Special Veterans Themed Show in honor of PFC Sean Adams

9:15  Rolf Margenau was one of more than 300,000 young Americans shipped to halfway across the world nearly six decades ago to serve in the Korean War. Later this year, Margenau will join some of his old Army buddies in a trip back to South Korea as part of the Korea Revisit Program.

As part of the program, the South Korean government offers returning U.S. soldiers complimentary accommodations, transportation, meals and discounted airfare for these five or six day trips. Margenau can share with our listeners his perspectives about:

• his participation in the Korea Revisit program
• getting reconnected with those who served with him in Korea
• the misunderstandings and lack of knowledge the American public has about this conflict
• the similarities between the Korean and Afghanistan Wars

Margenau recently released a historical novel -- Public Information -- based on his service as a public information officer/Stars & Stripes correspondent in Korea. 

Rolf Margenau resides in rural New Jersey with his “long-suffering” wife of more than 55 years. Upon returning from Korea in 1955, Margenau earned an English honors degree and a J.D. – both from Yale. His professional background included work as an international attorney, businessman and professional photographer. He is currently enjoying his position as a retired curmudgeon.

 He also has some thoughts on the parallels between Korea and Afghanistan. 

 9:30   Ms. Charlene Rusnak Call in from Afghanistan  on Gender Integration 

Ms Rusnak is from Gibsonia, Pennsylvania a small town in the north hills of Pittsburgh. She received a Bachelor of Science in Ceramic Science and Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1986, a diploma in Theology from the University of the South Sewanee for completion of a four year Education for Ministry program in 2006 and a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College in 2010.

 After graduation from Penn State, Ms Rusnak pursued her goal of “doing something cool in Southern California” by working on advanced design, development, and flight certification of liquid propulsion rocket engines. During her tenure at Rocketdyne, she successfully advocated for the use of ceramic composites components in an industry dominated by metal superalloys receiving awards including NASA’s Team Excellence Award for “significant accomplishments in the advancement of rocket propulsion technology”.

 In 2000, Ms Rusnak wanted a career closer to her East Coast family that she felt was more “meaningful”. Ms Rusnak again found herself acting as a change agent, championing non-lethal weapons (NLWs) in the very lethal US military as the first full time NLW Requirements Officer on the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Staff at the Pentagon. She was a key member of CNOs Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection (AT/FP) Task Forces in response to USS COLE incident and later after 9-11 terrorist attacks. On her watch, NLWs were incorporated into key Navy policies and doctrine and integrated into programs ranging from small arms to platform weapons and included concept exploration programs to fielded systems.  

 In 2003, Ms Rusnak began working at the Naval Research Laboratory where she capitalized on her experience with Directed Energy (DE) NLWs guiding the development within Navy, DOD, across other Governmental Agencies, industry, and academia on femtosecond laser work. With her force protection background, she chaired DODs Joint IED Defeat Task Force (later JIEDDO) Directed Energy Working Group developing and fielding counter IED capabilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ms Rusnak was selected as the US representative on various international DE and Force Protection Committees and Workshops.

 In 2005, Ms Rusnak competed for the prestigious Office of Naval Research Science Advisor Program where she was selected as the Naval Science Advisor to the US Joint Forces Commander/NATO Allied Command Transformation Commander (JFCOM/ACT) until 2007 and then as the Science Advisor to the US Fleet Forces Commander until 2010. In the Science Advisor positions, Ms Rusnak was again responsible for matching warfighter requirements and technological capabilities. At JFCOM/ACT she worked across the international community to include militaries and non-governmental organizations. At Fleet Forces Command she was the lead Science Advisor for the Navy working with her counterparts across the US Fleet prioritizing $3B in Navy Research and Development (R&D) funding and influencing the greater DOD R&D budget.

 Upon completion of her Naval War College degree in 2010, Ms Rusnak determined she wanted to use her advocacy capabilities in support of something she was “passionate” about - the role of women in peace and security. With 25 years of work experience, she was willing to go to whatever location would best support her efforts.  Although she had never deployed before, she applied for the Senior Advisor, Gender Integration Human Rights position with the Ministry of Defense Advisor (MODA) program. In March of 2011 she arrived at NATO Training Mission Afghanistan supporting the integration of women into the Afghan National Army (ANA). Ms Rusnak is honored to work with a team of Coalition personnel and members of the Afghan Ministry of Defense in the development of overarching policies and processes for recruiting, training and assigning women in the ANA.

 Ms Rusnak is a cradle Episcopalian and actively participates in her church when in the States.  She competes in sprint triathlons and hopes to use the remainder of her tour more wisely to capitalize on training at altitude.

  10:06 Lee Ellis, Vietnam POW on Leading With Honor, one of our own, from Commerce, Georgia.  Join us for an extended interview with Lee. 

 Leadingwithhonor.com

 11 AM hour-- open phones on the Georgia Legislature.