To All the Girls and Blogs I’ve Loved Before

 

Big-Joe-Radio

 

To All the Girls and Blogs I’ve Loved Before

 

To all the girls I have loved before. When I listen to that song I realize that I’m just as much of a human being as Willie Nelson. By that I mean that it is ok to have gone through life experiencing relationships that did not last for one reason or another. I understand that there are also a list of people who come into our lives. Some people are there to teach us. So are there to comfort us. Some are there to bring pain which will become a tool for learning as well. Some will give us a gift of memory. To me this is what that song means.

I believe relationships are also a mirror for what we learn about ourselves as well. I never thought I would write over 100 blogs for this thing called Big-Joe-Radio. She came into my life when I needed her to comfort me. She was there for me to write down my thoughts and to let my inner voice be heard. She became such a mirror to me that taught me after so many years. I learned that it is only that inner voice that we need to follow and trust. Worrying about other people’s thoughts is a huge trap that only hold us back in life and brings us to a point where we are no longer going forward in life because of fear.

The most important truth about relationships to me is this; the thing that attracted you to a person, whether it is male or female, will be the exact thing that will repel you away from that person when it ends. Consider when a man meets a woman. She is attracted to him physically, mentally and maybe even spiritually. She will likely play hard to get to get him to chase her. She wants to know that he will fight to get what he wants. Even if that means fighting her rejection, even if only those rejections are behind a mask of true acceptance. If he truly wants her, he will call her, maybe even do things that are not always socially acceptable. He may monitor her and even follow her because a man does crazy things like that.

So why does the woman allow these sort of things in the beginning? It’s about the chase and woman love aggression to a point. Yet when that relationship ends, him chasing her or following her now becomes stalking. We all know the story. Before you know it courts get involved and the guy has to remain more than 500 feet from the woman he once chased to win her affection.

My point is that just as relationships end, so do all things. I am so tired of blogging. I love writing but I have had such a hard time figuring out other creative avenues to write in. I’m tired of talking about myself. I’m tired of sounding so academically perfect like I did in some of my old blogs. I feel like I am my own person again. I am no longer under the school “Daze”. By that I mean that it is time to move on in my relationship with writing. Big-Joe-Radio is getting dumped as I have been secretly spending time with another woman. This woman is another vehicle for writing creativity.

For my next blog site, I want to do this; I want to do historical research on any topic that I like. Let’s say I study the battle of Stalingrad. I can look up all the historical facts and data. I absolutely love history anyways. I will then create my own characters in these scenes. I will also change the outcomes to fit the story line. I am still working on the “blue-print” if you will. I will use true events and people in my life to insert into the story line as well. Great stories are not made by great plots. Great stories are made by great characters facing a real problem that we are all too familiar with.

As such I’d like to finish Big-Joe-Radio with this here Dear John Letter. What I will do is write my own personal love story that I had with a young woman. She is one of 3 or 4 woman that I truly loved. This one is #1. So enjoy this Dear John letter that is actually a tale of love for a woman named, Loren.

I met Loren at a gas station. That doesn’t sound very romantic, yet people meet woman in seedy bars every night of the week. I think that is even more sketchy but it is the popular way to meet people. Loren was beautiful. She was driving a black car. Her eyes were just as dark as the car she was driving. I was living in Wheat Ridge at the time. I was just over 30 at the time. I would come to find out that she was only 21. No big deal.

What attracted me to her was not only her eyes, but also her very large breasts. She was also dressed in a black dress with nylons and heels. She was one of those woman that if I had not approached her, I knew I would be killing myself over it mentally later at home. So I did what any man of character should do…I began some conversation with her. I succeeded not only with getting a conversation going, but I also got her number.

I’d say it took about 2 or 3 weeks to finally get her to go on a date with me. She kept blowing me off or making excuses not to see me. Loren had family in Colorado so she was living here for a while. But Loren was a Texas girl, through and through. She grew up in Plano, Texas, just north of Dallas. She had a huge Texas heart. She was wild but full of so much character. When she finally did give me the time of day, my life and my heart was consumed by her.

