Archive for category Building Snowmobiles

Building Snowmobiles: The Bounty Hunter Mobile Application

Dec 31

Posted by Matt in Building Snowmobiles, Law Enforcement, PMC 2.0, Technology | 4 Comments

5bountyBuilding Snowmobiles: The Bounty Hunter Mobile Application

   This is a basic one, but I think extremely intriguing.  The idea behind this post, is that I am hoping that some programmer or entrepreneur will take this idea and run with it. Meanwhile, my ultimate goal of wanting to see an increase of criminals and terrorists being captured would be the best outcome of all, along with people making money off of the concept.

    You can thank me later, if someone does take the ball and runs with it. Or maybe some whiz kid has already produced something like this? Nothing has come up on my PMC 2.0 radar that would indicate this, but if you do know of a similar concept, I would like to hear about it.

   So lets get this started.  This concept is really pretty simple.  Everyone owns or will own a smart phone with GPS capability.  That is an inevitability in my opinion, and the trends in mobile phone technology and availability points to this. They will actually be free with service plans, and you are already seeing this with some of the older smart phones.

   If everyone owned a smart phone with this GPS capability, then you could very well introduce a type of bounty hunter mobile application, which would connect folks who are looking for something or someone with the folks that are currently signed on with the BH application as hunters.  And what would really make it a ‘bounty’ hunter tool, is if those individuals looking for whatever, offered a reward.

   The way I see this working, is that you download the program onto your phone for free or for a small fee, and have the option to participate in the program or not, based on your personal preference . Just turn on the button that puts you into hunt mode.  You can either participate as a bounty hunter, or you could be the guy or gal offering the reward.   It could be individuals, police departments, organizations, schools, telecom companies, computer companies, countries, it doesn’t matter.  The application is open to the world, and they can sign up and play, all with intent of connecting folks for a common goal and creating an industry out of it.

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Building Snowmobiles: Using Social Media To Win the Fight

Nov 19

Posted by Matt in Building Snowmobiles, Disaster Response, Technology | No Comments

   It’s been awhile since I posted a good Building Snowmobiles article, and I think I might have stumbled upon something with some meat.  Or at least I hope. So with that said, here it is.  Instead of chastising ‘citizen journalists’, we should instead encourage what good citizen journalism should be, and better yet, encourage the kind of reporting that would help us to win the fight in whatever battle we are fighting at the time.  That battle could be a flood, a fire, a terrorist attack, or even some crazy Black Swan type event. To not take advantage of the human nodes that are closest to those events, is like not taking advantage of the high ground in a battle.

   I will even take this a step further.  The Department of Homeland Security should actually have Incident Command Teams established to work with and manage the information coming in from these nodes.  Citizens with smart phones, who are savvy with Twitter and Facebook, or a personal blog, should be tapped into and we should work with them, as opposed to ignoring or fearing what they have to say.  And if we were proactive, DHS could promote what good reportage is and what they are trying to do in these emergencies. It would take commercials and online marketing to get the word out, but once the online community in the US knows the protocols, I think the impact for future incidents would be amazing.

   This Incident Command Team could be collecting real time information in a sort of social media fusion center, and that team would be sorting through the information using data mining, cloud computing and any other various methods.  The emphasis would be on information engagement, not information control.  Especially if the Incident Command Team had a online presence on Twitter and Facebook, or a Team or Incident website. I have seen websites that IC Teams have put up before for fires, so this is not new.

     There is so much information coming in from these incidents, and with a little help and guidance to all of these citizen journalists walking around on the scene of the incident, we could be getting some life saving information to the first responders. And with the advent of everyone carrying smart phones, with cameras and microphones built into them, along with access to the internet, then the possibilities are endless.  In essence, these citizen journalists should be looked at as walking human sensors or social media warriors, feeding the war room with the kind of information needed to gain the advantage in a quickly evolving fight.  A fight that is taking place in the physical, with wounded and dead, and a fight taking place online where the impact of that carnage is being used to fuel a propaganda campaign.

   The IC Team could be feeding information to law enforcement agencies that are responding.  The medical personnel responding could get a better idea of how many wounded and the kind of injuries, based on these reports.  The local community leaders could have better information to respond to their constituents and media with. Military response could get a better picture of the battlefield. The Team media relations officer could have a more complete info packet to give to the media, and also work with the media to help in the fight. Etc., etc. etc.

