Swiss Army Knives And Hammers

One big thing I learned in the TV media market over the last four years

When my bride and I retired from the U.S. Army after serving from 1991 to 2019, our bucket list was simple: Move back to Montana, never leave, and get a simple job. We did move and get jobs, at least for a while. However, since retirement, I have left Montana many times to travel and speak at events in many states. Things change. The bucket is filled with different items, and that’s good.

One significant change is that I’m a frequent guest on Fox News, NTD News, Newsmax, and One America News. During the aviation disasters in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, I was also on MSNBC, NBC, CBS, Real America’s Voice, Sky News, and others. I've also been on many radio stations and podcasts, such as The Conservative Voice, Output, and 77 WABC. You might also add that I’m an editor for Armed Forces Press, CDM Press, and The Montana Sentinel. Though I had already been media trained and exposed to media for many years in the military, I learned a lot more about the media world after retirement, enough to know I have a long way to go before the media looks at guests in a manner different than they do now. It could also all come to a screeching halt.

What I learned

1. The media is full of guests considered experts on narrowly defined topics. Examples are foreign policy, economics, military, and law, with subsets of expertise in each. My experience has taught me that producers and bookers are used to this; thus, guests are looked on as hammers pounding away at the nail of a single topic. This is not a bad thing, nor the fault of producers, hosts, or guests; it is just how it works for most people. This is also a strength, as it allows for more guests and a greater variety of viewpoints.

2. Most media are not used to people who act more like Swiss Army knives with a depth of knowledge in several fields and can bring together multiple topics into a picture of what’s happening globally and domestically and make sense of it. This is hard to do in 2-3 minutes of a news interview, but it can be done if a guest is asked the right question. Though it also leans towards podcasts and long-form interviews, I do not want to start something like that.

Let me explain more

I’m a Swiss Army knife, and I always have been. I’ve spent most of my life analyzing and building large-scale operations, sometimes covering continents. This is the result of combining my military background and my hobbies from my youth. For example, I learned chess at a young age—let’s call it less than ten years old. Then, I moved on to complicated bookshelf games and became fascinated with combining multiple elements into a single strategy to achieve the desired result.

I started my military career by enlisting in the infantry and later became an aviation officer. While an officer, I attended the School for Advanced Military Studies and began to work on plans and strategies on a large scale. It was like a glove perfectly tailored to my hand. The school was easy, but it prepared me with the qualifications necessary to pursue what was once just a hobby on a large scale and, if lucky, make a difference somehow. I retired from the military after commanding an aviation task force spread across six European and Asian countries. But I did not retire from my hobby.

I remain heavily involved in the world of geopolitical analysis and strategy today. It’s still only a hobby as few opportunities exist to use such expertise in a paid status. In fact, rather than being paid, my being so public comes with a heavy price that my family will pay for the remainder of our lives. It was a risk worth taking, but sometimes, the loss still pains us. Regardless, I have been blessed to be able to provide over 2,500 interviews over four years and appear before millions of people across the nation because I believe our nation is worth fighting for, no matter the cost. Service=Sacrifice.

For those four years, I have worked towards joining a major news network and having a show aligned with the theme of “Foreign and Domestic,” where I could weave together multiple topics to create a picture all could see and debate. The tapestry threads in my mind are composed of topics such as politics, diplomacy, information, infrastructure, military, economics, social structures, environment, and much more. Some people are wired to dive deep into a single country or issue, which is extremely valuable. I’m wired to try to follow the threads that lead to broad conclusions and specific predictions.

I use this logo on my social media when sharing graphics about upcoming interviews

An example of the graphics I make for interviews

I studied and researched these areas for a lifetime and applied them to real-world contingency plans and strategic analyses. By doing this work, I successfully predicted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost fifteen years ago, the failure of any two-state solution forced on Israel, the failure of America’s counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, and the threat and proliferation of drones and artificial intelligence globally. Some of my work is open source, but most is not.

The picture below perfectly represents what keeps me up at night. I seek to answer questions like: Does what is happening in the conflict in Myanmar affect not only China but also the greater Indo-Pacific region? If it does, how and why? If so, I want to know how that affects the thinking in Moscow, Washington, D.C., Canberra, and Panama City.

The curse of having a mind wired like this is the need for an outlet. Being in the media has helped a lot and cost a lot. But, going back to what I’ve learned about media, it will remain a challenge to demonstrate the value of weaving together a broad tapestry across multiple topics and specialty areas. It’s not how the media industry works. I will continue to do the best I can.

One of those networks may decide I am worth keeping someday.