I didn’t have much at the time. I definitely did not have my shit together. I lived in a shit apartment off of Kipling. It was white trash central and I was the mayor. I was in and out of bars all the time picking up nasty bar flies so I could have meaningless physical relationships with. As far as relationships went, I was going nowhere with them. Loren was just beautiful and I loved her heart. I think what also attracted me to her was that she was wild. She was also an open book to me about her life and her sexuality, yet she demanded my respect and devotion to her. She was a Christian as I was, yet we both loved our sexual prowess that we had inside ourselves, and we were not ashamed of it. We had sex all the time, every day, in every kind of setting.

Loren was also my friend. We talked about everything. Our past, our families, our dreams, and we enjoyed doing a lot of things together. She was my angel. To this day I still have a picture of her that I keep hidden away. I only look at it once in a while. It is proof that I experienced what felt like the most pure love imaginable, next to the love I have for my kids. We dated for about a year until the major conflict of this story arrived.

The conflict was an Iraq deployment and my responsibility to the military. I was not gone very long, but it was coinciding around the same time that she was missing her other relatives in Texas. She had her mother, father, brother, and a couple other members down and around the Plano part of Texas.

In a lot of ways the military is like a prison without bars. Members of the military are bound by an extra set of rules that most civilians are not even aware of. Those rules are the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Those federal laws determine what I can say, do, and overall the way I behave in public and in front of the enemy. At the same time, our military is an all-volunteer force. No one held a gun to my head, or threatened me with prison time if I didn’t join.

That being said, I followed through with my obligation of deploying while Loren went down to Texas to be with her family. I missed her very much. We wrote all the time and I would call her when I could. To my dismay, as the time drew closer for me to come home, I realized that Loren was not wanting to move back to Colorado. She was very close to her family there and the family she had in Colorado was not being all too kind to her.

So my deployment ends and I come home to Colorado but with no Loren. This is devastating to me. I stayed in Colorado long enough to get over my jet lag from the 3 day flight from Iraq that included multiple stops. Loren had been begging me to begin a life with her down in Texas. So that’s what I attempted to do.

I drove down to Texas right away. I met her family whom I also got along with very well. In fact I accepted them as my new family. People down in Texas love their military. They thought I was an honorable man. I was not down in Texas very long until I took Loren to a courthouse and married her. I thought I was the happiest man in the world. There was just one huge problem. I absolutely hated Texas and Loren hated Colorado. She thought the people in Colorado were very mean spirited. Texas people just have big hearts. I can hardly blame her.

I did not like the job market down in Texas. Loren also wanted to move to Dallas and I felt that Dallas was not my style. I also felt like it was a huge Police-State. If you were a black man in Dallas, your odds of having done time or going to do time in the prison system was astronomically high. Because of this fact, the crime in Dallas was very high. Social unrest is an almost guarantee when you have unrelenting government control on a group or certain groups of people. I understand that I am white, but for some reason I was highly sensitive to this fact. Can you imagine that I would later in life go on to major in a social science such as economics.

I was young, dumb and in love. I did not know how to correctly deal with this problem. I did not want to live in Texas. So I convinced Loren to come to Denver where I could better support the two of us. Her family was dead set against the idea. They wanted us down there. I just had this horrible gut feeling telling me that I did not belong in Texas. So I convinced Loren to pack the car with the stuff she needed and I drove us back to Colorado. I did all this without her family knowing. In essence I stole my wife from her family and I didn’t care at the time.

We stayed in Denver for maybe a month before all I could hear was Loren’s heartbreak over leaving Texas. Not only that but her brother was having issues with his children that Loren wanted to be back home for so she could help them. I could not handle it anymore and I bought her a ticket to Texas thinking I would see her again. The last time I ever saw her was at the Denver International Airport. I told her I loved her and would call her to see if she made it alright. This was just at the security screening point.

