S2E9 Randy Papadopoulos - US Navy Staff

08/02/22 • 89 min

Since June 2021, Dr. Sarandis (Randy) Papadopoulos is a Senior Strategy Analyst with the US Navy Staff. He previously served as the Secretariat Historian in the Department of the Navy since 2010 and was a historian with the Navy Heritage Command from 2000-2010. Randy is also an experienced teacher, having taught courses on a range of military history and international relations topics at George Washington University and the University of Maryland at College Park. He received his BA in History from the University of Toronto before earning an MA in Military and Naval History from the University of Alabama. Randy then received his PhD from George Washington University, working with Ronald Spector.

Randy is principal co-author with Alfred Goldberg, et al, of Pentagon 9/11 (Washington: USGPO, 2007), which is a must-read for anyone interested in the Sept. 11 attacks. Most recently, he co-edited Conceptualizing Maritime and Naval Strategy: Festschrift for Captain Peter M. Swartz, United States Navy (ret.) (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2020). He has also authored more than a dozen articles and essays on naval power and submarine warfare. Randy’s dedication to the discipline of military history is unsurpassed. He has served as Vice President & Trustee of the Society for Military History, and currently serves as the Society for Military History’s delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies. The Society for Military recognized Randy’s service to the organization in 2022 by awarding him the Edwin H. Simmons Award for service to the Society for Military History. He has also received the Department of the Navy Award for Distinguished and Superior Civilian Service, and the Navy Civilian Service Achievement Medal. Randy is also active in the US Commission on Military History and has held the offices of vice-president and president of that organization.

Randy has been the long-time organizer of the Military Classics Seminar in the DC area, which often meets at Ft. Myers. If you attend the Society for Military History annual conference, you'll see Randy, often!

So tune in - Randy has the inside take on official military history, "For All Mankind," and techno-pop, and shares his Greek-Canadian-US background, and learning German the hard way. Check it out!

Rec.: 07/20/2022

So tune in - Randy has the inside take on official military history, "For All Mankind," and techno-pop, and shares his Greek-Canadian-US background, and learning German the hard way. Check it out!

Rec.: 07/20/2022

Previous Episode

S2E8 JP Clark - US Army War College

As listed on his own webpage, Colonel JP Clark is “an army officer and historian.” He is a new instructor in the Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations, at the US Army War College in Carlisle, PA, where he also served as Director of National Security Affairs at the Strategic Studies Institute in 2018-2019. Prior to serving at the War College, Colonel Clark did two stints as a uniformed instructor in the Department of History at the US Military Academy at West Point. He completed a BS in Russian-German Language with a concentration in Systems Engineering. He later earned an MA and PhD in history from Duke University and also has a master's degree in Strategic Studies from the US Army War College.

JP started his military career as an armor officer and served in northern Iraq, but shifted to the Strategist MOS, in which he has severd for several years. Among other appointments, he did stints in the Immediate Office of the Secretary of the Army and the Army Transition Team for the Chief of Staff-designate, and was an exchange officer with the Initiatives Group of the British Army’s Chief of the General Staff. JP is the author of Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917 (Harvard University Press, 2017) and Striking the Balance: U.S. Army Force Posture in Europe, 2028 (Strategic Studies Institute, 2020), which he co-wrote with C. Anthony Pfaff. JP has also authored numerous articles and essays in such publications as Parameters, Military Review, War Room, The Strategy Bridge, British Army Review, The Three Swords, War on the Rocks, Strategos, and Armor, and is a podcaster himself with the Army War College's excellent pod War Room.

JP is an experienced researcher, military educator, and soldier, and we’re going to try to get to all of it. And in case you are wondering - yep, Fury and Kelly's Heroes are go-to-war film choices! He's even bringing the kids up on Blackadder AND Monty Python. Enjoy our chat with JP Clark!

Rec.: 07/18/2022

Next Episode

S2E10 Reina Pennington - Norwich University

Today's guest is Dr. Reina Pennington, who is joining us from her amazing place in Vermont with her German Shepard Gunner. Reina recently retired from Norwich University in Vermont, where she was a Charles A. Dana Professor of History and the Director of the Studies in War and Peace Program. After completing her BA in Soviet Area Studies at the University of Louisville, Reina began a career as an Air Force intelligence officer, serving as a Soviet analyst with F-4 and F-16 fighter squadrons, the Aggressor Squadrons at the USAF Fighter Weapons School, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Alaskan Air Command. Following her service with the Air Force, Reina earned an MA and PhD in History from the University of South Carolina. After a one-year stint at UNC Wilmington, she joined the faculty at Norwich in 1999.

Reina is the editor of Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women (Greenwood Press) and the author of Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat (University Press of Kansas). She has also published numerous essays in edited volumes, and her articles have appeared in, among others, the Journal of Military History and the Journal of Slavic Military Studies. Reina is an award-winning teacher, and her service to the profession is extensive. She sits on the editorial boards of the University of Nebraska Press’ Studies in War, Society, and the Military series and the Journal of Slavic Military Studies. She is a former trustee of the Society for Military History and former chair of the Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee.

Like many of us, Reina sort of fell into history. She's got an interesting story, has a good source of brisket near her 20 acres in Vermont, and has the coolest Peter Løvig Nielsen-designed Danish teak mid-century modern desk in her study (Bill is experiencing envy). So join us for our chat with Reina Pennington!

Rec.: 08/10/2022