Picture of postcards received in 2024
Pretty amazing haul in the #2024GPW . My thanks to all still participating in this amazing way to keep connected in a busy world. Special thanks to @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social for continuing efforts to ‘manage’ the whole thing through the shift in primary comms. Looking forward to 2025’s adventures.
5. Dreaming Eagles by Garth Ennis and crew. I know it is a graphic novel but damn this is a good take on generations moving things forward. And it is about killing Nazis and the Red Tails.
4. Paddy Mayne by Hamish Ross. For those who loved Rogue Heroes, this is a completely different (and more accurate) view of LTCOL Paddy. Less animal and far more hard man and cerebral leader.
3. How to Win an Information War by Peter Pomerantsev. Must read for anyone in my field. A book about Sefton Delmer instead of one by him. And just as awesome.
2. Total Cold War by Kenneth Osgood. Recently there has been a lot of love for the “Long Telegram” written by George Kennan in 1946. Osgood’s book focuses on implementing policy and process as result of Kennan’s signal flare. The PSB under Ike is worth real study for today.
1. By All Means Necessary by Mike Vickers.
An inspiring account of a legend in his field. Key takeaway — ‘When a leader of a totalitarian state tells you what they are going to do, believe them.’ Policy types struggle with this book because his career was about acheiving solutions. Quickly.
Image of book covers
I hit and exceeded the mark in the annual reading challenge this year despite much less public transport commuting 😔
Kept my espionage bent from the past couple of years going but am increasingly focused back on the job at hand.
My top 5 reads for for 2024 follow
Them: So what were you doing this year?
Me: oh, you know, conducting a capability review in record time, writing an integrating concept in record time, being told my work was devaluing the profession of arms …
Them: Really? Prove it.
Spotify:
Finally back at the FB and have some impacts to report in #2024GPW . Many thanks to
@fff182.bsky.social @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social
@cagridlock.bsky.social @doctrinatrix.bsky.social @zachota.bsky.social @djshackson.bsky.social
Been a bit slack on the battlefield clearance in the #2024GreatPostcardWar . Impacts from @mojo-jojo.bsky.social @rgrimmturner.bsky.social and @doctrinatrix.bsky.social finally plotted. Thanks team!
As long as you kept the shoe rack plans …
Was not allowed close enough … :)
Go abroad for a couple of weeks and my patrol base gets hammered during my absence. Impacts from @fff182.bsky.social X 3 and @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social in the #2024GreatPostcardWar . Thanks team.
More impacts in the #2024GreatPostcardWar during the week. Thanks to @rgrimmturner.bsky.social @marcwjason.bsky.social and space-faring Greg K
@tyrellmayfield.bsky.social
Have been travelling so am behind in my #GPW2024 ShotReps. Many thanks to @rgrimmturner.bsky.social @doctrinatrix.bsky.social @krisjand.bsky.social @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social @fff182.bsky.social and my MiL with a random shot from Budapest :)
That Malvern Star 3-speed was the envy of every kid in the neighbourhood in its day. Faded into obscurity with the rise of the BMX in the early 80s. I blame Nicole Kidman and the release of BMX Bandits in 1983
More incoming in the 2024 Great Postcard War. @fff182.bsky.social making me feel old with SLR’s and bayonets, @rgrimmturner.bsky.social seeing the world, @doctrinatrix.bsky.social confirming we have very similar tastes in art!
Thanks all!
Tom Tomorrow rocks
New impacts in the 2024 Great Postcard War. Thanks @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social and @nathankfinney.com X2. Counterbattery on the way!
Consolidated impacts in the 2024 Great Postcard War over the past couple of weeks. Many thanks to @rgrimmturner.bsky.social X2 @marcwjason.bsky.social @krisjand.bsky.social @doctrinatrix.bsky.social @fff182.bsky.social
Love seeing what y’all are up to.
@tyrellmayfield.bsky.social
4 postcards delivered this week
Big week of impacts in the 2024 Great Postcard War. Many thanks to @rgrimmturner.bsky.social , @doctrinatrix.bsky.social and @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social for giving me a little peek into your exciting lives!
A collection of postcards sent from colleagues in the 2024 Great Postcard War.
Get back from visiting the fam and find y’all have kept the postie busy in the 2024 Great Postcard War. Thanks @fff182.bsky.social X2, Max, @cagridlock.bsky.social X2, and Dave.
🚨 Coming up: CFP deadline for our #ICA24 postconference P³: Power, Propaganda, Polarisation, at the @qutdmrc.bsky.social in Brisbane, Australia, on 26/27 June 2024.
Organisers: Axel Bruns, @anjabechmann.bsky.social, Jessica Walter, @dkreiss.bsky.social
Submit abstracts at bit.ly/p3postconf by 1 Feb.
I know it will change but it has serious Fortitude (set in Alaska) vibes. In Ep 1.
youtu.be/egy3n-7DQAU?...
So are we all talking about Ep1 of the new True Detective (S4) yet?
Because … I have thoughts.
It has only taken half a century but have decided that I found the very best way to ring in the new year. Couple of bottles of Shiraz, @shayl72.bsky.social beside me and binge-watching the complete latest season of Slow Horses.
And for 5 it was back to fiction. @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social put me onto this ‘classic’ of counterinsurgency. The Centurions is as important for what the characters learnt during combat as it is for understanding how quickly those lessons become deeply uncomfortable truths when it is over.
Number 4 headed back into history. I saw John Lisle’s “Dirty Tricks Department” advertised on an OSS group and knew I had to get it. It didn’t disappoint. Highlighted the importance of failing fast in development and also holding onto some Crown Jewels.
Number 3 was a change of pace. The first novel in a series by new author David McCloskey. Damascus Station focuses on the craft of espionage rather than the thrill of covert action. Book 2 is just as good and I understand a third in the series will be published in 2024.