    A team like this could also track inappropriate information that only works against the fight, and engage with that individual and communicate what the team needs them to do.  Mrs. Moore (in the article below) could have been given guidance while she was out there.  All she wants to do is help, and a Incident Command Team could have been able to reach her and give her guidance before she did any more damage. Better yet, they could work with her and actually get some usable information out of what she is experiencing.

   This team can also be used to identify social media enemies on the scene.  No doubt, the enemy is reading this stuff and thinking about the possibilities (kind of entering 5th Gen warfare realm now).  They could easily assemble a team to work against this Incident Command team and fuel the fire of dis-information, and a real time information war can take place.  It is a fight over information, and we must be organized and technologically savvy to deal with this real time information assault.  They could have guys running around with camera phones, and posting pictures of the dead and wounded all over the place.  They could film the scene, and post it on youtube with the typical jihadi music and banners.

     The mobile smart phone is something that we must deal with, when it comes to these incidents, and if we are smart, we can create super empowered individuals with similar smart phones to counter these enemies.  Just imagine if Mrs. Moore was working for the other side during this incident?  Just imagine the kind of information she could instantly send out that would help the propaganda campaigns of the enemy? Or if the enemy was fueling a unknowing Mrs. Moore as to the kinds of things she should post.  They could be egging her on, to only help their cause, and she might not even know that she is helping.  That is why we must be prepared and we must be organized to deal with this.

   Finally, to really emphasize how important this is.  Disasters are a natural part of life, and tornados or fires do not Twitter or use Facebook.  But the enemy (criminals, states, terrorists, insane super empowered individuals, etc.) can use Twitter and Facebook, and all other types of social media technologies.  So if the enemy has the same access to these technologies as we do, then how do we get an edge in the fight?  We must be more organized and prepared, and we must apply OODA to the fight. We must also be better learning organizations and apply Kaizen to all aspects of that organization, so that we can continue to stay one step ahead of the enemy(s).  That is the only way in my view, and if we do not, we will definitely lose on the social media battlefield when confronted by a social media empowered enemy, or a citizen journalist that does not know what damage they are inflicting. -Matt

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Bruce Willis252Building Snowmobiles: Using Social Media To Win the Fight

Twitter-@John_McClane, ‘I just shot one of them in the face, ten more to go. I need a cigarette.’

Ft. Hood Soldier Causes Stir on Twitter

During Fort Hood Shooting, Soldier Uses Twitter, Shares Pictures in Real-Time

By KI MAE HEUSSNER

Nov. 11, 2009—

Amid the tragedy last week at Fort Hood, as officials worked to secure the Texas military base, treat the wounded and account for the dead, one soldier turned to Twitter, sending a stream of up-to-the-minute reports from inside a hospital where the injured were being taken for treatment.

Some messages were simple observations, others expletive-laced commentary.

But in the shooting’s aftermath, the soldier, Tearah Moore, 30, has found herself at the center of a sharp debate about the real-time sharing and whether the military should police the use of new media.

As news started to break about the deadly shooting that killed 12 soldiers and wounded 30 others, some users of the micro-blogging site Twitter started to notice the messages from one user in particular.

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Building Snowmobiles: Israeli Niv Calderon, Social Media Warriors, and Cyber Tribes

Oct 14

Posted by Matt in Building Snowmobiles, Israel, PMC 2.0 | 4 Comments

    As you guys know, I am always looking into the future of warfare, and the possible uses of today’s technologies.  No rock is left unturned here, and I love coming back to this stuff.  The theme of this post is that in order to apply these new Web 2.0 tools to warfare and business, we must study how others did it and build a snowmobile out of it.

   Now on to the meat of what I am getting at.  If you are a PMC, or even trying to start a grass roots cyber tribe revolution, then you need to study what Niv Calderon and his gang did during the last Israeli war in Gaza.  They were on the cutting edge of mixing Web 2.0 and their war effort, and the outcomes of that effort should be studied by all who are interested.  I know I am, and articles in the past on FJ, in regards to Web 2.0 and warfare, have been influence by these types of uses.

