“History shows that the bill payers of failed policy and short-sighted national security planning are the military forces of the nation.”

— Rear Admiral Phillip R. Olson, speaking to a conference on low intensity conflict

AVAILABLE NOW from author, Rick Waddell:

During the Cold War, given the threat of the Soviet military poised in Eastern Europe, the Army had to be able to wage armored warfare. The fear of low intensity conflict throughout the Cold War was the fear of bleeding to death from small bites. In this vein low intensity conflict was equivalent to an economy-of-force operation where our adversaries struck at us in our most vulnerable areas – terrorism, subversion, and insurgency. But, the challenge of low intensity conflict transcended the Cold War.

The Soviets are gone, but the style of conflict remains: the security environment of the future may look more like the urban hell of Beirut, Sarajevo, or Baghdad where hand-held missiles and crude homemade bombs threaten air and ground movement, and more like the jungles of Vietnam or the mountains of Afghanistan, where the physical and human terrain negates or reduces the effectiveness of heavy weapons and high technology devices.

Despite a large number of works that dealt with some aspect of low intensity conflict, none focused exclusively on the evolution of the Army’s response to this security challenge. Understanding this evolution is important because the problems of terrorism, insurgency, peacekeeping, and contingency operations – the categories of low intensity conflict – took on new relevance in a world without the Soviet Union.

The great bipolar confrontation had, for 45 years, submerged many of the world’s ethnic, religious, and economic passions. The end of the Cold War gave these passions a new, violent and bloody freedom. Although interstate conflict remains a threat, many of the aforementioned passions give rise to internal conflicts which require the use of force in non-traditional ways. The Army did not respond well to the challenge in the past, costing thousands of American lives and setting up the only strategic defeat that the United States has suffered. By the early 1990s, the United States government once again determined that it wanted the capability to respond to these challenges.

The changes in the early 1990s to the national strategy and the subordinate military strategy placed far greater emphasis on low intensity missions for the Army than had been the case since the early 1960s. Much of the post-Cold War Army would be based in the continental United States, and organized for rapid deployability in response to regional crises. Thus, the greater focus on conflict at the lower end of the spectrum colored the Army’s, as well as the nation’s, foreign policy abilities in the rest of the decade. Understanding the process of organizational change in the military, then, is necessary to the appropriate management of the Army’s mission. If the Army does not prepare well to enact changed national strategy, the costs, as Admiral Olson’s quotation above points out, are quite high in human terms. And, as the defeat in Vietnam demonstrated, the political costs to the nation are quite high, too. We have now engaged in more than a decade of war after the 9-11 attacks, mostly of the low intensity variety. This book sets the stage for understanding the process the Army went through before it entered that decade, and can help us understand how the Army changed during the war.

“History shows that the bill payers of failed policy and short-sighted national security planning are the military forces of the nation.”

— Rear Admiral Phillip R. Olson, speaking to a conference on low intensity conflict

From author, Rick Waddell.

Click here for more details on the book.

Available Now

Leaders aren’t born they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal. 

—Vince Lombardi

As Generation X managers and executives are now tasked with running companies, there is a fundamental and critical component of business that they cannot push off or delegate and expect that someone else will have it covered—LEADERSHIP.  And at its core, leadership is about one thing and one thing only—connecting with people.

In corporate America, executives often forget that their objective is not only to manage the company processes, or to supervise the production of widgets or services.  Equally important (if not more so), they must lead, hire and retain the people all organizations need to become or remain a successful enterprise.

Another challenge for emerging Generation X leaders is to do more with less, which often means developing a more productive workforce. Complicating this is that as leaders they must direct and inspire people that have different generational values. A successful 21st century leader must be able to guide not only their Generation X peers but also the newly emerging Generation Y employees through difficult business challenges. All while mitigating the loss of the technical knowledge and skills of the retiring Baby Boomer workforce. To do this, they must have the leadership ability to align their generational peers, inspire Generation Y and set a clear direction, to maintain productivity, and motivate and influence a workforce that has fewer skills but more expectations.

