Suspense. Hadn't the producer of radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, the master of mystery and adventure, William M. Robeson. Some years ago, Ernest Hemingway's great short story, The Killers, was made into a movie. Anyone who saw it will never forget the menace and brutality of the two gunmen in the opening sequence. Two nastier heavies have rarely been seen together on the screen. Saying that their type of tough guy should not be allowed to languish in limbo, we have brought them together again in a rather different kind of story, yet still a story of heavies. Listen, listen then, as William Conrad and Charles McGraw star in Two for the Road. Were we not, Joe? You've been asleep. Yeah. Where are we now? I don't know for sure. Some place in Arkansas, I think. Sure is a big country, ain't it? Yeah. Hey, you want me to drive? No, I'm all right. You get some more sleep. Ah, I got enough. Sure you all right? There will be a little groggy. We'll stop in the next place for coffee and you can take it from there. Okay. Hey, what time is it? It must be past midnight. You know, I keep wondering. Yeah, I wonder what. Ah, for doing the right thing, cutting out like this. What else could we do? New York is dead by Chicago and New York. You think the coast will be any better? It's got to be. There's plenty of action on the coast. Ah, I hope you're right. But all we got lined up is that job for Rocky. What about after? Well, we do the job good for Rocky. He'll take care of us. When we get there, you think? Well, we come nearly halfway in 24 hours. If we go right through, we ought to make it by an hour after noon. I don't seem possible. It's such a big country. If Rocky wasn't in such a hurry with that job, we could see some of it. Nothing between New York and a coast but scenery. Oh, there's Vegas. Yeah, but that's practically the coast. Yeah. You've seen one superhighway, you've seen them all. Yeah, cities too. I was in Boston once for a tryout. Nothing. Drug haven. Ah, join it up ahead there. Let's stop for coffee. Okay. You know what they say? If the truck drivers stop at a joint, the food's gotta be good. Well, I don't see any trucks. Then all I want is coffee. I can't go wrong in coffee. This place might as well close up for the night. No cars parked outside. No customers inside. Yeah, there's one. Look at that doll at the counter. Yeah, not bad. I know what she's doing out here all alone in the middle of the night. Ah, waiting for a bus, maybe. Evening. Aye, aye. Two coffees make mine black. Yeah, same here. Two coffees. Hey, Mac, what's the matter with your TV? It's about the lozziest picture I ever saw. Best we can do, we ain't close enough to Little Rock, and we're too far from Memphis. Must drive your nuts all fuzzy like that. You get used to it. Hi, hello. Say, ain't I seen you fellas before? I don't know how. We ain't never been here before. Neither have I. I'm from Memphis. We went through Memphis this evening. I'm sure I've seen you someplace. No. In New York, maybe. Uh-uh. I never been east of Chattanooga. We never been west of Weehawker. Well, excuse me for butting there. Not at all. Hey, Joe. She's not bad, not bad. Yeah. Seems better. I can't tell through all that snow. Hey, Charlie, look. How about that? It's an old cannery of the plain clothes. Yeah. That's us. Yeah, but are you mind reaching up and turning it off? It stinks even when you can see the picture. I always watch your program. Glad to know we got an audience in Arkansas. What's your fellas doing way out here? Driving to the coast. Hollywood? Yeah, that's right. Hey, you want a lift? Sure. Why? Why not? Well, we're driving right through. I wouldn't be very comfortable for you. Well, I don't mind. I won't take up hardly any room at all. And I don't have any luggage, just this purse. Well, I don't know. I got a little money. I'll pay for my share of the gas. Oh, come on, Joe. Let's give the kid a lift, huh? Well, Charlie, haven't you heard about picking up strangers on a highway? You don't mean you're afraid of me. Well, no, but you gotta admit it's a little cook finding a girl out in the middle of nowhere without any baggage, wanting to go to the coast. All right, it's like this. I'm running away from home.  We don't want your husband gunning for us. Oh, no. I'm running away from my old man and my old lady. Tonight we had a big beef and I walked out. I'm going to ride out of Memphis as far as here. What's so funny? Don't worry about giving me a ride. I'm the one that's got the worries. This fellow that gave me a lift out of Memphis wanted me to pay for the ride. The price was too high. So I'm out here in the middle of nowhere.  But you guys don't look like that, Ty. Oh, we're not. So I trust you and I'll accept your invitation. Well, OK. You finished your coffee, Lothario. Oh, yeah, sure. All right, let's hit the road then. In a moment, we continue with the second act of... Suspense. 15 minutes behind the wheel. That's all it takes to convince you that the 59 Clements really got it. Got the newest of new design, new sport car handling ease, new fury performance, new get up and go. Just tell your Plymouth dealer you want to sample the go. Then you turn the key and Plymouth's new Golden Commander V8 leaps into life.  See your Plymouth dealer.  You really go, go, go, go. Charles McGraw and William Conrad. Act two of two for the road. What? Me on my way to Hollywood with two famous actors. Oh, we're not so famous. Not famous? Why, I bet the Plain Closeman is the most popular TV show in Memphis. Everybody knows Joe Harrison, Charlie Bloom. You're Charlie, aren't you? That's right. And you're Joe. Yeah. I killed us with that. Good. Yeah, what Joe means is we got too big for the Plain Closeman, see? And the star of the show, Hubert Brownlee. Oh, I can't stand him.  Well, that was mean of him. Well, that's sharp as... And being as how we was typecast as hoods, we couldn't get any good parts in New York. Actually, Joe and I are pretty serious actors. Oh, I know you are. Yeah, we just look like hoods. That's what I liked about you in the Plain Closeman. Yeah. Well, we got this pal in Hollywood, Rocky. Rocky Lamont, he used to hang around walls but he's a director now. And he's got a couple of swell parts for us and a pilot he's shooting. The three musketeers. Well, I thought that was a kid's show. Musketeers, not mouseketeers. Oh. That's why we're in such a hurry. Rocky starts shooting day after tomorrow. Say, honey. Yeah, Joe? You got any idea where we are? Hmm. I don't want to be too far from Little Rock. Hey, Joe, Joe, look, must be a wreck up ahead. All those flashing red lights. Police cars. It's a roadblock. There's signal us to stop. All right, what do you suppose they want? Who knows. Don't stop, Joe. What do you want me to do, barrel right through? Yeah.   We'll shoot back. With what? With this. Hey, Joe, look, she's got a rod. What? You nuts, you'll put that out of sight. Help! Help! What's the matter with her? Well, don't ask me. She was your right there. It's a trouble there. Thank heaven you stopped us, officer. These two men are kidnapping me. Okay, you two are. Hey, now, listen, officer, that's broad split. Yeah, we just met her up the road. Hold your hand up high. Now look, Sergeant, I'm sure we can explain everything. You better. Now you, young lady. Hey, Sam. Yeah? The gal ain't here. The door on the other side's open. She must have got out that way. There she is. She's on Jerry's sick. Hey, stop! Stop or I'll shoot! Look out, she's got a gun. That chivalry has fallen on Arkansas. Shootin' at women. It'll be children next. All right, mister. It's my duty to tell you that anything you say may be used against you. Frisk them, Sam. Aye. Where are you from? New York. Where are you going? Hollywood. Yes, Sergeant, we're just driving through. They're both clean. Check them against those descriptions. Are you in Memphis tonight? Yeah. Doing what? Just driving through. They'll see you drive his license. Okay. Yeah, yeah. It's gone. My wallet's gone. So's mine, Joe. That broad, she's a pickpocket. Yeah, she stole my wallet. You gotta arrest her. Oh, don't you worry. We'll arrest her as soon as we can catch her. Descriptions fit, Riggs. Mm, so's the car. Blue and white convertible, New York license plates. Check their registration. What's your name? Joe Harris. And what's yours? Charlie Bloom. Whose car is this? Mine. The car's registered to Yus... Yus of Horowitz. Mm. Now, come again. What's your name? Joe Harris. And that's your car. That's right. And how come it's registered to Yus of Horowitz? You see, Joe Harris is short for Yus of Horowitz. Why'd you steal the car? Look, I didn't steal the car. It's mine. All of it. It's paid up. That's my name. Yus of Horowitz. Joe Harris is my stage name. That's right, officer. Hey, listen, you don't believe that crazy broad, do you? You don't think we kidnapped her? Nope. Not for a minute. I think she was in this here thing with you from the beginning. I think she drove the getaway car. Getaway from what? The whole up of the Cotton State National Bank in Memphis this afternoon. What? Snap the cuffs on them, Sam. Now, look here. You're making a terrible mistake. You haven't got any charges. Oh, yes, we have. Armed robbery and murder. That bank teller you shot died an hour ago. In a moment, we continue with the third act of suspense. It has the fresh clean scent of pine. It's new. It's at your store. What is it? It's the best disinfectant anywhere. Kills disease germs on contact. It's Lysol in a new pine scent. Right. Now there's a new pine scented Lysol. Now your home can be pine sweet and Lysol clean. With genuine Lysol brand disinfectant. New pine scented Lysol disinfects, deodorizes, deep cleans, kitchen, bathroom, nursery, sick room. Keeps things fresh and sweet with no extra work. Pine scented Lysol helps guard your home. In laboratory tests, Lysol's anti-germ action kept working for seven full days. So try this new pine scented Lysol. Make your home. Pine sweet and Lysol clean. You can still get regular Lysol too. And now, Starrick William Conrad and Charles McGraw act three of two for the road. Hey, tanky. I got a talk to you. Knock it off. You got no right to wrap him across the knuckles. I got any right I want to take. Now listen, where's the sheriff? I told you I want to talk to the sheriff. I know you did. What did you tell him? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Now you can't keep us in jail like this. You're in, ain't you? Where's the sheriff? I wouldn't know. Now look, listen, we got to get out of here. We got in the Portland, Hollywood. You better cancel it. All right, Sam, you can bring in the prisoners. Yes, sir. This way. Sit down, boys. I hear you want to talk to me. You darn right we do, sheriff. Well, good. Because I want to talk to you. What about? Can't you guess? A cop last night said something about a bank robbery in Memphis, but we don't know nothing about it. We're just a couple of actors. Well, it looks like you're a couple of bad actors. Look, you can check it. I'm Joe Harris. Yeah, that's Charlie Blue. Now we've been playing the heavies in a TV series of plain clothes. Yeah, we were on last night on Channel 2. Well, I don't look at TV very much, but I look at descriptions of wanted men, and you fit the description of the men who robbed that bank in Memphis yesterday. Well, that was just a coincidence. Well, is it a coincidence that the girl who was with you last night, when you were arrested, fits the description of the girl who drove the getaway car at the bank holder? Yeah, that's a coincidence, too. I want to talk to an attorney. You can. Now, we've got to write the counsel. You can't hold us like that. I can, and I am. You didn't communicate her for 72 hours, and that's a loss. Oh, listen, Sheriff, be reasonable. We got an important date on the coast where late as it is. And you're going to be much later. You can't prove that we robbed that bank. Can you prove you didn't? Sure. Ask anybody who saw the plain clothesman last night. Yeah, ask that girl. She saw us on TV last night. I'd like to ask her a lot of things. Like, what about the kidnapping? Sheriff, there wasn't no kidnapping. She asked us for a lift, and we gave it to her. Well, until I question her, we'll just forget the kidnapping charge, huh? Thanks a lot. But you can make it easier on yourself if you cooperate with us about that bank robbery. You must be kidding. I don't kid. Now, let's have the story. Look, I told you we're actors. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Well, then act. What? Look at plenty of time. If you say you're actors, well, go on, act. Will you believe us if we prove that we're actors? Well, I'm not making any promises. The burden of proof lies with you. Hey, Joe, Joe, let me. I'll prove it to him. Remember that closing speech in the plain clothesman that got me the Emmy? All right, you listen to me, copper. You put the roust on me for the last time.  I was born hating cops.  I've always promised myself that someday I'd kill me a cop in two days a day. Joe, wait.  Let him go on. I believe him. Well, I believe every word he said. Well, go on, boy.  Well, that's all at the end of the speech.   Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. I hate that man. Not he was acting. He convinced me. That he's an actor? No, that he's a bank robber. All right, listen. Now, if you don't understand Charlie's act, can you listen to this? It's a different kind of act. Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I. Isn't that monstrous that this player here, but in fiction and a dream of passion, could force his soul so to his own conceit and all for nothing. For Hecuba, what's Hecuba to him? I him to Hecuba that he should weep for her. Well, now, who's this Hecuba? Oh, of course. Hecuba's that broad that swiped that motorcycle. Well, that was from Hamlet. Act two, scene two. That was acting. Oh, that was acting. All right, now, are you ready to talk about that bank job? Look, once more real slow. We don't know nothing about no bank job. Well, like I said, we could plenty of time while we're waiting for you to make a confession on that bank robbery. Maybe we can find some other charges against you. Oh, but this is crazy. What charges? Well, I don't know yet. I know better after the lineup. Line up?  I'll put you up there in the stage with the footlights on you and I'll give you an order. Look, you don't have to do that. That girl, she knows who we are, ask her. No, I can't. Not know we pick her up. But it'd be nice to have her in the lineup, too. Now, wouldn't it, boys? Yeah.  Sam? Yeah, chief. Got anything on that girl yet? Yeah, chief. A teletype just came in a couple minutes ago. Oh, they got her? We might say they have. Found her an hour ago in a gully north of Greenville. Oh, she didn't get far then? Far enough. She's dead. Dead? Yeah. Guess she didn't know too much about driving a sickle. Skidded the thing right through the guardrail last night. Well, thank you, Sam. You hear that, boys? Yeah. Oh, you gotta believe us. I don't gotta do anything. You gotta get a new alibi. In a moment, we continue with the fourth act of suspense. What bothers you most about a cold? For me, it's the choked up congested feeling. 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And now, starring Charles McGraw and William Conrad, act four of Two for the Road. Get up there on the platform. Hit the lights. Wow, they're bright. Yeah, they could use some scrims. Okay, Chef, we're ready here. We're gonna get out of this, Joe. I don't know, Charlie. I don't like the scrims. I just act, you know. All right, folks. Will you please come in now? That is all right. Just take a chair there, anyways. Right there, that's all right. Just sit down right there. Now, that's it. Now, we're holding these men suspects. Any of them look familiar to you? No, I don't know about that, do you? Well, it's hard to say, Sheriff. The hold-up happens so fast. Well, maybe if you heard them speak, what was it that the gunman said to you? Uh, this is a stick up. Don't move. The nobody will get hurt. Something like that. All right, you men. Now, you men up there, let me hear each one of you say that. That this is a stick up. Don't know one move and you won't get hurt. Me? This is a stick up. Don't know one move and you won't get hurt. Next? This is a stick up. Don't know one move and you won't get hurt. Yes. Next, man. This is a stick up. Don't know one move and you won't get hurt. Last, man. This is a stick up. Don't know one move and you won't get hurt. That's him! That's him! I'll never forget that voice as long as I live. I couldn't see him, of course. It was pitch dark. In the bank? No, in my bedroom. He crept in through the window, and he stood over my bed, and I could hear him breathing. And then he spoke. He didn't say those words, of course. And then I screamed. Yes, well, you can testify to that in court. Oh, yes. Well, thank you, Missy. It's Miss. Miss Freilandhausen. Oh, I see. Well, thanks, ma'am. Yes, now, Mr. Johnson, about the bank robbery. Well, I'd like to hear that second man again. OK. You, number two, speak your piece again. That's a stick up. Don't know when move, and you won't get hurt. Well, Mr. Johnson? Yes, I'm fairly sure that's the voice. He was the only one who spoke. That other one there stood by the door and covered him. He was the one who shot the teller. Yes, yes, I'm positive now. There's no doubt about it. They're the ones. Good. I want to thank you, folks, for doing your duty as citizens, taxpayers, and voters. Take her back to jail. Welcome. Well, boys, I guess we can stop the play, Acton. You ready to confess? We haven't got nothing to confess, Sheriff. We heard the people, Mr. Johnson, a testify in court that you stuck up the bank. And we got you on a break-in, entrance, and attempt I wouldn't go near an old bag like that if I was alone with her in a desert. Of course they say us before, and they heard us before, every week on a TV I'm satisfied with their identification, and the court will be too. But I'd like to save the county a lot of time and money, and you could make it a lot easier on yourself by just giving me a full confession. You can save yourself a false arrest sold by letting us go. On your own, say so? No, you got our fingerprints. Why don't you send them to wash? We don't need to help the FBI in this county. We solve a room crime. Excuse me, Sheriff. Yes, Sam? They just brought in body that girl. Here's her purse. Yes, there's no doubt she was the one who drove the getaway car. She was carrying $2,500 of the bank's money in this purse. See? Hmm, sure. That's one-third of the stolen money. What'd you do with your cut, boy? I'll knock it off. Hey, wait a minute. Look, Joe. Our wallets. Look, she had our wallets in her purse. Your hands are on the stuff. Well, look at them, Sheriff. You'll find our driver's licenses and all sorts of ID cards there. This is Joe Harris. That won't prove a thing. You've been identified by the victim. Oh, but, Sheriff. Yes? Your wife's outside, Sheriff. Well, tell her I've got to go. Oh, no, that wouldn't be any good. I'm afraid not, sir. She's on her way in. Elmo, why didn't you tell me you were entertaining celebrities? Clara Bell Friling hasn't called me. Oh, poor thing. She's all confused when she was down here. She was sure she'd seen him somewhere before. And after she got home, she realized where, on TV. Well, aren't you going to introduce me? Now, look here, Ellie. I'm very busy. Oh, don't bother. I'd recognize them anywhere. You're Joe Harris. That's right, ma'am. And you're Charlie Bloom. Yes, ma'am. Oh, my. This is an honor. Here, Elmo. Elmo, give me a piece of paper and a pencil. Yes, ma'am. There. Now, would you please give me your autograph? I'd be delighted. You don't know how delighted, ma'am. Well, what brings you down Fair City? Your husband. Why didn't you tell me, Elmo? We could have had a parade and a civic celebration. Hope it's not too late for an impromptu reception at least. I'm afraid we couldn't make it, ma'am. You see, we're under arrest. Arrest? What for? Your husband thinks we're bank robbers, ma'am. He wants to send us to prison for the rest of our lives. Elmo, have you lost your mind? Don't you know that these two gentlemen are famous actors? Not until now. We tried to tell him.  No. Well, you let them go this instant. But, Ellie, how can I be sure? Just take my word for it. Oh, honest, I don't know what had become of you if it weren't for me. Yes, Ellie. Well, boys, here's your wallets. I guess you can go. Oh, my goodness, I don't know how I can make this up to you. But I'd be tickled pink if you'd come out to the house for supper. Well, thank you, ma'am, but we're in sort of a hurry. Yeah, you see, we got to make a picture in Hollywood, and we're a little late. Well, don't forget us. I don't think that's possible, ma'am. And when you come back again this way, do drop in to see us. Yes, ma'am. We'll think about that, ma'am. We'll think a long time about that. Suspense, in which William Conrad and Charles McGraw starred in Two for the Road, written, produced, and directed by William N. Robeson. In just a moment, the names of the supporting players and a word about next week's story of suspense. Of all meaning, filter, cigarettes can't filter's best, can't filter's best. It makes good sense when you smoke, can't, can't, filter's best. Of all of the brands of cigarettes, can't taste the best, can't taste the best, a richer taste than all the rest, can't filter's best. It makes good sense when you smoke, can't, of all meaning, filter's cigarettes, can't filter's best. Supporting Mr. Conrad and Mr. McGraw in Two for the Road were Paula Winslow, June Foray, Howard McNeer, Evan Thompson, Barney Phillips, Sam Pierce, and Jack O'Rourke. In just a moment, the names of the supporting players and Barney Phillips, Sam Pierce, and Jack Krushan. Listen. Listen again next week when we return with another tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. Every Sunday night, Mitch Miller stars on the CBS radio network.