Well I called her that night. In fact I called her every night for about two months. I begged her to come back home as I would later come to realize that she was not coming back. Our biggest fight on the phone happened on the day she was supposed to be on a return flight, and I was to go to bed by myself. I don’t think I have ever been as heartbroken. She wanted me to move to Dallas, and I just couldn’t do it. It sucked being a Colorado boy in love with a Texas girl and we both loved our homes and did not want to leave.

Well…that’s about it. It took about six months for me to realize that the relationship was indeed over. I signed the annulment paperwork that Loren sent me in the mail. The annulment basically stated that our marriage was almost as if it never happened. I think to get over that pain I started dating again. I was young like I said. I was tired of going to sleep in tears because here I thought I was a man being punished for loving a woman. And then I couldn’t have that woman.

Looking back on it now, I realize that things happen for a reason. If I would have moved down to Texas, I might not have gotten my shit together. I would not have had my son whom I love dearly and life would be totally different. There are different spiritual or religious beliefs out there that could sum it up by saying that my destiny was somewhere else. Now having a different perspective on things, I don’t regret loving Loren in the first place. She shared a journey with me and I was part of hers. She is still with the man that she eventually moved on to after me. That tells me that he not only makes her happy, but perhaps she is exactly where she is supposed to be too.

Thank you for reading my love story. I close this blog out with this story to illustrate that it is also time to stop bloging under the name that you have come to know as Big-Joe-Radio. I hope you have enjoyed some of the blogs as much as I have enjoyed writing and posting them. Most of them were academic papers I wrote a long time ago. The things that attracted me to Big-Joe-Radio, now repel me. I can’t stand writing in an academic theme anymore. I want to take the spot light off of me now.

Until later….I hope to be a flicker of light during the dark paths we find ourselves on sometimes.

---Big-Joe-Radio

 

 

 

 

Robin Williams - America’s Comedian

 

Robin Williams - America’s Comedian

Big-Joe-Radio

8/11/2014ned to hear the news of Robin Williams passing away. At this point it is rumored that he in fact took his life. I’d like to give my own perspective on the wonderful man that I thought Robin Williams was. In a faraway war zone he called us heroes. Yet I think he was one of America’s heroes in the fact that he made so many people laugh.

            I was having a good day on the day that I heard the news. I went on a very nice date with a very intelligent and beautiful lady downtown. We spoke of many things that interested the both of us. After our date, we parted ways and I did my normal routine downtown; I picked out books to read from Barnes and Nobles and I made my way to a few of my favorite places to wet my whistle. By that I mean I enjoyed the beers of some of my favorite hole in the wall restaurant/bars.

            Later on I got the text about Robin. The lady whom I met earlier told me of his passing. My mind instantly went back to the time of 2009. That is the time that Robin Williams, Kid Rock, and cyclist Lance Armstrong visited troops in a USO sponsored trip to Iraq. 3 of the year’s playboy playmates also showed up. Leave it to the government to fly in 3 beautiful women among mostly home-sick and horny men. Either way, the show was great. Witness how epic it was as I transition from this paragraph unto the next one…ready…wait for it…now!

            ……and here I am again to tell you about each person that took the stage at that USO event. The first thing they did was bring in the play-bunnies. They were very attractive. The crowd was cheering very loudly for them. I do remember that they were not scantily dressed as one might want to assume that they were. They actually wore jeans and a long sleeved shirt. They were sweet ladies who told us all that we were their heroes and those sorts of things. Me personally, I don’t feel like I am some sort of hero in that sense, but it felt good to hear the support.

            Next up was Kid Rock. He brought out his guitar. Of course he talked about how he loved the troops and was there to support us. He went on to make jokes about the fight that he had recently gotten into with Tommy Lee, the drummer from Motley Crue. Kid was the new man in Pamela Anderson’s life while of course Tommy Lee was the former husband of hers who also had kids together. The shit had the whole place rolling. He played some good songs which included a few remakes of some Hank Williams songs. That son-of-a-bitch played a song called Naked Woman and Beer. Those were two of the things in very high demand in a war zone.