Years ago, there was a study done in the world of education that looked at teacher perceptions and student performance.  At a high level, the report showed a strong correlation between perception and performance. When teachers believed their students would perform and the students themselves believed in that perception—even the lower performing students tended to meet the higher expectations.

So, what does this have to do with leadership?

It’s about perceptions and performance.

Imagine if we believed in our employees to do exceptional work. Imagine if we stopped hearing about the talent shortage and stopped saying how unprepared the next generation is to work in this environment. Imagine if we actually believed that they could live up to the hype. If we tamped down the anxiety about not being prepared for the next phase of business we may actually see a world where people step up and outperform our expectations. That is what good leaders accomplish—they unlock the potential of the people they lead.

This book gives you twenty specific keys to help you become the type of leader that your company or organization needs today and in the future. Keys that will help perception and performance merge for you into the reality of successful leadership.

The full truth about the world’s first DEFENDER DOLPHINS has never been told — until now!

Meet Garth, John, Slan, Tinker and Toad, Project Short Time’s highly trained defender dolphins who protected a key ammunition pier in Vietnam — and laid a foundation for modern-day partnerships with dolphins, many of them their descendants.

Learn how the author — the Navy’s First Marine Mammal Officer — as well as all the scientists, engineers, military leaders, and trainers built the Navy’s SECRET Marine Mammal Program literally from scratch, added to scientific knowledge, and successfully saved lives and high value resources during the Vietnam War.

Included inside are:

• Never-before-seen historic photographs.

• A timeline of events, a map, and a glossary.

• Behind-the-scenes human-interest stories.

• Profiles of key personnel.

• A look at the defender dolphins and other key marine mammals.

• A where-are-they-now summary.

• A refutation of common misconceptions and distortions about military dolphins.

“Detailed and fascinating account of a clandestine effort undertaken decades ago during the Vietnam war...”

— James Zumwalt, Lieutenant Colonel, USMC (ret.), son of Admiral Elmo R. (Bud) Zumwalt Jr., the Chief of Naval Operations who ordered the deployment of Project Short Time

“Of great interest to readers…”

— Ricou Browning, author/creator of the popular 1960s movie and television franchise Flipper

“Hal Goforth’s remarkable story details for the first time the partnership forged between man and dolphins...”

— Terrie M. Williams., Ph.D., Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz

DEFENDER DOLPHINS: The Story of Project Short Time is the never-before-told eyewitness account of a unique and daring SECRET project during the Vietnam War involving the first-ever military use of dolphins.

Even though the facts contained in DEFENDER DOLPHINS were declassified in 1992, no one has attempted to document the amazing project — until now. Myths and lies have filled the void, calling into question the integrity of the program that saved lives in Vietnam, added to scientific knowledge, and laid a foundation for modern-day partnerships with trained dolphins, many of them descendants of the original defender dolphins. Ten years in the making, DEFENDER DOLPHINS corrects the misconceptions by spelling out the true story.

DEFENDER DOLPHINS begins with the early days of nascent marine mammal research at California’s Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake and Point Mugu Naval Missile Center, and follows the “Secret Fish People” at the Naval Undersea Center Hawaii Lab, to deployment of the Swimmer Defense System at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. Behind-the-scenes stories bring to life the men and women who sacrificed to make Project Short Time a success. The book also effectively refutes many of the rumors, distortions, and misinformation still floating around about military use of dolphins.

DEFENDER DOLPHINS highlights the vision, ingenuity, persistence, and personal sacrifice of the pioneers who braved low budgets, brutal deadlines, and bureaucratic snafus to achieve something new and great with Garth, John, Slan, Tinker and Toad — the defender dolphins.

Booksellers or organizations interested in placing wholesale orders can contact us to request details and information.

Distributor: Ingram

Page count: 252

Hardback (with dust-jacket): ISBN 978-1-937592-30-1 Retail: $ 23.95

Trade Paperback: ISBN 978-1-937592-31-8 Retail: $13.95

The full truth about the world’s first DEFENDER DOLPHINS has never been told — until now!