Puerto Rico, you wanna talk about Puerto Rico? Yeah, so I did message you yesterday actually about this because I saw the headline, there's these protests going on against the governor of Puerto Rico. And the last that I've heard, I put a link to an article at don'tletitgo.com. It's that officials in Puerto Rico have ordered the governor to, oh, and the aides also, not just the governor, but his aides to hand over phones amid some scandal. So there's been protests against the governor and it has something to do with the phones. Tell us what in the world is going on. So it's two things going on right now and they're being somewhat conflated, but two motivations for the demonstrations. Demonstration is a massive. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people, over half a million people yesterday marched, they marched right outside my window after a lot of the highways or streets in San Juan were closed yesterday. So I was late for at least one meeting yesterday as a consequence and old San Juan is basically shut down. So even the tourist trade is hurting because cruise ships are not coming because of the demonstrations because the demonstrations in front of the governor's mansion, which is right in the heart of old city, old city in San Juan, the tourist area in San Juan. So two things happened about two weeks ago or two or three weeks ago, a number of former executives from this government, the Puerto Rican government, were arrested by the FBI for fraud. So they had assigned government contracts to friends and family kind of thing, to people in the know. So and in addition, the CEO of the largest accounting firm in town, the one that I was told I should use when I came here, luckily I didn't listen to anybody was arrested in the same fraud scandal. So there was all kinds of, so he was cooking the books to make I guess some of this possible. And the FBI came in and these were all former associates of the governor and the governor was on vacation in Spain at the time. So he rushed back and a few days. So there was a lot of stuff saying, well, if these are the people that governor hired is he fraudulent, you know, and everybody's known there's been fraud in Puerto Rico, but this is, these are real arrests and the FBI is not involved. So it's a big deal. And a lot of people arrested, not just these two officials, but the guy from the accounting firm and some other people. And then somebody released messages that the government had sent on a telegram. I don't know if you know what telegram is, but telegram is a texting application is the most encrypted texting application that's out there. Supposedly it cannot be broken into and governments cannot shut it down. So it's the favorite texting application of Russian dissidents, Chinese people overseas. So I am on telegram because I communicate with those people sometimes and that's the only way they'll communicate. They don't do email. So if you want to hide from the government. So he had, there was a group chat of government officials in Puerto Rico where the governor was on and they were chatting about different things. And it turns out the first few chat, first revelations. We was making homophobic racial comments, inappropriate comments about women, inappropriate comments about fat people. And then a week later, so that was just a few texts here and there. A week later, they published 850 pages of the governor, you know, making fun of all these people, making fun of some people in his own party, making fun of what's his name, the famous Puerto Rican singer who's Ricky, is it not Ricky Martin? I don't know, whatever. It's celebrities and just childish language now. The interesting thing is because it's telegram, it's not like somebody hacked this. It's one of the people in chat was saving them and then printed it all out and handed it to reporters. We don't know who it was, but it was somebody on the chat. Anyway, the island exploded. I mean, it was Ricky Martin. So Ricky Martin came out and said the governor needs to go and people in the streets said the governor needs to go and then they started rallying and then these massive protests. Now in the meantime, most of his cabinet has resigned. The number two, like the number two who would take over his position if he resigned has resigned. So there's actually nobody there to actually take the governor's position and there's nobody running the government right now because everybody's quit. There's a governor with no cabinet and no possibility of no knowledge of who would take over the governorship if he quit. And there are hundreds of thousands of people in the streets demanding that he resign. They're committed to doing this every single night, except Sundays. I guess Sundays, the Catholic over here, I think they're taking a day off, but every single day and Monday, yesterday was a holiday. They basically unilaterally, everybody went on strike. So no school, a lot of the restaurants closed, a lot of businesses closed and people just went into the streets to demonstrate against the governor.    They're juvenile, somebody who tweets. Not tweets, message, yes, yes. The messages shouldn't be, well, I'm thinking of somebody else's tweets, which shouldn't be, and I was gonna say president, shouldn't be governor. There's only one guy in the world who can get away with saying these kind of things and gains voters, and that's Donald Trump. Nobody else can do it.  And I don't think there is another Donald Trump out there, not yet. Thank God. So, you know, they're demanding he go and I think they're right and I think he should resign. Now, overlay that with the fraud, right? Overlay that with the corruption. Overlay that with the fact that the island has a rotten economic policy, has rotten, you know, is just devastating economy. It's been in recession for 10 years. And it's really bad. Now, I don't know what that means for me because I don't know if a new government is gonna be friendly towards people like me or not. I don't know if a new government is gonna move to the left or to the right or to the center. I don't know what's gonna happen. But this guy looks like he's toast unless he wants to hang on in spite of all this, but then there's basically anarchy in the streets. I mean, the cops literally right outside Alcando, it's the staging area because I live on the one road that goes into Old San Juan. So everybody goes into Old San Juan to where the demonstration now has to pass through here. So the cops have this massive staging area, right? You know, between the traffic over here. This is the first road that gets closed whenever there's a demonstration, whatever stuff is going on. So I'm right in the- That's what I was thinking. You know, that was my question to you yesterday and the message was, is this affecting you, these demonstrations? So- Yeah, I mean yesterday I was sitting here I could see and then at 11 o'clock last night, they decided to have a concert.  You gotta love Puerto Ricans. I mean, they're great people.  Anything is an excuse for a party, right? You can't let up on an excuse for a party. So we want to impeach the governor, let's have a party. So last night at 11 o'clock, not far from where I live on the kind of on the side of the condo, on the ocean side of the lagoon side, we live on, we kind of see the lagoon. You have to come and visit Amy and see this, but we didn't sit on the lagoon- Before it all just goes to hell. I have to come- Gotta be a concert there. And they start, you know, they start blasting and there were probably about a thousand motorcycles and motorcyclists there. And there was a party going on and I'm trying to get to sleep. And I fell asleep on midnight, but somebody said they went on until 2 a.m., you know, a partying. And you know, this is Puerto Rico, but I give them credit for not standing up it. The people rising up and saying, enough's enough, this guy is a creep.  Politicians in Puerto Rico have always been corrupt. We want real change. The tragedy is, and this is the tragedy, is that they don't know what they want. They know what they don't want. Yes. But like everybody, they don't know what they want. And it's the same- Partiers, everything, yeah. Same with demonstrations everywhere. We don't want this, but what do we stand for? And the fear is that we get somebody worse than this governor as a consequence of it. So anyway, we'll see. It's kind of interesting being in the midst of it. Somebody says, am I running for governor? No, I mean, part of my big disadvantage for running for governor other than the ideas that I actually have, that's a huge disadvantage, is that I don't speak Spanish. I actually don't think Puerto Ricans would elect somebody who doesn't speak Spanish. I think if I spoke Spanish well enough to run a campaign, then the fact that I was American wouldn't hamper my ability to get elected, but my ideas would then.  But I have- I haven't had Revital teach you. Yeah, Revital could run, and I could. So Revital, my wife could- Oh no, I always say she could teach you, but yeah, she could run. I mean, my God, she would be better than the governor for sure, even though it's not her specialty, she would be still awesome. But I have thrown my hand in to advise any future governor who wants. Nobody's taking me seriously, as they never do. And anyway, that's what's going on Puerto Rico. It's quite amazing to see people who are willing to go out into the street and demonstrate for what they believe. And it's inspiring. This governor should resign and resign quickly. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual, would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning, any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims, or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of the stare, cynicism, and impotence, and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist.