   Last week I made a comment on Steven Pressfield’s blog about the concept of starting a cyber tribe, to support the various tribes in the war that he thought would be helpful in winning the war in Afghanistan.  I discussed the concept of starting a social networking site that had the similar framework as President Obama’s social networking site, or even American Sniper’s website. The idea is to have sites that tap into the legions of supporters, possible supporters, and diaspora throughout the world, all with the goal of cheering on and supplying a tribe on the ground with what it needs to defeat a shared enemy.

   I would say that this ‘cyber tribe’ concept, is a way for chieftains to expand their immediate tribes, and really call on all of the supporters throughout the world for help and for supplies. It is a way to get the middle man out of the way (aid groups and government), and connect the supporters with the tribe directly.  The cyber tribes would have little donation buttons on the site, give calls of action, allow for personal pages, foster a community, set up encrypted email, and post Youtube videos of ambushing and killing the Taliban, all with the idea of bringing the cyber tribe together with the local tribe on the ground.

   Most of all, if the cyber tribe was able to make some money for the cause (google adsense, ad sales, e-books, donations), then the real tribe could conceivably ask for volunteers and pay them at cost for their services– and all through a cyber tribe system.  Call it a Cyber Tribe Co-op.  lol

    Hell, make it a non-profit so people can donate to the cause and benefit in their taxes (in the US at least). Or not, and this would be the choice of the tribe to decide upon.  I say non-profit, because if NGO’s can call themselves a non-profit, a cyber tribe can call themselves a non-profit too, just as long as the aid given by the cyber tribes is not a profit game, but purely a supply and demand game. (Jake had an awesome post about the non-profit PSC, for further exploration)

   With a Cyber Tribe Co-op, the chieftain could put out to the two tribes (cyber and local) what would be a good use of the money earned on the site? (Just an idea)  With a well structured social networking site and a truly democratic bunch of supporters, the crowd will decide how much they want to give to something like that, or how much they want to throw down for a contracted specialist.

    They could even put it out there for true volunteers.  You know, guys that actually want to go up in the hills and fight with their tribal brothers for free, all because they believe in the cause of their tribe.  I know Soldier of Fortune is filled with stories of guys going out to volunteer their time in war zones, all for the sake of assisting underfunded and undertrained groups.  That and to do a story about it afterwards, so they have material for the magazine.  I even remember SoF sending guys out to assist the Mujahideen during the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan, and there were tons of these types of stories. Cyber tribe reporters could be doing the same thing as SoF did, but for adding content to the cyber tribe’s website, thus increasing the SEO of the site, and then getting more traffic because of it!

   So that is all I have on this one, and I look forward to any replies on this.  I also suggest starting a cyber tribe if you think you can do it, and put some action to an idea out there.  There is no rule that you can only have one cyber tribe per local tribe.  You could have thousands of cyber tribes supporting one tribe.  Or maybe Steven will put something together, because I know he is really stoked on anything to do with tribes.  -Matt

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warroomBuilding Snowmobiles: Israeli Niv Calderon, Social Media Warriors, and Cyber Tribes

Social media warriors at work in the war room for pro-Israel “Stand With Us”

How Social Media War Was Waged in Gaza-Israel Conflict

by Jaron Gilinsky

February 13, 2009

Both sides deployed dangerous new media weapons during this latest round of fighting in Gaza. Armed with Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts, and Lavazza espresso, warriors fearlessly and tirelessly scoured the cyber battlefield searching for enemy (blog) outposts. Outfitted with high-tech ammunition like HD videocameras, firewire 800s, and white phosphorescent keyboards, they attacked one-sided videos, slanted essays, and enemy propaganda with propaganda of their own. Instead of grad rockets, they launched grad school wits. Instead of anti-tank missiles, they battled with anti-spamming technology. In 22 days of combat in Gaza, these were the young fighters tasked with winning the merciless war of public opinion for their side.

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Building Snowmobiles: The Scouting Movement

Sep 22

Posted by Matt in Building Snowmobiles | 4 Comments

On my honor, I will do my best

To do my duty To God and my country

And to obey the Scout Law;

To help other people at all times;

To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. -Scout Oath

*****

Col. John Boyd On Grand Strategy

Evolve and exploit insight/initiative/adaptability/harmony together with a unifying vision, via a grand ideal or an overarching theme or a noble philosophy, as basis to:

         *Shape or influence events so that we not only amplify our spirit and strength but also influence the uncommitted or potential adversaries so that they are drawn toward our philosophy and are empathetic toward our success,

yet be able to

          *Operate inside adversary’s observation-orientation-decision-action loops or get inside his mind-time-space as basis to:

          *Penetrate adversary’s moral-mental-physical being in order to isolate him from his allies, pull him apart, and collapse his will to resist. 