Meet Garth, John, Slan, Tinker and Toad, Project Short Time’s highly trained defender dolphins who protected a key ammunition pier in Vietnam — and laid a foundation for modern-day partnerships with dolphins, many of them their descendants.

Learn how the author — the Navy’s First Marine Mammal Officer — as well as all the scientists, engineers, military leaders, and trainers built the Navy’s SECRET Marine Mammal Program literally from scratch, added to scientific knowledge, and successfully saved lives and high value resources during the Vietnam War.

Included inside are:

• Never-before-seen historic photographs.

• A timeline of events, a map, and a glossary.

• Behind-the-scenes human-interest stories.

• Profiles of key personnel.

• A look at the defender dolphins and other key marine mammals.

• A where-are-they-now summary.

• A refutation of common misconceptions and distortions about military dolphins.

“Detailed and fascinating account of a clandestine effort undertaken decades ago during the Vietnam war...”

— James Zumwalt, Lieutenant Colonel, USMC (ret.), son of Admiral Elmo R. (Bud) Zumwalt Jr., the Chief of Naval Operations who ordered the deployment of Project Short Time

“Of great interest to readers…”

— Ricou Browning, author/creator of the popular 1960s movie and television franchise Flipper

“Hal Goforth’s remarkable story details for the first time the partnership forged between man and dolphins...”

— Terrie M. Williams., Ph.D., Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz

DEFENDER DOLPHINS: The Story of Project Short Time is the never-before-told eyewitness account of a unique and daring SECRET project during the Vietnam War involving the first-ever military use of dolphins.

Even though the facts contained in DEFENDER DOLPHINS were declassified in 1992, no one has attempted to document the amazing project — until now. Myths and lies have filled the void, calling into question the integrity of the program that saved lives in Vietnam, added to scientific knowledge, and laid a foundation for modern-day partnerships with trained dolphins, many of them descendants of the original defender dolphins. Ten years in the making, DEFENDER DOLPHINS corrects the misconceptions by spelling out the true story.

DEFENDER DOLPHINS begins with the early days of nascent marine mammal research at California’s Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake and Point Mugu Naval Missile Center, and follows the “Secret Fish People” at the Naval Undersea Center Hawaii Lab, to deployment of the Swimmer Defense System at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. Behind-the-scenes stories bring to life the men and women who sacrificed to make Project Short Time a success. The book also effectively refutes many of the rumors, distortions, and misinformation still floating around about military use of dolphins.

DEFENDER DOLPHINS highlights the vision, ingenuity, persistence, and personal sacrifice of the pioneers who braved low budgets, brutal deadlines, and bureaucratic snafus to achieve something new and great with Garth, John, Slan, Tinker and Toad — the defender dolphins.

Release date: 12/12/2012 (under our Fortis nonfiction imprint)

AVAILABLE NOW from James G. Zumwalt:

And so the clock ticks closer….

This book seeks to give the reader a comprehensive understanding of the Iranian leadership’s mindset as it has played out and continues to play out on a wide range of issues—how it worked to implement Islamist doctrine into Iran’s constitution; how it worked to use the US Iranian hostage crisis as means of unifying domestic opposition behind the theocracy; how it could have ended in two years an Iran-Iraq war that took eight; how it was willing to sacrifice its greatest treasure in an effort to defeat Saddam’s army; how it thrives on hypocrisy and its people’s willingness to accept it; how it seeks to stamp out the country’s true Persian identity; how it utilizes the extra-territoriality mandate of its constitution to justify terrorist attacks anywhere in the world; and, most importantly, what its plans for Iran’s future means for America’s.

It is an outstanding read for anyone trying to understand what makes Iranian leaders like Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tick. The book is peppered with fascinating details and accounts that help simplify the driving motivations behind a complex mindset committed to achieving a goal it so believes it has been ordained to achieve.

Armed with such an understanding, the reader cannot help but realize Iran’s leadership has set into motion its own Doomsday Clock–one fast approaching midnight!