There's a quote from Mahatma Gandhi that I want to share with you that relates to marketing. So he said, Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. And of course, he had the authority to say something like this because he did live his life in such a way. In marketing, then when we try to make to grow our business and when we try to share content, some people make the mistake of mixing content and selling. And I, I, you know, I kind of just always assumed that you all knew not to mix the two, but I did, I realized now that I need to really clearly make a stand and say stop mixing content and selling. Here's what I mean. Have you ever been watching someone's video and it started out so well, like they're telling you a story or they're they're educating you on some interesting information and then somewhere along the line, along the video, it turns into a sales pitch. Now, instead of just telling you the story, the whole thing was setting you up to tell you about their product or about their service or about their program. Same thing if you've ever been reading a social media post or a blog post, whatever. It starts out so well. It's, oh, what an entertaining story or or idea, but then somewhere halfway down at the 75% mark, they start turning it into, well, that's why you should join my program. That's why you should buy this from me or buy that from me. And I understand, I understand why people do that because they feel bad. Somehow they feel bad about just selling directly somehow is selling directly supposed to be a bad thing if an audience likes you and trusts you? Let me, this is a real question for you. Do you feel bad just going to your audience is, hey, I've got this product and this is for people who are dealing with this issue or are reaching, trying to reach that goal or are like passionate about this, I've got this product or this service. And if you are, if I've just described you, I hope you'll you'll consider buying it. Very simple, right? So really, I think we succeed in marketing when we are of pure heart, whether we are selling or whether we are making content. So for example, whenever you watch my videos like this, I hope you don't feel that, oh, I'm suddenly trying to sell you something, right? Most of my videos, right, are in articles, they just, I'm just trying to educate you. I'm just trying to share something that's like a passionate idea that I wish more people understood. I'm trying to share it. And if you benefit from it, wonderful. But I have no intention whether you ever buy a single thing from me. And that, that is where I think where the authentic power comes in. Authentic empowerment of yourself is when you share content, knowing that everybody watching this, they might never buy a single thing from me. So I don't owe them anything, except I owe them my authentic presence. I owe myself my authentic presence. I don't have to perform. I'm not trying to be polished or make you think I'm so great. So you'll buy something or praise me. No, I'm here just to share with you my honest explorations. And I'm like, wow, people don't get it. Or it's something that I understand a lot of people don't understand. So I'm going to share it from my perspective. Some people might disagree and that's okay too. So that's what I mean by content purity is to just show up. Don't try to sell anything, not a single thing you should try to sell when you're making content, making your video, writing an article, making your Instagram posts, etc. And at the same time, you should also consistently sell things, but in different posts, not the same post. Okay, so if a post is trying to sell something, you know when I'm trying to sell something to you. I mean, you've seen me do it. You know, if it's on Instagram, it's the one minute videos, because I want to run ads on Instagram and I kind of run one minute video ads is the maximum video length is one minute for Instagram ads. So whenever you see my one minute ads on Instagram, you know, oh, well, sometimes some of the one minute ads are actually content, but some of the one minute ads are selling you something. But when I sell you something, I'm very frank in the beginning. I'm just like, I've got an online course. I hope you'll consider joining. If you're dealing with this issue, if you're trying to reach that goal, if you're passionate about this, I come up right right out front and says, hey, will you pay me money for something I've got? And I'll tell you what it is. You can choose not to pay me money. Of course not. Do you see what I mean? So when you're selling, sell, sell passionately, sell honestly, and just sell. That's it. Not trying to like charm them with a story and no, no, no, just sell. Just because remember, I mean, I'm not remember some of you are new to me, but we, I only sell to audiences that already know who I am. See, the problem that you might be trying to sell to people who don't know who you are, it's kind of like getting someone to sleep with you on the first date. Right? I mean, it could happen, right? But it's just, it's like a lot of, you know, and it's occasionally it's like the perfect fit. But that's, that's the point. Occasionally it's the perfect fit, but most of them it's not the perfect fit. And you have to like try to manipulate people into doing something.  So therefore you can be very transparent. You don't have to be manipulative. You don't have to be too strong arming. You just be like, Hey, friends. It's more like, Hey, friends, I've got this thing coming. I'm really excited. That's when you're, that's when you're selling. And when you are giving content and sharing your honest thoughts, do that with pure intent too. And in that case, you don't have to say, Hey, friends, because a lot of people who see it might not know you. They're just encountering you for the first time. You're there just to bless them. You're there just to be honest with them. Okay. So I hope this makes sense. Separate your content from your selling. And your business I think will go better. I hope this helps. I'm George Cal, authentic business coach. I love talking about how do we build a business truly with heart, not just in name, but truly with heart. And it feels good to our conscience. It feels good to the audience. All right. I hope to see you in another video. Take care.


Welcome to lecture number three in our online version of the Issues in National Security Lecture Series. I'm Professor John Jackson, the series' coordinator and I'll serve as master of ceremonies for today's event. We are pleased to once again have the Naval War College President, Admiral Chatfield with us online and I'd like to give her the opportunity to extend her greetings. Admiral. Hello there, welcome back to the Issues in National Security Lecture Series. Thank you for dialing in today. We really appreciate you being here, participating in this lecture series. It's a fantastic lecture today. I'm joined by my husband, David Scoble. You all know him and he works to say as well. Great, good to see so many faces. I haven't had a chance to see just how many are on but we've had very strong sessions the last two weeks since we've resumed online through the Zoom platform which is very encouraging. And this afternoon, we have a special guest. Our benefits partner for this lecture will be Eugenie Genereaux and she's pictured probably right there on the top of your screen and she's from Havana and she will handle some, answer some of your questions at the end. So we don't like to welcome you, Eugenie and please bring your best. So we're eager to hear from you. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's great to have our team from Quarters AA back aboard. So as we've done over the past several weeks while we hear from our guest speaker, you're invited to send questions and using the Zoom chat function and we'll gather these up and relay them to the speaker during the question and answer period. Following the end of the question and answer session we'll pause for about 60 seconds and we'll then commence our family discussion group with the commands on Budsman and special guest as introduced. So let me turn now to the introduction of our very timely topic, humanitarian assistance and disaster response. Dr. Hank Breitman is a full professor in the Civil Military Humanitarian Response Program within the College of Maritime Operational War. He also holds the EMC Informationist Chair at the Naval War College. From 2008 to 2016 he served as an Associate Professor and Director of Applied Research and Analysis in the Wargaming Department. Prior to coming to the college, Professor Breitman served as a Tenured Associate Professor and Chair of the Criminal Justice Department at St. Peter's University and he's also a commander in the Naval Reserve. Dr. Breitman, I zoom it over to you, sir. Okay, well, hi everyone. It's great to be with you today. And what I'd like to do, first of all, just welcome you into my home. Obviously this is a little bit different environment for all of us. Probably most of us are used to working out of our offices. So you get a little bit of a sneak peek into my house, cobwebs and all and hopefully the large collection of various and sundry materials that are useful in doing the kind of work we do in humanitarian response, which include everything from psychology texts to texts about wounded healers to texts that deal with military planning. And humanitarian response really is very much a smorgasbord of different perspectives and insights and ideas. And all of that comes together for the purpose of healing and serving others. And that's what we're really here to do today. To do that, I'm gonna share a PowerPoint presentation with you. And I know that for most of us, we don't absolutely love PowerPoint. In fact, I will never forget that we actually had a former Secretary of Defense who truly, truly had an aversion for PowerPoint. In fact, he had such an aversion for it that he said at one point, I absolutely vehemently do not wanna see PowerPoint anymore. I'm done with PowerPoint. I don't wanna see PowerPoint. And the way that that was communicated to all of us on the staff was in a PowerPoint. So kind of interesting. And I'm just waiting for our slide deck to actually load right now. I'm not sure why it hasn't done that yet. Hank, I think you're at the end of your slideshow. Okay, let's give it a shot and see if it comes back to the front. Operator error, right? So we'll give it another shot. There we go. Beautiful. I'm glad I have Commander Ross on the call too. So it's great to be with you. It's great to have an opportunity to talk to you a little bit about humanitarian response. We're gonna talk about humanitarian response through two lenses. The first lens that we'll talk about is the international response effort. And the international response effort is quite, quite different than the kind of response that we do in the United States. In fact, completely different set of authorities, completely different set of processes that we follow. But obviously in the age of COVID-19, it's important that we talk about what's going on in the United States as well. So I'll actually share a little bit of both with you. I will say however that everything that I will share are my own thoughts, perspectives, insights, beliefs and values, not necessarily those of the War College Department of Defense or any other governmental agency. So having said that, I'm gonna share a little bit with you about the humanitarian landscape and how we deal with issues of response on the international stage. And I know that when Professor Jackson started the series with you, he was pretty clear there'd be no papers, there would be no tests, there'd be nothing like that. Well, unfortunately, I didn't get that memo early on. So I have a quiz for you right up front. And here it is. It's only one question, I promise. So here's your question. When we look from 1970 to 2000, and we look specifically at how many times military units were diverted from regular operations to performing humanitarian assistance or disaster relief operations, would anyone like to hazard a guess? How many times we've actually been diverted during that period from doing our regular operations? I'll say 83 times. 