Help from the Old Crows! l High Frontier

The name “Old Crows” emerged from the first large-scale use of Electronic Warfare (EW) during the WWII Battle of Britain and the US and allied bombing raids over Europe. The Allied Radar Countermeasure operators used the code name “Ravens” and employed receivers and transmitters to monitor and jam threat frequencies. Military jargon later changed “Ravens” to “Crows.” The International Association of Old Crows (AOC) is celebrating its 50^th anniversary—and exploring how best to join the elements of electronic warfare and cyber technology to deal with the elements of modern warfare. Electromagnetic pulse considerations should also be included.

Last week, I was privileged to discuss the existential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threat at the 6^th Annual Electronic Warfare/Cyber Convergence Conference hosted by the Palmetto Roost Chapter of the Association of Old Crows, held in Charleston, SC. Click here for the agenda, which gives an indication of the cross-section of interests, all discussed in classified sessions.

My presentation, as usual, was unclassified but some of my off-line discussions were very informative in a complementary sense for planning our way ahead, especially in our SC efforts to harden the electric grid to all effects—physical, cyber and EMP (both manmade and natural). I passed out and briefly discussed two papers:

First, a May 1, 2015 Wall Street Journal article (Click here.) that I co-authored with Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, clearly illustrated that Admiral Gortney—Commander of North American Aerospace Command (NORAD) and Northern Command (NORTHCOM)—is aware of the EMP threat and actively responding to it in support of his NORAD mission of providing sufficient tactical warning and attack assessment (TW/AA) information on a possible intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) attack for our ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems (under his command) to shoot them down—and failing that to enable the National Command Authority to retaliate with our nuclear offensive forces, his Cold War TW/AA NORAD mission.
However, the “powers that be” continue not to counter the EMP threat to such critical infrastructure as the electric power grid upon which the very survival of our nation depends. As we have written before (e.g., click here for my earliest message on this dysfunctionality), the Defense Department considers providing such countermeasures to be someone else’s job, others are not taking the job seriously, and no one in Washington—in either the Executive or Congressional Branch—appears to be in charge of straightening out this mess. A growing group of hearty souls in the House EMP Caucus and a few senators are trying for the fourth congress in a row to get something going to change this irresponsible lethargy. And hopefully the May 14, 2015 letter to President Obama, which I co-signed with 30 others, will encourage progress in the Executive Branch—but we have not yet received any feedback that indicates that to be the case.
I referred to this letter in my comments—and am forwarding a copy to the Palmetto Chapter for them to share with the Old Crow community. And I gave a copy to Retired USAF Major General Ken Israel, the AOC’s International President and a former Pentagon colleague, for him to share further, since he indicated he fully agreed with our concern and said so in his wrap-up comments. I consider his support to be most important to our future progress in getting the powers that be to protect the American people—and others as well—against the indefinite loss of electricity.
My second paper was our High Frontier “Challenge” for South Carolina (Click here.) that I have shared in at least three previous SC meetings this year. It emphasizes the fact that if anyone attacks the electric grid with EMP, they are likely also to attack it with physical and cyber means—the latter is of special interest to the Old Crows. As noted in my handout, the National Security Agency (NSA) Director and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), Admiral Michael Rogers, testified that within a decade he expects a catastrophic cyber-attack on our critical infrastructure, and specifically mentioned the electric grid. In planning responsive SC activities, I advocate that the SC National Guard (and other National Guard units) initiate activities in conjunction with US Army Cyber Command in Augusta, GA (near our SC farm, by the way) to deal with the cyber threat to the grid—and extend that work to include the other threats (Physical and EMP). I believe that we can exploit steps already underway to develop and execute such a plan and that Retired Major General Lester Eisner (Former Deputy SC Adjutant General) is already working toward that end.
My responsive plan is to give priority to hardening the nuclear power reactors to: 1) avoid their becoming a radiation hazard, like the Fukushima Reactors in Japan, should there be a loss of the electric grid, and 2) be a resource for repairing and restarting the electric grid should it be lost due to a physical, cyber or EMP attack—or from a natural EMP event that surely will one day occur (only the timing is unsure). I have engaged with some participants in the Palmetto Old Crow meeting to better understand the conditions that might be involved in such an event and how best to implement such a strategy.

All things considered, the three days I spent in Charleston were not only enjoyable but productive, and I believe will lead to progress in dealing with the threats to the electric power grid in South Carolina. And maybe, just maybe, others will wake up to the existential threat and join us in dealing with it.