About the Doomsday Clock

Sixty-five years ago, a universally recognized means for assessing global vulnerability to self-destruction based on man’s development of weapons of mass destruction was established.

As of 2007, that vulnerability assessment began to include man-made catastrophes related to climate change and emerging technologies.

Dubbed the “Doomsday Clock,” it is monitored by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) in Washington, D.C. When these scientists determine man’s actions or inaction are allowing such vulnerabilities to significantly increase the danger to mankind, the minute hand of the clock is moved closer to midnight—with the number of ticks reflected by the seriousness of the danger. Alternatively, a movement of the hand farther away symbolizes a reduced likelihood such an event will occur.

Over these past six and a half decades, the minute hand has covered a fifteen minute spread, springing precariously close to midnight before easing back. The decision on any adjustment is made by the organization’s Board of Directors, after consultation with their Board of Sponsors—a group that includes 18 Nobel Laureates.

Adjustments to the Clock are not made annually but on an as-needed basis. When an adjustment is required—which has occurred twenty times during the Clock’s existence—normally it is made in the month of January. In 2007, the Clock was moved forward two minutes from its 2002 position, to five minutes before midnight; in 2010, it was moved backward to six minutes; and, most recently, in January 2012, an adjustment was made moving it forward again to the 2007 five-minute-before-midnight mark.

In 2012, when the Doomsday Clock’s hand moved one minute closer to midnight, it was attributed to three developments: (1) The narrowly avoided disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant triggered by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami; (2) the transition of power and control of North Korea’s nuclear weapons to another generation of the Kim dynasty; and (3) Iran’s designs on developing nuclear weapons.

It is the third development that is most worrisome as a theocracy, which has proven itself to be ruthless and brutal, in Tehran communicates to the civilized world exactly what violent intentions it has for the future—all while refusing to come clean on whether those intentions include a nuclear weapons capability.

Available Now as paperback, hardback and ebook.

From the author, Dr. Demetrius S. Carolina

There are two important points to make about human beings:

1. We all have an expiration date. No one knows how long they have on this Earth. What we do with the time we do have is what matters.
2. There is a difference between existing and living.

 A couple of critical things to give some thought to. Wouldn’t you agree?

 Think, also, about this.

 Who, ultimately, is responsible for your life?

 You—of course!

 And “You” are the biggest commitment you’ll ever make in life.

For the rest of your life to “work well”… and for you to be able to help others… you have to focus on yourself first. But, in order to do that, we all need help and guidance along the way.

And that is the purpose of this book… to offer practical guidance on how to get from where you are to where you want to be in your spiritual life—and we all know that what is in our heads and hearts can be manifested in the real world.

What you will take away from this book is how the things you control are the key in creating a life worth living and having a relationship with yourself and others that is fulfilling and sustainable… one that can last… forever.

I have served others as a counselor, pastor, teacher, leader and friend for many years. In that time I have seen good people, who were well intentioned, go through life—just getting by—existing rather than truly living it to the fullest. There are many reasons for this situation; the most prominent being that human beings are creatures of habit. We are most comfortable with what we are most familiar.

Left on our own, it’s often very hard to make changes to improve our lot in life. In fact, for many it’s hard to even pinpoint what’s really wrong without some sort of outside stimulus—some prod—that goads us to evaluate or assess ourselves. And while everybody is responsible for their own lives; it certainly helps to have something or someone that becomes a catalyst to break through your life routine and be the “kick in the pants” needed to take action.

Life is short and too often many have a voice inside that says, “I wish I had…,” or “If I only…,” or worse it’s whispering to you, “You’re just not good enough… not smart enough….” The voice in and of itself is not a terrible thing. I believe all humans have heard it inside their head at some point. The tragedy is when that voice becomes a constant—never ending—drumbeat in your head that becomes a question you can’t answer or a statement that you can’t refute. It becomes something you believe about yourself that is only true if you let it become true.

I just shared with you something that is worth an incalculable amount of money if you take it to heart. Things, bad and good, become true only if you let them or make them come true.