83 times Admiral, excellent guess. You're in the ballpark. I'm delighted by your hot dog for that. Ifa. Here, another one, 65. Well, actually the answer is 366. So a huge percentage of our time has actually spent supporting various activities that occur outside the United States that divert us from our regular operations. That said, it's an important part of what we do because every time we do respond, every time we deal with a natural disaster or in some cases a complex emergency, that makes us better at what we do. When we're flying an aircraft, our aircraft doesn't know the difference between flying in combat operations and flying to support humanitarian operations hours or hours towards that Gladwell-esque 10,000. So everything we do makes us better, but it is important to understand just how large a percentage of our time we spend performing humanitarian operations. In fact, when you look at armed conflict, you can see that armed conflict kind of follows this curve and it's somewhat of a normal curve, yet armed conflict isn't just something that affects military members. Armed conflict really affects everybody. It affects civilian populations as much, if not more so than military forces. Often what we're dealing with when we get diverted to various types of humanitarian operations, not necessarily natural disasters, but complex emergencies, situations where we actually are trying to help resolve issues for a civilian population. And often those civilian populations are displaced.  So there are differences technically between these two terms, but what's important to understand about both refugees and internally displaced persons, these are people who have lost their livelihood, these are people who have lost their opportunity to exist within the space that they're comfortable with, that their cultural context provides. So the challenge is how do we help those people? And there are a lot of different ways that we do that and I'll share some of those with you. Conflict is a great challenge for us. Indeed, there are so many conflicts around the world that the US has a challenge in trying to figure out which conflicts we actually can engage in to be of supportive value. We can't be everywhere all the time. And indeed, as you've seen from the most recent national defense strategy, some of our goal is actually to pull back a little bit from being around the world, trying to support those elements that are dealing with issues of conflict. So as we look at resource scarcity of our own forces, as we look at meeting our own mission, going back to that 366 number that I shared with you earlier, it's important that we really think about where we can best support and aid populations. And I did mention natural disasters. Natural disasters, of course, being something that most of us are familiar with when we talk about humanitarian response, whether it's floods, storms, other kinds of scarcity issues where we may not have access to crops or crop yields or fish stocks or other areas where we have natural resources that are depleted. So these kinds of weather related or geophysical challenges are a huge, huge problem and challenge as we deal with the issues of humanitarian response. Compounding that is a desire we see towards urbanization. Now, it's really interesting because one of the things that you may be hearing on the news is that many people now, at least within the United States in the age of COVID, are talking about moving away from the urban centers. That's something we're beginning to hear about now that mega cities and large cities may not have the kinds of populations that they had in the past. Well, my response to that is I guess we'll see because the trend right now through 2030 is a trend towards urbanization where people are moving more and more towards urban centers and those urban centers in greater degree are located on the coast. Some located on the coast because of a desire to be closer to access to water and ports and some also because of rising sea change and climate change. So the reality is that we're seeing more people in urban centers than we have in the past and most of those urban centers residing along the coast and that's something that's really important. And when we talk about the urban outbreak game a little bit later on, which was a project that we did to look at a mega city and the challenges that a pandemic or in this case an outbreak might cause within that particular mega city. Well, you'll see a little bit about how those urbanization trends are a challenge for humanitarian response. There are specific frameworks that we engage in when we're doing international engagement. And as I said, when I started, the way that we engage is differently within the United States operates differently in the United States than it does overseas. There are specific frameworks we follow internationally that contrast with those we follow in the United States. And I'd like to share a little bit with you about what those frameworks look like so that you have a better sense of the way we fit into humanitarian response on the international stage. To do that, it's important to understand that the military plays a very specific role. And that role is often that early onset role when there has been a capacity issue that's already been depleted or exhausted by a host nation. So in other words, in times of catastrophe or crisis whether it's a complex emergency or a natural disaster, often militaries get involved early. And the reason that that happens is because what we are masters at is logistics. There's a saying that we often talk about within the humanitarian world of the C-130s are the great power force for us. Having the ability to get supplies, materials, equipment into supportive population in need, that's a huge element of what we do in the military. And we are masters at logistics. So when we talk about power projection, it's important to remember that power projection also includes logistics, whether we're talking about aircraft carriers, we're talking about large cargo aircraft using those for that immediate onset of support to provide aid to a population. Often that's where we live in the military. And of course, our goal is to provide that support, provide that aid to that host nation. And we'll talk more about how we do that in just a few minutes. And then quite frankly, to get out because what we never wanna do is put ourselves in a situation where the host nation becomes dependent on us to provide continuous sustained aid or that may actually jeopardize their system of government. So we're very, very careful about working through the host nation and I'll talk more about that and how that process works to provide that immediate need for assistance in crisis. Along with the military and along with the great capacity for logistics and support that we provide, what you often hear the most about are our non-governmental organizations or NGOs. And I've oversimplified this slide a little bit. There are international government organizations and there are non-governmental organizations and there are other kinds of federated organizations as well. But for the purposes of what we're talking about today, NGOs are things that most of us are familiar with in terms of humanitarian response. Those organizations that are on the ground often before we even get to that particular host nation because they've had pre-existing relationships with them and they're providing specific types of aid and support. Whether it's medical support, many of you may be familiar with MSF or Medicine Saint-François, what we often refer to as doctors without borders or you may be familiar with World Vision or Mercy Corps or Save the Children or any of the other major NGOs that we often see around the world. Our challenge is to make sure that whatever we're doing to support the humanitarian space isn't operating at odds with those NGOs. And I'll talk more about that in a little bit. Because those NGOs, those non-governmental organizations, many of them abide by humanitarian principles. Now, the reason that I say many of them is there are non-governmental organizations that are not humanitarian organizations. But for the purposes of what we're talking about today, and we're talking specifically about response to complex emergencies and disasters, we are talking about these core humanitarian principles that NGOs live by. And I've put them up here for you just so you can give them a quick read whether we're talking about humanity, neutrality, impartiality or independence. What's important for you to understand about these and one of the things that's challenging often for military members to understand is that NGOs don't take sides. If they're involved in humanitarian response and they're following these principles, they're not taking sides in a conflict. They're providing aid to those most in need. And that is very, very different than the lens that we tend to look at the world through often as military members. So often the question we'll ask our students in the elective track that we offer is can military organizations, can military units, can military members be humanitarian? Well, the answer to that is we can exude certain core tenets of humanity, but we're not per se abiding by humanitarian principles because we can't have those kinds of elements like neutrality or impartiality based on our mission, based on the operational environment in which we work. We work through a different lens. And because of that, NGOs will take a very, very standoffish and rightly so perspective when it comes to working near or around military organizations. In fact, it's important to understand that for some of those military organizations that are operating in an area where an NGO is located, they may perceive that NGO as aloof or otherwise not wanting to have anything to do with them because they don't like them. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the very livelihood and sustainability of that NGO and their ability to provide aid to a population in need depends on abiding by these humanitarian principles. Often that even means things like they don't want their pictures taken with military members in the foreground or background or certainly not side by side because these NGOs that operate internationally, they have to think beyond just that particular conflict or disaster and how would a picture of them even a seemingly benign picture maybe shaking hands with a US service member who is delivering aid, how might that impact them around the world or in future operations? What's really interesting about the International Response Framework is that everything comes back to that affected state or affected nation. It's important to understand that we cannot do anything to support or foster or heal in that nation without their approval. We have to receive approval from that host nation to come in and provide support. And there are some elements that help us do that. We have United Nations country teams that will often help with some of those relationships. Obviously the Department of State who I'll talk more about in a little bit but at the end of the day, the affected nation has to invite us in to support. And when you look at this framework more broadly, it can be a little complex as I build this slide out, you'll see how all these relationships and intra-relationships come together and where we fit into that process often is referred to as a fog of relief where you have a military organization coming in to support a host nation. All of these different organizations, often with different values, different beliefs, different missions from our own and us all trying to work together in this same context and same environment. Again, with different missions. So to help make that process work a little bit better, we actually have UN OCHA, which is our civil military coordination element. It's the United Nations facet that helps organize and synchronize a lot of those functions. But what's important to understand is for most of us who come from a military operational environment, we're used to a more traditional command and control structure. The UN OCHA model is very different because what we're doing is we're basically working through a consensus model to try and build capacity in those areas where there's most need. So what that means is you don't see necessarily a particular organization or a particular agency other than that host nation in the lead role. And