I emphasized, as in many other meetings in which I have spoken, that Washington is broken; so it is critically important for local and state authorities—and the citizens themselves—to inform themselves and act to assure that these problems are dealt with—and soon.

This fact means that we as concerned citizens must overcome the resistance from the electric power industry made up of a plethora of power companies that have grown up “helter skelter” over many years. I noted that there is hope that South Carolinians are addressing these issues and public awareness of the issues is growing—including that the electric power industry as a whole is not effectively dealing with them.

I emphasized that the SC Adjutant General, Major General Bob Livingston, is a Georgia Tech Electrical Engineer and that he understands the issues and intends to lead the South Carolina National Guard in planning to deal with it. I have committed to help him in any way that I can.

Les Eisner is a University of South Carolina graduate—and I’m a Clemson man. The Deputy Adjutant General, Brigadier General R. Van McCarty, is a Citadel graduate—so maybe we have a chance to network with a bunch of South Carolina patriots as we plan an exercise in Representative Jeff Duncan’s District. Rep. Duncan (R-SC) is a member of the House EMP Caucus and has previously promised to keynote a conference in his district. And his district includes the 263^rd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, which among other things has direct responsibilities to the Commander of NORTHCOM, as I have previously discussed.

My main takeaways from this important meeting were:

We have allies among the Old Crows, many of whom knew about EMP in general but were not well informed about its existential threat to all we hold dear and how screwed-up is Washington in dealing with the issue. Most notably, the President of the International Association of Old Crows (AOC) understands our message and I believe will be helping us spread our point-of-view.
I made a number of good contacts, which I believe will help us in our plans in South Carolina, our neighboring states and beyond. Not the least of these are those engaged in CYBERCOM who can help us with the EMP threat as well as the significant cyber threat to the grid. This can be a great alliance.
This meeting renewed past interests for me—and I joined the Old Crows so as to take full advantage of their potential help. I am sharing with the Old Crows the recent letter to the President signed by 31 notable opinion-makers, which discusses the existential threats to the electric grid and why he should address it, urgently. Hopefully they will share it with others.

If we in South Carolina can get our act together—and I believe we can, then we’ll export it to our neighbors as well…Stay tuned.

P.S. A friend forwarded to me this week an excellent July 31, 2014 Forbes article by Peter Kelly-Detwiler, which discusses in easily understandable terms the nature of the technical and political/policy issues we must confront. I urge you to read again this important analysis by clicking here.

Near Term High Frontier Plans.

The Palmetto Old Crows conference was very encouraging that we have sound plans to work with South Carolina folks to build a coalition to engage constructively with private citizens and their local and state representatives and other authorities to work with the SC National Guard in understanding and responding to the existential threats to the electric power grid. We are expanding this effort to neighboring and other states. We expect support from Cong. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) whose district includes my SC farm. He is a member of the Congressional EMP Caucus seeking legislation to counter the EMP threat.

Of great importance is my future efforts with South Carolina’s Adjutant General, Major General Robert E. Livingston, Jr. and the state’s National Guard to understand and deal with the threats to the electric grid. In future plans with him and others in the state, I will be emphasizing efforts to assure a viable role of the nuclear power reactors that produce 60-percent of South Carolina’s electricity.

Our message is getting the attention of a number of folks around the nation, who share our concerns about the lack of action on many fronts in Washington and the need for local folks to get engaged. Hopefully, the increasing opportunities for me to share High Frontier’s message will bear fruit that manifests itself in action—both in Washington and locally. Both are needed for America to “be all it can be” to borrow a phrase from the U.S. Army.

We will be working with members of the EMP Coalition and others who are seeking to take our message across the country—especially with Bob Newman, a former Adjutant General of Virginia to help us link our SC plans more broadly and especially into the National Capital region. In July, I will be traveling to New Hampshire to take part in a National Security Conference, like those in South Carolina and Iowa.

What can you do?

Join us in praying for our nation, and for a rebirth of the freedom sought, achieved and passed to us by those who came before us.

Help us to spread our message to the grass roots and to encourage all “powers that be” to provide for the common defense as they are sworn to do.

Begin by passing this message to your friends and suggest they visit our webpage www.highfrontier.org, for more information. Also, please encourage your sphere of influence to sign up for our weekly e-newsletter.

Encourage them to review our past email messages, posted on www.highfrontier.org, to learn about many details related to the existential manmade and natural EMP threats and how we can protect America against them. I hope you will help us with our urgently needed efforts, which I will be discussing in future messages.

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