*****

    I am always fascinated by the power of ideas.  Here at FJ, I am always trying to find those ideas, and study how they came about and what makes them so powerful.  One of those ideas I want to talk about today, is the Boy Scouts and the Scouting Movement that was behind the development of the Boy Scouts.

   First off, I am an Eagle Scout and I am very proud of my Scouting background.  If you talk with some guys in the industry and military, you will find that there are quite a few of us Boy Scouts floating around out there. It is interesting to me that the military/police/firefighters/medical/security contracting industries all attract Scouts.  It is equally interesting to find out how Scouting has impacted all these folks in their careers. From the camping and hiking, to the navigation, knots and fieldcraft skills, the Boy Scouts is pretty cool. Not to mention the social connections you make with others, the love and dedication of your country and the respect you garner as a productive member of a community.

   But it goes beyond just being ‘cool’, because during my time at the Scouts, I was also introduced to leadership skills.  Leadership, as you know, is something that I am totally concerned with in this industry, and that is what makes the Scouts relevant to this blog. Not to mention all the land navigation stuff or first aid stuff we did, and I look back on my time with the Boy Scouts as not just cool, but essential life skills for all of my career choices.

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Building Snowmobiles: PMC’s and the Streisand Effect

Aug 8

Posted by Matt in Building Snowmobiles, Kaizen, Leadership | 2 Comments

    I know, I know, this is ridiculous and far to immature to pay attention to….. Or is it?  We see PMC’s continue to try and hide stuff, along with politicians and celebrities and a multitude of other types of organizations and individuals, and that evil internet just keeps facilitating the discovery of wrong doings.  The Streisand Effect (SE) is a prime example of how trying to hide stuff is sometimes not the best idea.

   I wanted to put this together for the readership, to emphasize how important it is to the true Jundi-ist to ‘have the courage to do what is right’ and ‘be the guy that does it right, when no one is looking’.  Especially for the companies out there who claim to have cleaned up their act or try to sweep under the rug any kind of wrong doing.  Pay heed, you will be found out, and it will get all over the net, and especially if you didn’t want it to.

    Companies have to know, that at one point or another, what comes around, goes around.  If you treat an employee bad, or screw over another company, or damage the reputation of a customer, all because of your lack of Kaizen/leadership/customer service and satisfaction, then of course someone is going to tell the world about your crap.  And the way they do it these days, is through the internet. You may want to censor it, but unfortunately for you, the internet usually finds a way.  That is not a threat from myself or anything, that is just the reality of what we are talking about.

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Building Snowmobiles: A UN Army of Conscience and Practicality

Jul 25

Posted by Matt in Building Snowmobiles, Industry Talk | No Comments

   Ok, this is a good one, I promise.  What I have done is to present the point of views of four bloggers/journalists, break down the essence of their posts, and try to find some middle ground with their points of view. Then I will end it with my views about what the UN could do to create an ‘army of conscience and practicality’.

   The first article written by Gideon Rachman describes the necessity of creating a more professional and permanent UN Army.

     “Over the longer term, the growing demand for international peacekeeping forces means that it is time finally to bite the bullet and give the UN a permanent, standing military capacity”

   This is Gideon’s solution for making that happen.

     “All of this points to the need to create a proper UN force on permanent stand-by. Such a force need not be a conventional army, with its own barracks and personnel. It would be better to get countries to give the UN first call on a certain number of their troops, for a specific period of time. National sovereignty could still be respected by allowing countries to opt out of missions, if they inflame national sensitivities.”

   Gideon then mentions that conservatives in America would show horror at the idea of a UN standing army.  This is where he brings in the Reagan quote about the UN.

      “They might be surprised and enlightened to learn that the hero of the conservative movement, Ronald Reagan, once spoke approvingly of the idea of “a standing UN force – an army of conscience – that is fully equipped and prepared to carve out human sanctuaries through force”.

   The second article is by Max Boot and he makes the argument that conservatives on the far right might be a little miffed with a UN standing army, but that is only because the UN has a terrible track record of handling armies. Max does agree with Gideon about creating a more professional UN force, but they both disagree on the how.

