FRONTLINE FACING THE PRC SNEAK ATTACK: 4/4: Vectors: Heroes, Villains, and Heartbreak on the Bridge of the U.S. Navy Hardcover – Thomas B. Modly (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2024
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Vectors-Heroes-Villains-Heartbreak-Bridge/dp/1642257036
Thomas Modly had an eclectic career in the military, academia, business, and government when he answered the call to service in 2017 and returned to the Navy where his career began. His experience, as chronicled in these pages, tells the story of Secretary Modly’s quest to advance the Department of the Navy’s preparedness for the challenges of this century. As Acting Secretary of the Navy he held fast to the mantra of “acting, not pretending,” and thus advocated aggressively for the Navy and Marine Corps’ future ― a future he believed would be defined by uncertainty and unpredictability. Every Friday he wrote a personal message to the entire Department regardless of rank. Those messages were called SECNAV Vectors. Each Vector was intended to clearly communicate his priorities and to establish a rapport with all levels of the organization. The subject of each Vector was inspired by real events that occurred in real time. As these events unfolded , the Secretary’s unyielding emphasis on being prepared for unpredictable events are proven to be prescient as the Navy found itself, unintentionally, in the center of COVID-19 crisis.
1905 KORNILOV
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Have you ever felt like escaping to your own desert island? |
| 0:04.0 | Jane Gaskin did exactly that, trading in the family home to begin a new life in the |
| 0:09.1 | tropics. |
| 0:10.1 | But she soon discovers that Paradise has its secrets. |
| 0:13.4 | I'm Alice Levine, and this is the price of Paradise, |
| 0:18.0 | the island dream that ends in kidnap, corruption, and murder. |
| 0:23.0 | Wish you were here. |
| 0:24.0 | Follow the price of Paradise Now, wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm John Bachelor with Tom Motley. His new book is Vector, Heroes, Villains and Heartbreak |
| 0:39.2 | on the bridge of the U.S. Navy. Tom has now flown to Guam to address the crew of the Teddy Roosevelt |
| 0:45.6 | whose captain has left the ship. There is panic in the nation. It is a time when we had very poor information about the pandemic. |
| 0:55.0 | What we know now is that the young men and women on board TR were very unlikely to be damaged severely by the virus. |
| 1:07.0 | That's reserved for an older age group |
| 1:09.3 | and people with pre-existing conditions, |
| 1:11.2 | not healthy young sailors. But nobody knew that at the time, |
| 1:14.4 | including Tom, who's taking a great risk |
| 1:17.8 | to travel the Guam, but that was the nature of his job. |
| 1:21.5 | What did you say to the sailors and how did they hear you, Tom? |
| 1:24.4 | Well, I think a couple of missteps on my part, first of all, when we got to Guam, |
| 1:31.7 | I told my team that, and I very much low key to the trip, I told people, |
| 1:36.7 | I don't want any public affairs, I don't want any press, just going to be me and my military aid and my chief of staff and that's pretty much it. |
| 1:45.6 | We got there and my NCIS protection team told me that they were not going to allow me to go on the |
| 1:50.6 | ship. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.