            Next up was Lance Armstrong. Up to this point there was a great vibe going between us in the crowd and the performers on stage. We loved having beautiful woman telling us they were in support of courageous men. Kid Rock could have almost been a soldier himself. He was so down to earth and not afraid to talk about the trashy parts of his life in order to make us laugh and to also set the mood for some good country/rock music. Hey, he might have hit Tommy Lee, but he was a good dude to me. Lance totally changed that vibe.

            From the minutes Lance was on the stage, it never felt more awkward and un-genuine. First of all he made it about him. He talked about who he knew and how they were able to get him over on a jet to support us. Well that is mighty white of you, Mr. Armstrong. He was a very distasteful man in my opinion as he continued to tie his visit to us with himself as if we should be so fortunate.  It wasn’t as direct as I write it to be, but the under layer of his message made it very clear that he was trying to help his own career by saying he visited the troops in Iraq. It was very fake. It sounded very scripted. He was a very insulting man. It never once surprised me that years later he would be discovered for doping to win all those tour de France races. I thought it was just me who picked up on that, but everyone else I talked to felt the same way.

            Anyways, Lance finally took his self-glory seeking ass off the stage. I hope he was not late to his next race, the Tour de Douche. Now before I get into how much fun it was to see Robin Williams on stage, I need to first tell you about the place were actually located. There is some morbid history to this event that will help.

            Back in the day of Saddam Hussein, his son Uday, was in charge of the national sports teams. This included the Iraqi soccer team. It could be common knowledge that his son ordered the torture and murder of some of the Iraqi soccer team members. The executions took place on a soccer field. That soccer field was inside the exact stadium that we were now in attendance at. In Iraq, I was at Balad Air Base. The base was one of Saddam’s military instillations. The United States Air Force bombed it very heavily until we were able to take over the base, and make the base the most heavily used runway and Air Base operations. If an American was coming into Iraq, there was a high chance that he eventually flew into Balad. Balad still had many historical sites such as one of Saddam’s palaces and even a mosque. The American military just built around it, to include this soccer field where we were now essentially standing on killing ground.

            Finally the man, Robin Williams, comes on stage and Kid Rock is on stage too. Robin Williams is kind of dressed like a gangster, walking around holding his balls, and doing the best gangsterish gestures and ghetto talk. It takes about a minute or two until you realize that Robin is making fun of Kid Rock while Kid Rock is playing some of his famous guitar music. The man right out of the gate was a comedic genius. His impersonations of Kid Rock were perfect. Kid Rock was dying from laughing so hard. The crowd was going nuts. Our spirits were uplifted.

            I forgot to mention a few things. In the crowd were 3 Humvees with 50 caliber machine guns on them. Soldiers and Airmen were sitting on top of them. During that time, outside the wire, Iraqi citizens were still shooting mortars over the fence. People died all the time from these mortars. In fact, Balad had the nickname, Mortoritaville. So Robin Williams goes into his standup first of all asking, “What the Fuck did I do to get into a situation where I could die doing comedy! Maybe I should go outside the wire and tell the Iraqis to join us for a few laughs and maybe the war would be over”. He then goes into the crazy ride into the base on a Hercules C-130. When you fly into the war zone, there is what is called a “Combat Landing”. A plane doesn’t just fly in straight and level like a normal plane landing. The plane flies over the runway at a very high altitude. If it is at night, all the outside and inside lights will be turned off. Finally the plane will drop the nose and basically do a spiral or circular decent and as quickly as possible to avoid fire or missile attack.

            Robin Williams was going into how not only did the onboard entertainment sucked (there was none), but he said he about shit himself when the airplane did that “combat landing”. He said that he nearly pissed all over himself because he was in the bathroom. To add to the story, he took a water bottle and mimicked the scene in front of us, splashing water all over him. My face was hurting from laughing so hard.