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Building Snowmobiles: Franklin ‘Chuck’ Spinney Talks about Afghanistan

Jul 15

Posted by Matt in Afghanistan, Building Snowmobiles | No Comments

   This was an interesting article, because Chuck was analyzing the situation much like Boyd would have.  And of course Chuck is a member of Boyd’s Acolytes, so I thought this to be certainly befitting of this category.  Enjoy. -Matt

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Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

The Taliban Rope-a-Dope

By FRANKLIN SPINNEY

July 14, 2009

On July 7, the Times [UK] carried a remarkable report describing the trials and tribulations of the Welsh Guards, who are now engaged in the ongoing offensive against the Taliban in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. It described in riveting detail how accumulating mental and physical stress are grinding down the bodies and minds of what are clearly highly-motivated, well-trained, and competently-led troops. My aim is to elaborate on the Times report by examining its information from a different perspective. My hope is that this will provide a better appreciation of the Taliban’s game.

With the exception of the last sentence in the penultimate paragraph (i.e., “The Taliban fight not to win but to outlast”), which is silly, the Times provides a graphic description of the pressures on the individual British soldiers, and it is an excellent window into the effects of the Taliban’s military art. The information suggests the Taliban’s strategic aim is to wear down their adversaries by keeping them under continual strain and by working on their psychology, or as the late American strategist John Boyd would say, by getting inside, slowing down, and disorienting their adversary’s Observation – Orientation – Decision – Action (OODA) loops. Moreover, the Taliban’s operational art seems particularly focused on the mental and moral levels of conflict. Outlasting, by running away to fight another day whenever faced with superior forces, is a central part of any winning strategy directed toward achieving this aim. (Interested readers can find a brief introduction to OODA loops in the last section of my remembrance of Boyd in the Proceedings of the Naval Institute, Genghis John.

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Building Snowmobiles: In Search of Innovation

Jul 3

Posted by Matt in Building Snowmobiles | No Comments

   I read this article and instantly thought that this belonged in the building snowmobiles category.  Innovation is such an important aspect of a company’s future and welfare, and that includes our industry.  So for those in the companies looking for some inspiration on how to get there, here you go.  Enjoy. -Matt

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In Search of Innovation

JUNE 22, 2009

When companies try to come up with new ideas, they too often look only where they always look. That won’t get them anywhere.

By JOHN BESSANT, KATHRIN MöSLEIN And BETTINA VON STAMM

If you want to understand why some companies lack innovative ideas, think about the man who can’t find his car keys.

His friend asks him why he’s looking for the keys under the lamppost when he dropped them over on the lawn. “Because there’s more light over here,” the man explains.

For too many companies, that describes their search for new ideas, and it pretty much guarantees they won’t go anywhere fast. While such a company can marginally improve what it’s already good at, it misses out on the breakthroughs—those eureka moments when a new concept pops up, as if from nowhere, and changes a company’s fortunes forever.

Those ideas, however, don’t really come from nowhere. Instead, they are typically at the edge of a company’s radar screen, and sometimes a bit beyond: trends in peripheral industries, unserved needs in foreign markets, activities that aren’t part of the company’s core business. To be truly innovative, companies sometimes have to change their frames of reference, extend their search space. New ways of thinking and organization can be required as well.

In other words, they have to look away from the lamppost.

None of this is easy to do. But companies that succeed may just recognize the next great opportunity, or looming threat, before their competitors do. And that’s important in tumultuous economic times with rapidly changing technologies. Indeed, every once in a while, that blip on the horizon turns out to be a tsunami.

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Building Snowmobiles: Turning The Taliban–The Selous Scout Way

Jun 19

Posted by Matt in Afghanistan, Building Snowmobiles | 3 Comments

   “It was simple and direct. He [the terrorist] had the option of being handed over to the police, after which he would be prosecuted for … offenses related to terrorism. If found guilty he would be hanged. He could, however, change sides and work with the security forces against his former comrades. After a short period of intensive contemplation, the capture elected to change sides. He was immediately given back his weapon, but unknown to him, its firing pin had been removed. The fact that he had been given a weapon astonished … him. [I]t was a shrewdly calculated move designed to sow the seeds of trust. A pseudo group always had to make a hard decision … quickly. Could they trust the ex-insurgent or not? The answer to that question…demanded a considerable amount of moral courage on the part of the team. It meant … placing their lives in the hands of a former enemy whom, having turned once, might very well turn again, and kill and betray them.” -Retired Lt. Col. Ron Reid-Daly, a former commander of the Selous Scouts and author of “Pamwe Chete: The Legend of the Selous Scouts,” on capturing and turning the enemy.

