FEATURED GUESTS

Wade Ishimoto is a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Joint Special Operations University. He retired as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy as a Highly Qualified Expert in 2012, and was previously the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict from 2004 to 2007. He is a retired Army Special Forces officer who served multiple tours in Vietnam and a charter member of the Delta Force and its Intelligence Officer. He led a road block team on the 1980 attempt to rescue 53 American hostages in Iran. His accomplishments include:

Mitch is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel embarking on a post-Army career as a war and crisis correspondent. He just completed a M.A. in journalism thanks to the GI Bill at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Mitch researched his graduate thesis in Mosul, Iraq — where he was embedded with elite Iraqi forces clearing the city from Islamic State occupation. Mitch traveled alone and joined the same Iraqi officers he advised while in uniform during the military surge of 2007 and 2008.

He has deployed three times to Afghanistan and once to Iraq, and has served behind the Berlin Wall and along the U.S. border with Mexico. Mitch also holds a M.S. in homeland security from San Diego State University, and is a military analyst for local and national television news networks.

Major Doug Taylor had an extraordinary 26-year career associated with special operations forces elements. Globally oriented, Doug had 16 combat deployments in at least eight separate countries including Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Columbia, Yemen, Libya and Lebanon. In addition, he spent three years working with the Israeli Defense Forces targeting Al Qaeda in the Levant.

He enlisted in 1985 and completed Infantry training followed by the arduous Ranger Indoctrination Program which led to his assignment in A Company, 3/75th Rangers during which time he participated in Operation Just Cause (code-named Operation Blue Spoon). During the invasion of Panama (Just Cause) he served with the elite Regimental Reconnaissance Detachment (RRD). Rising quickly through the ranks, in 1999 as an SFC (E-7) he attended OCS and was promoted to MSG (E8) while in the course. As the honor graduate, he also became a recipient of the prestigious Patterson Award which goes to only one OCS graduate per year.

Once commissioned by he was reassigned to B Company 2/75th Rangers and participated in Operation Enduring Freedom the Global War on Terror effort for the liberation of Afghanistan. Doug then went through the Special Forces Assessment and Selection followed the Special Forces Qualification Course leading to assignment 1st Bn, 3rd SFGA where he engaged in both Desert Shield and Desert Storm (now better known as the 1st Gulf War). Next came his selection and training for to join the elite Combat Applications Group (A) (CAG (A)), popularly known as Delta Force or more correctly (1st SFOD) Delta. There he served several assignments with both B and C Squadrons. Operation Iraqi Freedom saw him as a Troop Commander in C Squadron. Doug’s innovative exploits in Iraq were recognized in Sean Naylor’s book, Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command generally known simply as JSOC.

During his Israeli assignment be became detached and then served with the CIA as a deputy group chief in CTMC (Counter Terrorism Mission Center) a position he then retired from. In addition to his Legion on Merit, he was awarded five Bronze Stars including two for valor. He has the Combat Infantry Badge with two stars and both Master Parachute and Master HALO wings plus Ranger and Special Forces tabs. In 2011 he retired as a major.

Current, Doug Taylor is the Vice President of Ncyber, a mobile data company headquartered in Columbia, MD. Ncyber is a collective of highly technical professionals that form an elite cross-functional cyber security team.

Born Jan. 19, 1946, John Stryker Meyer entered the Army Dec. 1, 1966, completed basic training at Ft. Dix, N.J., advanced infantry training at Ft. Gordon, Ga., jump school at Ft. Benning, Ga., and graduated from the Special Forces Qualification Course in Dec. 1967. He arrived at FOB 1 Phu Bai in May 1968, where he joined Spike Team Idaho, which transferred to Command & Control North, CCN in Da Nang, January 1969. In October 1969 he rejoined RT Idaho at CCN. That tour of duty ended suddenly in April 1970. Today he is a program director at the Veterans Affordable Housing Program, based in Orange, CA and joined the SOFREP team of correspondents in March 2015. He has written two non-fiction books on SOG secret wars: Across The Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam - Expanded Edition, and Co-Authored On The Ground: The Secret War in Vietnam with John E. Peters, a member of RT Rhode Island. Meyer's website is: www.sogchronicles.com.