In this book we’ll talk about letting light come into your life and creating a life worth living.

From Dennis Lowery |

I’m proud to tell you a little bit about a new book we’re publishing (coming in July) from Greg Slavonic, author of Leadership In Action:

“Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”

- Harry S. Truman

Leadership is a word heard in the news every day.

It has received more emphasis in the past four years than ever before due to what some would say a failure of leadership by many in positions of authority within our government and corporate America.

The need for leadership has perhaps never been more important than it is today.

Leaders who come from a military career or have previously served in the military have a perspective on how to lead and how to be effective. In the military, when a person is given the responsibility to lead, he or she does exactly that – they lead.

Those serving under them can trust and believe in what they say. Their word is their bond.

Today we need such honesty… we need such faith and trust… more importantly we need our leaders to do the job required of them.

That’s what this book is about.

Available for Order Now!

Hardback – Paperback – Ebook

When we entered Afghanistan airspace, the mountainous terrain full of snow reminded me of when I flew over them as an air force pilot.

Where I live in the United States, I am close to a mountain range where it snows during the winter, but these mountains, of my native land, are very different. Seeing them took me back to another time in my life. It reminded me of the people who live around these mountains in the most primitive way of life with roots so deep and structured by tradition that they are perversely proud that the most powerful nation of the world, the United States, has difficulty understanding why they behave the way they do.

We landed at Kabul International Airport. Things looked very different from what I remembered from forty years before. It did not look like the same country I left so long ago. Everything was filthy and broken. My wife, Fahima, and I couldn’t hold back our tears. Through them we saw our country, which besides being primitive, was now ruined. The innocence of the country that I knew was gone. When we got out of the airplane, my cousin Mary (Mauree jan Ashraf) was waiting for us with a car. She warned me not to hug and hold her like we used to. Unlike the way she dressed while in the west, she was now covered from head to toe. The road to Kabul was totally different; many traffic circles and shack-like stores all around the street. Most buildings had barbed wire surrounding them for safety. One traffic circle named after the Soviet war hero Ahmad Shah Massoud (according to what I heard) was the most dangerous where suicide bombers (a tactic from Iraq) got close to a car they suspected was carrying foreigners, then blew up themselves and the cars around them. Check points by coalition and Afghan security forces were all around us. We headed toward the house where my cousin lived, which was next to the palace. I remembered the palace and the streets around it but I couldn’t tell where I was. Most of the roads were barricaded and unrecognizable, barbed wire and guards were everywhere. To my disappointment I couldn’t find my own home—where I was raised as a boy. The roads were blocked and when we got out of the car there were beautiful kids begging everywhere. As we passed by every corner, the flashback of my youth, my friends, our playgrounds; nothing matched—nothing I saw was the same.

Fahima, and I cried for days for what was lost.

I think it was at that point, even if only subconsciously at the time, when I knew I must write this story. It’s largely about me and my family; where we came from, some of our past and present—and some about the future. Throughout it you’ll find a message of faith and belief in one’s self and in following your heart. And it’s about doorways that we step through in life. It’s been said, “When one door closes, another one opens.” I believe this to be true—it has been so for me personally.

It is sad that for Afghanistan those doors continue to lead to tenuous structures often without walls and ceilings; no roof, no stability. Just an opening that exposes its people to any number of outside influences and interference. To understand more of how and why that is so, in this story, I’ve included some of Afghanistan’s past, present and thoughts on its future as well. I hope that you will sit for a while, read my story and even listen to the words and what they share with you. For the reader I promise that there are things you will glean from the reading and that you will learn about Afghanistan you did not know before.

From Dennis Lowery

My friend and colleague, James G. Zumwalt’s book on the Vietnam war is a remarkable work. It touches on a perspective that has not been shared before. Watch this PBS Newshour interview with Jim to discuss “Bare Feet, Iron Will ~ Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefields“. I was fortunate to be there for the interview, behind one of the cameramen. The only non-PBS person other than Jim, for this taping at the PBS studio in Washington DC. I’m very proud to have helped Jim publish this book.