   This is totally building snowmobiles, because this activity totally goes against our current mindset in the war.  I found these two stories, because they both complement each other, regardless of the fact that they were written for two different aspects of the war.  The first story is from Strategy Page, and actually talks about turning Taleban who no longer want to fight for the other side.  Except the turning strategy is not going far enough in my opinion.  We could go further, but it would require some guts and some strong leaders to manage the process.  But he who dares, wins… right?

   The second story is about the Selous Scouts method for turning enemy combatants, and using them in the war they were fighting.  The author was trying to apply the ideas to Iraq in the early days, but to me, it has equal application to what we are doing in Afghanistan.  The quote up top is classic.  Let me know what you guys think and Pamwe Chete! -Matt

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Foreigners Fighting Foreigners

June 19, 2009

Strategy Page

While the Taliban have been successful with their human shield tactics, they have done so at great cost to the popularity of the Islamic radical group. The Taliban were never noted for their desire to be popular. These guys are on a mission from God, and earthly trifles do not concern them. While the frequent use of human shields has spared the Taliban some casualties, and sometimes made it easier to escape death or capture (mainly because the propaganda value of dead civilians has caused the rules of engagement for foreign troops to become more restrictive), the practice has increased Afghan hostility to the Taliban. This means that the Taliban increasingly find themselves operating in a hostile environment as they move through Afghanistan. This is made worse by the fact that many Taliban units are often half, or more, composed of foreigners. Many of these are Pakistanis, who at least look like Afghans (and only betray themselves when they speak, and reveal a foreign accent). But a growing number of foreigners are Arabs, who are generally disliked throughout Pakistan. This is because many Arabs look down on Afghans, and often do not try to hide this disdain.

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Building Snowmobiles: The Attack By Fire and the Super-empowered Individual

Jun 5

Posted by Matt in Building Snowmobiles, Crime, Disaster Response, Law Enforcement, Tactical Thought Process | 1 Comment

“It’s a schemer who put you where you are. You were a schemer. You had plans. Look where it got you. I just did what I do best-I took your plan and turned it on itself. Look what I have done to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple bullets. Nobody panics when the expected people get killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plans are horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will get blown up, nobody panics. But when I say one little old mayor will die, everyone loses their minds! Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey? It’s fair. “-The Joker, from the movie Dark Knight

     This is a building snowmobiles post for the simple reason that no one else is covering this arsonist story or fire in this way (minus maybe War Nerd), or really getting into the concepts of the ‘attack by fire’.  Oyler, the arsonist, is the ultimate definition of the super-empowered individual, and truly symbolizes a modern day Joker.  Fortunately, he will be meeting the same fate as that character.

   Now of course I will not give a DIY class about using the attack by fire, but I do want to give a hint to the reader that this is stuff we need to be thinking about.  Lets just say it should be in your toolbox of ideas, so you know how to defend against it. But according to the Geneva Convention, fire as an offensive weapon has been ruled out, hence why flame throwers are not used anymore. (I posted the protocol below)  But if you read through it, it lists everything a terrorist or an insurgent wouldn’t mind doing to achieve a goal.  So learning how to defend against it, is key.

     But back to the attack by fire and the super-empowered individual.  What Oyler did, is exactly what arsonists do, and that is get off on lighting fires.  He had been perfecting his technique all summer in 2006, and the Esperanza Fire was his so called ‘masterpiece of chaos’.  So what can we learn from this tragic event? I will attempt to answer that question, both from a smokejumper/forest fire fighter position, and from a security professional position, and also delve into the attack by fire from a warfighter and strategist point of view.  

     As a smokejumper, I fought many forest fires throughout the west.  We would fight the small fires, and we would fight the big fires, it didn’t matter.  We would fight naturally started fires(lightening started) and we would fight man made fires (trash fires, thrown cigarettes, etc.).  But the most disheartening and frightening fires, are the ones set by arsonists.  Especially arsonists that know what they are doing.

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