Professional Military Podcast

American Guerillas Part Three: The Old Wagoner’s Revenge In the year 1780, South Carolina was in the grip of violence and turmoil. On December 3, 1780, General Nathanael Greene assumed command of the southern department from General Horatio Gates. Gates, the hero of Saratoga, had struggled in the Carolinas most notably at the disastrous battle […]

Washington’s Marines: A History of the Marine Corps Most Marines know the history of the Marine Corps from boot camp or Officer Candidate School. These raw recruits or officer candidates shout “Tun Tavern” and “Samuel Nicholas” at screaming drill instructors. But, what happened at Tun Tavern in 1775? Who was Samuel Nicholas? Most Marines do […]

War in the Carolinas Heats Up! As war in the Carolinas intensified, the British kicked up a “hornet’s nest” near present day Charlotte, NC. On General Cornwallis’s left flank was a Scotsman named Patrick Ferguson. Since age 15, Ferguson had served in the British military for two decades. He was called the “bulldog” by his […]

Revolutionary War Series: “American Guerillas” Revolutionary War history is dominated by studies of what happened in the north. It makes sense because George Washington spent most of his time in the middle and northern departments. Famous battles such as the Battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Lexington and Concord took place in the middle and northern […]

On December 19, 1777, Washington led his army to a high plateau 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was not the coldest winter during the Revolutionary War. However, soldiers lacked shoes and clothes. The army was ravaged by diseases like yellow fever, typhus, scabies, and smallpox. Desertion was high. Men were not getting paid. […]

An honest look at U.S. military strength Is the United States Military strong or weak? The Heritage Foundation has fired a shot across the bow with its “2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength.” The Index concludes that the U.S. military in its current posture is “weak.” The Pentagon might not like the report. But, my […]

Diplomats and Admirals Interview with Dale Jenkins How did the U.S. recover from the devastation of Pearl Harbor and win one of the most epic battles in naval history? Was war in the Pacific inevitable or were there diplomatic off ramps? Why did Japan attack America on December 7, 1941? Did America really know in […]

Crisis of Command Stuart Scheller served in the Marine Corps as an infantry officer for seventeen years. His five deployments included combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. When he was a Lieutenant Colonel, Scheller served as a battalion commander at the Marine Corps School of Infantry (SOI). In the summer of 2021, U.S. forces withdrew […]

What is the state of the Japanese Military In this PME podcast interview, I spoke with retired Marine Colonel Grant Newsham on the state of the Japanese Military. The Japanese military is called the Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF). It is comprised of the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF), which has 150,000 people. The JSDF also has […]

On this episode of the PME podcast, I welcome back Ian Easton. Ian recently published a book called The Final Struggle: Inside China’s Global Strategy. https://traffic.libsyn.com/professionalmilitaryeducation/PME_033.mp3 Topics of discussion include: The prospect of China invading Taiwan and an update from Ian’s first book, The Chinese Invasion Threat Is Xi Jinping on drugs? Hard to tell. […]

The United States Navy is in troubled waters. More specifically, the surface Navy faces many challenges. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss why that is. My guest, Thibaut Delloue, is a former Navy officer. He has seen firsthand the problems that have plagued the US surface Navy for years. https://traffic.libsyn.com/professionalmilitaryeducation/PME_032.mp3 Thibaut’s book, The Wardroom, […]

Political Warfare poses an existential threat to the United States. Democracies worldwide are under attack. China is dedicated to destroying the American way of life and making the U.S. a “vassal state.” Moreover, they are seeking to win without fighting. Political warfare is the means to do that. In this episode of the PME podcast, […]

In this episode of the PME Podcast, I interview Wesley Morgan. Wes is a journalist and author, who wrote a book called The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan’s Pech Valley. The book draws on hundreds of interviews and firsthand accounts from former commanding officers to the soldiers that spent months in the […]