agree – but Andrew is not your typical 18-year old. The story he wrote for Havok Journal was jarring enough that I made the editorial decision to focus on it ins...

How Much Should We Blame China for COVID-19? This week , I talk with Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint and his father, retired Colonel Don Faint about the origins of COVID-19 and how much responsibility China should have for the outbreak and the spread of it. Spoiler alert: a lot. So this was one of those weeks where the subject fell into our lap because this is the week the lab leak theory gained...

124 retired flag officers sign an open letter bemoaning the state of the US and its radical turn towards socialism and Marxism. Space Force Commander Matthew Lohmeier is removed from his post for self-publishing a book about Marxism in the military. It’s 2021 - should the US military be afraid of Karl Marx? I talk with retired Army officer and Havok Journal writer Christopher Otero about the threa...

DarkSide hacks Colonial Pipeline and extorts 5 million dollars, thereby holding large parts of the East Coast gas supply hostage. Hamas rains rockets down on Israel for no good reason. How much is Russia involved? How about Turkey or Iran? Are these standalone stories or are they part of a geopolitical great game? What do pipelines and rockets tell us about our enemies? I discuss all this and more...

UFOs. That’s right. This week Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint and his daughter Emily Faint help me dive into the newly released, alarming footage of UFO’s buzzing the USS Russell. That wasn’t the only deeply troubling topic – we also talked about the on-going microwave attacks of US diplomats both globally and, now, in Washington DC. And I also wanted to make sure we covered the leak of Iranian...

Is the US Losing Faith in the Military? That was supposed to be the subject this week – and after about 30 minutes, it was. My guests were Coffee or Die Executive Editor Havok Journal founder Marty Skovlund Jr. and Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint. We had a lot of ground to cover with Marty - from the founding of Havok Journal to the latest on his new book - which explains why we took the scenic...

What crisis is going to blindside the US? That is the question I discuss this week with Havok Journal writer and IT expert Matt Trevathan. Matt does his best to shoehorn a cogent discussion of India, China, and Turkey into an hour-long podcast. For my part, I try to go full Foggy Bottom, using polysyllabic words (such as “polysyllabic”) while trying to manage a polished NPR-worthy voice throughout...

It’s official, we’re pulling out of Afghanistan. This week, I talk with Havok Journal owner and camo net rolling expert Charlie Faint and the Havok Journal writer formerly known as Log Cinco about whether that is the right move. We scrutinize it from the counter-terrorism angle, the nation-building angle, the geo-political angle, and, most importantly for the guy glaring at me from his refrigerato...

Americans worry a lot that we are headed towards ruin – unsustainable spending, foreign adventurism, even civil war. How warranted is that concern? I sat down this week with Havok Journal owner Charlie Faint to discuss the three best ways to become a failed state. We take the scenic route to get there, which is very “on-brand” for us. Somehow The Sound of Music weaves its way into the episode…thre...

When fewer than 1% of the country has ever served in the military, it is not surprising that veterans and current military members are acutely aware that they carry a significant and disproportionate burden in the country. This often creates the perception among military folks that the civilian world needs to understand the military better to bridge the civ-mil divide. But this week, we look throu...