I'll show you a little bit more about what that looks like in a little bit. As I mentioned, the US does have a role and that role is through USAID, our US Agency for International Development. We have OFTA, which is our Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. Anything that we do to support humanitarian operations in disaster response is done through USAID OFTA. So that's who we work through. Even though we're military, we still work through USAID OFTA. That's the entity that works with us. And they actually have disaster response teams, disaster assessment response teams that they'll deploy to help facilitate that process and to help synchronize military efforts along whatever line is necessary towards supporting that particular relief. What's important to understand about this is USAID OFTA is not only important because they coordinate that, but because they come to response with a checkbook. So very, very quickly, if a host nation desires it, they can write a check. Maybe not a huge check, but enough of a check to provide logistical support to tap into stores of materials that may be sitting in warehouses that are available to alleviate immediate suffering. They may be able to contract for trucks or other vessels that they already have existing contracts with to help hasten and facilitate relief. Interestingly, all of this comes together through a system that, and I kind of say this tongue in cheek, is referred to a buster system. And for many of us in the military, we may have a different perspective on what a cluster means. The cluster model or cluster system that the UN uses is based on a sector-based system. So we actually have, as you can see here, different facets of that system that come together synergistically through that humanitarian relief coordinator. Now again, no traditional command and control model, not that C2 model that many of us are familiar with, much more of a consensus-based model. And participation in this cluster model is voluntary. So there can be NGOs, there can be other organizations that don't participate in this cluster model. For us, often we work through a civilian military coordinator, that's a UN function that we'll support. And again, we're working through coordination with OFTA, that Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. So multiple levels, multiple layers, all working together in somewhat of a cyclical consensus model. And as you can imagine, that can be very challenging. But the really cool part about this is, believe it or not, these organizations synchronize pretty quickly. Many of these cluster sectors have experience working together around the world. So you see the same NGOs and same organizations working together. And we have the ability to come together cohesively, relatively quickly. I mentioned the effective state. At the end of the day, the effective state that hosts nation, it's their country. And anything we do requires their say-so, their approval, their blessing. They're often the first line of response. However, that line of response may become overwhelmed very, very quickly. The challenge for us is making sure that we always support that host nation. That we never are seen in a way that we are now invading or otherwise usurping capability that could harm that government and its ability to provide services either during conflict or during response or post conflict or post response. Because our goal as I said at the beginning is to get in, provide that aid or support as requested by the affected state and then to depart so we can go back to our operational battle rhythm, our missions that we actually need to engage in to support our great nation and our great Navy. So that means that we're working under a consent agreement with that nation or host state. And to do that, one of the things that we seek to do is we seek to always use indirect aid versus direct aid. Now, interestingly, if we were actually in the auditorium right now, we'd probably do a little bit of a show and tell with you or unfortunately I can't be Oprah Winfrey and give you all vehicles, but I would probably use a cookie model where instead of giving you a car, I'd give you a cookie and I'd offer each of you a cookie, a nice end to men's cookie is often what we use to show you what direct aid looks like. So direct aid is when an organization or an entity, in this case, the US military, is providing direct support to a population. And when you think about that, that's a really bad model. The last thing that we wanna do is go into a country and directly provide support to the people of that country, usurping the government or bypassing the government, usurping their emergency management organizations, usurping the NGOs that are used to working with them and that have relationships with them. Instead of what we wanna do is we wanna work through that host nation and provide that aid to the host nation will use its own trucks, thinking now indirect aid, right? Use its own trucks, its own equipment to deliver that aid to those populations that need it most. So we work hard not to deliver the cookie, if you will, directly to those affected people, but rather to work through the host nation or whatever elements they've designated for us to work with. The third element is that bridge facet that I have here. Think of bridge as we used to say in the planning world as later phasing. Those are those kinds of infrastructure projects where rather than handing someone a cookie or even handing that host nation supplies that they will then deliver, perhaps we're building the bridge so that they can get their truck over it that's stocked with the cookies that we originally provided to them. The challenge with that bridge is that's later phasing. Again, if our goal is to get in and get out some of those larger infrastructure repair or infrastructure support projects may not be the best means for us in terms of supporting that population. Again, what we never wanna do is make a country radically different because of our presence than it was before we got there. The NGOs similarly have a do no harm philosophy. They'll work hard to ensure that if they're providing support or care to a population, let's say they were providing medical care, they'll provide medical care at a level that's commensurate with the average medical care of that population. So that after they leave, after let's say MSF, Medicine, Central TA left, there aren't people who are looking for a level of medical support or medical service that exceeds what that country is now capable of providing. So we're all about indirect, that truck approach to providing aid. Just to show you a little bit about what that might look like at a broader level, you can see here the affected state, you can see here the clusters and you can see how we would be involved in an operation through a multinational military coordination center along with those international organizations and non-governmental organizations. So just wanted to give you a little bit of a visual so you could see how all that comes together. That is the international framework for humanitarian response. And as I said, it's an interesting framework because we've practiced it, we've tried it in different ways, the cluster system works very well as a process or mechanism to help synchronize that aid in a way that isn't a traditional command and control structure, but ensures that those needs are met and met in a way that supports the host nation. What's interesting about that is we had a chance to test that a little bit and to see how that might look in the event of a pandemic or in this case an outbreak. I hasten to use the word pandemic and I'll explain why in a minute. So in September of this last year of 2019, the Naval War College partnered with the Uniform Services Health University and with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab to run an event. And the reason we wanted to run this event was I mentioned those mega cities and those mega cities particularly on the coast and those mega cities particularly on the coast that are often located in developing nations. So we wanted to run a game that looked at what would an outbreak of some type of a pathogen, a communicable pathogen look like in one of those environments in one of those multimillion popular cities located on the coast. So we created a notional country and a notional city to look at that using a pathogen that is kind of flu-like in some ways somewhat similar to what we're seeing with COVID in terms of its virulent nature, but something that we are actually had a cure for, if you will, we had the ability to treat it relatively understandably, which is a little bit different than the situation we're in. And I say outbreak as opposed to pandemic because we were only looking at the propagation of this particular pathogen within this region and this area, not internationally or globally like the pandemic we're seeing now, but very interesting, very timely that we actually did this last September. And what I'd like to do is share a little bit of that with you so that you have an understanding of that urban outbreak game and some of the lessons we learned from that that may be valuable for what we're dealing with now in COVID 2019. The challenge we have with COVID-19 is that it's not the same as what we saw in this game. This was a notional pathogen based on existing pathogens. Again, this was confined to one area. This wasn't the kind of a global pandemic that we're seeing now. Also, for my colleagues in wargaming, they know that gaming is not predictive. Assuredly, nothing that I'll share with you now is predictive, but it is informative to decision makers and that's what I'd like to work through with you now. So we had about 50 people show up for this event from a variety of different sectors, public health, medicine, supply and logistics, healthcare from government, including foreign governments. It was an unclassified event. We had military members, including international militaries, but it wasn't an event that was done for the Department of Defense. It wasn't an event done for the joint staff. This was a much broader inquiry looking at issues of health and response across a broad perspective. What made this game truly unique was our ability to bring in non-governmental organizations and international organizations, many of whom are often reluctant to work with the military for the reasons that I shared earlier about those humanitarian principles. We had five game cells and those five game cells, players had the ability to flow and move between those different player cells. They were initially assigned to a cell in the first move, but then they had the opportunity to move the other cells based on their priorities and interests and the kinds of response activities that they'd engage in and also how they best sought coordination with the other entities in the game. So five player cells, three moves over two full days of gameplay. As I said, it was purely fictional, certainly not predictive, involving a mega city in a notional developing nation, complex urban environment, issues of class, socioeconomic status, education, disparate healthcare, all of the things you might expect to see in that kind of a developing nation schema. As I said, there was a pathogen. It's one that was known but notionalized as well. Rapidly spreading but treatable, which again is one of the differences we tend to see with COVID-19, is the way that that particular pathogen has responded to treatment thus far is different than what we had in the game. Three moves, and you can see here on the right, I shared a little bit about how those moves were structured in terms of the types of things that we were looking at. And again, thinking perhaps direct, indirect, and bridge, so cookie truck bridge, right, in terms of those three moves and what things might look like over the course of three moves in an unfolding event such as this. Well, what did we find? Well, we did a lot of analysis because that's very valuable for us. And we captured a lot of data in this game. And these findings are actually in a couple of different reports. They're in a report that was done immediately after the game, kind of a quick look, and also a longer post-analytic product, both of which are available on the War College website. I'll share that with