EP. 517: Avoid the Zombie OODA Loop

Host Bill Hamblet talks with Vice Admiral Robert M. Gaucher about his team’s quest to improve the pace of Navy submarine production.

LtCol Merritt Mitchell, the 3rd Prize Winner of the Marine Corps Essay Contest, talks about Campaigning as the basis for Warfighting.

Host Emily Abdow sits down with Ed Offley to discuss the near-nuclear disaster that occurred on board the Soviet Submarine K-219 less than six months after the Chernobyl disaster.

Host Emily Abdow and Brian Kerg discuss why General Charles Barrett’s portrait is missing from the wall at the headquarters of the III Marine Expeditionary Force—and the answer may lie in the controversial circumstances surrounding his death.

The Chair and Co-Chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission talk with host Bill Hamblet about the commission’s soon-to-be-released annual report and the state of play in the undersea domain, Chinese shipbuilding, and China’s economy.

Host Emily Abdow sits down with Captain Sam Tangredi, U.S. Navy (Retired), to discuss Sir Walter Raleigh’s lost manuscript, The Art of Warre by Sea, including what experiences might have inspired Raleigh to write about sea power.

Martin Kröeger, the President of the German Shipowners Association, talks with host Bill Hamblet about how the Hormuz crisis, dark fleets, and other security concerns are affecting the global shipping industry.

Host Bill Hamblet talks with Naval Postgraduate School Professor Tom Hamrick about his October Proceedings article on ways the military can avoid being lured into complacency by AI.

Host Bill Hamblet talks with Sam LaGrone about the latest news from the fleet.

In 1972, the destroyer USS William R. Rush (DD-714) deployed to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf at a moment of profound change. Britain was withdrawing from its traditional role in the region, new nations were emerging, the Soviet Union was expanding its naval presence, and political unrest was simmering from Iran to the Horn of Africa. Joseph Melton was a young Navy lieutenant (junior grade) aboard the Rush, serving as the ship’s combat information center and intelligence officer. In this episode, he looks back on a deployment that took the destroyer from Bahrain and Iran to Pakistan, Ethiopia, and the waters off Yemen—and the signs of instability the crew encountered along the way. More than 50 years later, many of those same waterways remain at the center of global competition and conflict. Melton joins the Naval History Podcast to discuss what the Rush witnessed in 1972 and how a seemingly routine Cold War deployment offers a revealing window into the Middle East and Indian Ocean of today.