you later if you're interested. But what we found were some of these kinds of analytic findings, including behaviors. Now, why does this matter? Why does social behaviors matter as a finding? Well, I think we're seeing that in COVID-19, right? We're seeing a situation where because people have been told they need to behave a certain way, they're pushing back against that or they're resistant to that. Even if it may be in their best interest to conform to certain societal standards that have been set and tested, social behavior matters. And understanding social behavior and deviance from social behavior is something that we looked at in this game. What we call cascading failures where every failure in a system impacts every other system. This is certainly true in a developing nation where we may quickly overwhelm infrastructure or support capability. And to some degree, it's true even in what we're seeing today in terms of the response within the United States, where within a given state, just within one state, you may have various levels of healthcare infrastructure, medical infrastructure, depending on whether we're talking about urban or rural settings and population and the kinds of equipment we have to respond. So understanding a little bit about that cascading failure is very valuable for us as well. The private sector. One of the areas that tends to get short shrift is the value of the private sector in response. In the United States, and certainly in the current COVID-19 response, it does appear that the private sector is playing a large role. However, in developing nation response, such as the urban outbreak game, that was where we found this particular analytic data set, what we found is private sectors really, really matter there because they don't have the kind of infrastructure we have in the United States. And the private sector needs to be involved throughout a response, not just in the early phase, not just as the response is unfolding, but even in the later phasing, particularly if militaries and other organizations are leaving theater, that's where the private sector can be very, very valuable in that longer sustainability of a particular crisis or emergency. Assuming risk, one of the things we found particularly fascinating that came out of the urban outbreak game was the way that NGOs, non-governmental organizations, and intergovernmental organizations or international organizations look at risk is different than the way military entities look at risk. Now, I want to start out by saying, when I say military entities, I'm not talking about doctors and nurses and medical personnel. I'm talking about traditional military forces who might be doing things like logistics, resupply, sustainment, and security, those forces, their focus tends to be on protection of the force. So ensuring that their own personnel are safe or healthy or able to perform mission, that tends to be from an operational risk curve where they tend to live. Whereas NGOs and other IOs, they tend to focus specifically on the population and they're willing to lean into risk in a way that traditional military forces are not, often because that's very much aligned with their mission, right? If you're a medical doctor on the front lines, providing that support to a community, you may be more willing to lean into risk in a way that's different than an operational commander. Stove piping and cultural resistance. Well, this may not be that surprising, but certainly it's something that we need to consider when we're dealing with a response to a crisis or complex emergency. Specifically, how do our own biases, how do our own beliefs of our organization and our own resistance to change impact our ability to respond dynamically and creatively, our ability to problem solve in real time as necessary. We become so mired often in our own beliefs and values that it can be challenging to lean outside of that. One of the ways that we try and do that in the military is we talk about doctrine, and we say that doctrine is not designed to lock us in a box. Doctrine is a place for us to deviate or depart from, just to give us a common setting to move forward. That's the same kind of challenge we see in response. How do we move from our shared understanding to a broader understanding that's more creative? Throughout this response, what we found that was most interesting is everything in the urban outbreak game came down to two words, and we coded it and we analyzed it, and these words came up over and over again. Those were coordination and communication. So every issue we had, every challenge we had, every opportunity or success we had was one that focused on communication and coordination. And understanding how to more effectively coordinate and communicate is the key to an effective response. And these were some things that we learned out of the urban outbreak game that have value for us today as we talk about COVID-19. What I do want to share with you is a little bit of the work we're doing within the Humanitarian Response Program focused on COVID-19. And I'll start out by saying that the work that we're doing right now is focused on the state of Rhode Island. I mentioned earlier on when we started, if you looked at the initial slide that we had, that I'm the Acting Director of the Humanitarian Response Program, that's because my boss, Dave Pilatti, Professor Dave Pilatti, who is also Captain Dave Pilatti, is on active duty right now. He's a Navy Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer, or NEPLO, assigned to the state of Rhode Island. So he's heavily involved right now in the response effort supporting the great state of Rhode Island. Rhode Island, for its part, realized that it would be better off partnering and working synergistically with a couple of other states, specifically Connecticut and Massachusetts, and more of a compact-esque approach. So what you see is kind of this multi-micro response as opposed to a national framework that is being used to respond to COVID, where resources are being shared or at least synchronized between those various states in a way that has value for all three. Now, I mention this to you because going back to the urban outbreak game, urban outbreak was very much focused on a coordinated response. And that response may have involved private partners, it may have involved the host nation organizing that response or supporting that response, but it involved somewhat of a unified response. That's very different than what we're seeing, in my opinion, in COVID-19, where the response that we're seeing is more of a 50-state, or in the case of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, maybe not quite 50-state, maybe a little bit less than that, more cohesive, but certainly not a unified response like we saw in urban outbreak. And that's important to understand. And this is an interesting perspective because often when we talk about response to complex emergencies, or in the case of the U.S., natural disasters, we're talking about responding, using all of the instruments of national power or a whole of government approach. This is a case where that has not been what we've seen thus far. We've seen a lot of response being led and facilitated and coordinated by those state governors, as opposed to through a national command authority at the presidential level. And I want to point that out, because a lot of people will say, well, why is that Hank? And again, my perspective on that is the current president of the United States, his perspective is a state's rights perspective. And coming into office, he was very, very clear about that. And my response in contrast to that is often, well, President Reagan was also very much a champion of state's rights, but when the air traffic controllers went on strike, Pat Co, he didn't leave it to the states to do their own air traffic control. He brought in military forces to do that until they could get new air controllers to replace the Pat Co controllers that he subsequently fired. So it's a little enigmatic for me that we haven't seen more of a national response framework in terms of COVID-19 response, but at the state level or at a small compact level, what I can say is we're doing a really great job from my perspective in terms of the response. And I wanted to share a few of those slides with you now. We've had the opportunity at the War College to look at some issues for the state of Rhode Island involving what we call cascading exposure. Now, what we're talking about here is if we have industrial hygienists or environmental hygienists in the field doing sampling or doing assessment, how are we considering protecting their families and the other members of their units? So we had an opportunity to look at some of these issues for the state to provide our thoughts and insights on how we could best protect them. And we did that by developing a notional link node construct. For our friends who come from an intelligence background who are on the call today, who are listening after the call today, you're probably familiar with this link nodal construct where we're actually trying to connect various entities to other entities to see how those flow and how we can best protect the population. And you can see that we did that here using this link nodal approach. And we can actually use visualization tools. There's a variety of different software programs that allow us to explore those link nodal relationships. We also can visualize this through a dashboard approach. And as you may know, Rhode Island has developed some great dashboards. They've developed dashboards for pathogen response or hospital capability. This is a notional dashboard that we developed internally. Again, looking at that link nodal relationship between the people doing environmental sampling and the units that they work with and the families that they are supporting. Beyond the work that we've done in things like link nodal analysis, we've also had an opportunity to provide our thoughts on how we could best support the state or as I said, the compact of states, that micro level compact by facilitating conversation and discussion. So we built a multi-state framework to actually assist the states should they desire to get together to talk through any of these key coordination challenges. We haven't used this framework yet, but we're ready anytime that Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts would like to engage in a facilitated discussion around issues of health, economy, logistics and basic services. So we're excited about the opportunity to support these partners and help them consider those second and third order effects of response and any of the gaps that may be located therein. That in a nutshell are the main elements that we deal with in terms of support for COVID-19. See if I can return this back to me now. I may need Gary's help with that. I'm not sure if you're seeing me on the screen now or you're still seeing slides. One more shot. No, there you go. Okay, perfect. Yeah, you can take the cryptologist out of this gift, but it doesn't mean you can teach him how to use Zoom. So the bottom line is that we have been given an opportunity to support the state and we're very excited about that. Internally, some of our HRP team members have been doing some great things as well. For example, we are developing curriculum to look at international militaries and how they're responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Andress Howard, Commander Howard, who's our Chilean naval fellow assigned to HRP has been leading that effort. And we've had an opportunity to start to build some case study data that will be useful for our simulations and our teaching that we do in the area of humanitarian response. So we're really excited about his efforts there. And again, for us, these are teachable moment opportunities. So we're always looking for ways to take what's happening both through COVID-19 and the response internally and externally to get better at responding and to help our students develop the wisdom and insights that they need moving forward. That in a nutshell is kind of the presentation portion of our time together. And what I'm, of course, really interested in are your thoughts, questions and insights that you may have for me. Thank you for a very informative presentation. We do have a few questions and we'll roll them out for you. First is, what would you consider to be the most challenging situation we faced in the near term, considering where we are in the United States in our current environment? Wow, that's a great question. So I can tell you that the greatest concern I have right now is the concern of logistics and secondary logistics chain. Right now, we have been very successful by using secondary logistics chains. For example, if you can't get what you need to at the market, you can probably get it on Amazon or another type of secondary market to get what you need to. And I'm actually looking at a reaction I just saw with my admiral and her husband about that, smiling in the background. So yeah, it's interesting to see how that secondary supply chain has come into effect. My fear is if this illness continues to propagate and develop or we have a second tier of impact, what happens to that secondary supply chain? If there's no longer drivers for Amazon or UPS or FedEx, if people who work in the different facilities where they process, not just packages, but even foodstuffs no longer have the capability to do that, what does that do to our secondary supply chain? In theory, you could potentially put national guard personnel into vehicles and have them delivering as secondary supply chain. In theory, under national emergency, you could put military forces to work and meet processing plants, having them perform U.S. agriculture kinds of inspections. But I think that, again, the way this particular response has been structured thus far, it's unlikely that would happen in the more state-focused model we have, which makes me very worried about what a secondary supply chain challenge would look like in this country. Thank you. Another question. You've talked quite a bit about the international environment and whatnot. What are the differences in working in the United States? And what is FEMA's role? Does that make things better or more complicated in a situation within the continental United States? Yeah, it's a great question. FEMA plays a lead role in the United States. And our neplos, our Navy emergency preparedness liaison officers such as Captain Pilati, are working hand-in-hand through the state with FEMA. So FEMA has that lead federal agency role in terms of coordination. But the challenge becomes, this is a different kind of issue than let's say a short-term event like a hurricane flood or natural disaster. This is a longer curve event where you may be able to apply a regional construct to FEMA to deal with a state or maybe two states if it's, if it were two states that were impacted. What we're dealing with here right now, for all intended purpose, excluding Alaska and a few other states that have very small numbers, is probably about a 44 state challenge where from my perspective, FEMA is still looking at this on a state-by-state level as opposed to a national support level. There are things we can do to augment that. US Northern Command has looked at how we can be involved in supporting some of this effort. But there are specific authorities that we have to conform to and defense support for civil authority and the dual status commander perspective only gets us so far in terms of response, even if we followed it. And as I said when I started right now, what you're really seeing is more micro-level responses where FEMA is involved kind of at a state LNO to state LNO perspective, but not at that broader national perspective. Thank you. Now that's a very interesting question. Could you comment about the impact that disasters have on mental health and what effort should be made from a holistic rehabilitation perspective for the affected population? Well, as I mentioned when I started, I have a bunch of books behind me and a number of my Jungian books. And the reason for that, and we didn't rehearse this question in advance, I promise you it was not a softball, is that I actually have a degree in holistic therapy and holistic counseling. And I'm very much interested in holistic practices. In my own private practice in Rhode Island, which is a trauma and wellness practice, we look specifically at issues of mental health and wellness. So this is a question that's really near and dear to my heart. Bottom line, everything will come down to use the words of the Navy to resilience and grit. And how do we help our population bounce back post-event having been through this significant emotional event in a way that really underscores and celebrates their resilience and creates an energy for them of being able to return to what will be the new normal. From my perspective on that, the way we do that is as much as we've been socially distanced thus far, we need to create the energy around what my colleagues in Wargaming will laugh when I say is a shared phenomenological event. We've all had our own individual experience when it comes to COVID-19, but we've had that individual experience collectively. So we need to celebrate that. We need to connect people and their experiences that they've individually had to each other and come together, whether it's in group settings or chat settings, but ultimately whatever mechanism that is, whether it's in person or virtually, so we can share our experiences with each other. The reason we were successful in World War II was because everybody sacrificed, whether it was rationing and coupon books or fighting the war or collecting scrap or saving fats. Whatever it was, everyone collectively came together in that shared phenomenological event, and they could talk about it and share it to achieve victory to what we call unity of effort. And the challenge that we have, all of us have, is we need to start coming together rather than each of us talking about our own individual experiences. And in my case, I lost a very dear uncle early on to COVID-19 when he was undergoing some medical care. We all have similar experiences people loved or lost or have sacrificed. This is the time for us to connect to each other, share that with each other, and come together towards that unity of effort. Nicely said. How does the Naval War College HADR program routinely deal with the NGOs? You talked about your war game. Is that something that's been going on for a number of years? We have been incredibly fortunate through early relationships with our academic partners, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the humanitarian program at Brown, Yale Medical School and Public Health, among many others. We've had an opportunity through them to connect to non-governmental organizations. And that's important because often you don't see that mild to NGO relationship directly. You see it through a partner. So because we are a graduate-level institution and an important educational institution, we've been able to apply that lens of our mission in a way that connects us to other educational organizations that then connects us to those NGOs. What that's meant for us is we've been able to bring those NGOs to speak to our students, which is very important for them to get that NGO perspective following those humanitarian principles, which again is something that's somewhat enigmatic for us in the military construct more often than not. We participate in an event that Harvard does every year they do a major simulation. In fact, I don't know if you can see it on my mug, but the Harvard humanitarian simulation is something that we engage in where we actually will be a military element of that involved in coordination. We also role play and do assessment, rapid assessment as part of that process. So we've had an opportunity to engage with NGOs in a lot of different ways through teaching and education. We also have had an opportunity to go out directly and teach students, whether it's at Brown or Harvard or MIT or Yale or some of our other partner institutions. We've developed a number of games and simulations where we can then introduce those students, many of whom are interested in intergovernmental or international work to military capability. And the more we can build that commonality in that relationship now, the more valuable we'll be when we work together in the future. Well, Hank, it's interesting when people talk about the Naval War College, they don't realize that we're about a lot more than war. And I think HADR is a wonderful example. One last question I've got is, do we ever see opportunities when the host nation declines NGO and other support? And what do you do in a situation like that? Do you simply step back? The answer to that is yes. Ultimately, at the end of the day, host nations are host nations. And if they choose to invite us in to support and serve them, we're happy to do that to the best of our ability. If they feel they either have capability, capacity, or resources to deal with that challenge themselves or for a number of other reasons, they prefer not to have any level of involvement, whether it's from militaries, governmental organizations, or even non-governmental organizations. As independent states, that's something that all of us enjoy and all of us celebrate, even when sometimes we may have a different perspective. And one viewer asked if we could make their slides available for them to look at after the event. Would that be okay with you? Absolutely. I'm more than happy to do that. I also recently gave a presentation on the Urban Outbreak Game and some of the things that we're doing at the Naval War College to support the COVID-19 response process in Rhode Island. So if you're interested in those as well, there's a YouTube video. I'm happy to share that link as well. Absolutely. That's great. Well, we greatly appreciate what you did for us this afternoon. And that concludes our formal lecture period. We have three more lectures in the series. Next Tuesday, Dr. Terry Roehrig will be speaking about another very timely subject, and that's the North Korean problem. So we'll take about a 60-second break and then we'll shift into the family discussion group meeting. So thank you very much.


1. Amendment 10716.2, in the name of Miles Briggs, which seeks to amend motion 10716, in the name of Shirley-Anne Somerville, on reversal of the UK Government's two-child benefit camp, be agreed, and members should cast their votes now. The vote is closed. 2. Amendment 10716.2, in the name of Miles Briggs, is yes, 28, no, 78. There were no abstentions, the amendment is therefore not agreed. 3. Amendment 10716.1, in the name of Paul O'Kane, which seeks to amend motion 10716, in the name of Shirley-Anne Somerville, on reversal of the UK Government's two-child benefit camp, be agreed. Are we all agreed? 4. Amendment 10716.1, in the name of Paul O'Kane, is yes, 75, no, 78. There were no abstentions, the amendment is therefore not agreed. There were no abstentions, the amendment is therefore not agreed. There were no abstentions, the amendment is therefore not agreed. Therefore, we will move to a vote and members should cast their votes now. I would have voted yes. The result of the vote on amendment number 10716.1, in the name of Paul O'Kane, is yes, 75, no, 28. There were three abstentions, the amendment is therefore agreed. The next question is that motion 10716, in the name of Shirley-Anne Somerville, as amended, on reversal of the UK government's two child benefit cap, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we'll move to a vote and members should cast their votes now. The vote is closed. Point of order, Colin Beattie. My app wouldn't refresh, I would have voted yes. Thank you Mr Beattie, we'll ensure that's recorded. The result of the vote on motion 10716, in the name of Shirley-Anne Somerville, as amended, is yes, 78, no, 29. There were no abstentions, the motion as amended is therefore agreed. The next question is that motion 10709, in the name of Gillian Martin, on legislative consent motion energy bill UK legislation, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. And I propose to ask a single question on two parliamentary bureau motions. Does any member object? The question is that motions 10732, on committee meeting times, and 10733, on designation of a lead committee, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motions are therefore agreed, and that concludes decision time. In a moment we will move on to members business in the name of Edward Mountain.