            “How fucking crazy of a place does this have to be that I am in a stadium with humvees with 50 calibers on them!”. The jokes went on and on. By his joking, he was illustrating that we as uniformed members experience things that most people back home have no idea about. He had the most genius way of taking a bad looking situation, and finding the humor in it. You also got the sense that he truly supported what we were doing out there, even if he didn’t understand what was going on. We were somebody’s sons, dads, wives, brothers, and friends. Every human being can relate to that.

            I can’t really remember much else or at least not vivid enough to write about. I just remember walking away thinking that I had just witnessed two polar opposites. I saw a very impersonal speech given by Lance Armstrong. Then I had seen a goofy Kid Rock. Finally I had seen up close the stand-up comedy that was Robin Williams.

            So to me that is what is so sad. Not that he passed away so much, but that he was young. If his death really was a suicide, that is hurtful in a way. He meant so much to those of us going through a difficult time. He made people laugh in a place that was normally full of death and despair. He was our hero even though he repeatedly called us his hero. I wish I was there to tell him that in his last moments. Thank you for reading my journey and how it involved one of the funniest men to ever live.

 

 

The King of Israel Sent Me Off to Battle with My Own Death Warrant

 

The King of Israel Sent Me Off to Battle with My Own Death Warrant

 

So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite also died. --- 2Samuel 11; 16-17

 

            The time was spring in the land of Israel. I was a soldier in the kingdom of David and his LORD almighty. We had besieged the city of Rabbah and completely destroyed the people of Ammon. My name is Uriah. I am a Hittite from the lands north of the 12 provinces of Israel. I was not born in Israel, but I gave my full allegiance to my adopted countrymen as I also put my trust and faith in their LORD. I have a story for you. I am currently in the last moments of my life. I am flanked on all positions by valiant men, in the heat of battle. I have been struck many times with the sword and I think I am about to leave this world to be with my king, forever.

            A few weeks ago, the King himself, David, sent a message to my master and the commander of the army, Joab. I was to leave the company and report immediately to the king. The King did not leave any details as to what the business was all about. I grabbed my battle gear and left immediately with the messengers.

            To be summoned before the King is a terrifying feeling. But it can also be one full of reward. The King had in himself the power of life and death. He could destroy me with punishment or prosper me with reward. And my King was the King of Israel himself. It was common knowledge that the LORD had given the King all his enemies to do as he wished. David was a valiant fighter himself, first establishing himself as a fighter when he, a short man, took on Goliath the giant and defeated him before cutting his head off for blaspheming the name of the LORD and his Army.

            So to go see the King was as if I were going to see God himself. I arrived hours after I was summoned. With all my gear, I ran the whole trip up to Jerusalem where the King’s Palace stood. When I arrived, I was in full military gear, in military posture, ready to give my report to the King. He summoned me before the throne.

            The King asked me how the battles were going. I told him that we were fighting our hearts out there. There were some setbacks. We lost great fighters and we made some mistakes along the way. In Ammon, we took arrows from the wall. One of my comrades was killed when a woman dropped a large rock on his head from the wall, but all in all, we were able to advance and siege the city were not one man woman or child was left alive.

            I reported my own battles to the King. I was in the middle of 3 battles in which I captured enemy combatants and brought them before Joab to be searched and interrogated for intelligence. The men that I captured told us the exact location of their king and where all the wall fortifications were so that we could avoid those and hit the enemy army where they were at their weakest.

            The King replied that he was most proud of me. That as a son of Israel, he would see to it that I receive meritorious service medals and a command position of a hundred men. I was most humble to hear my lord’s words. He then commanded me to go home, eat, lie with my wife, and sleep for the night before I was to go back out to the army.

            I disobeyed the king. I slept outside the palace gates with the rest of his servants. I ate nothing but the war rations within my pack. I did not go to my house to let my beautiful wife, Bathsheba, know I was around. I could not betray my brothers like that. Some of them were still in the middle of bloodshed and battle. Who knows how long it would be before they got a chance to see their families, if ever again. I could not bring myself to such betrayal of my countrymen, even though my heart was longing for seeing my wife; to make love to her; to be comforted by her touch, voice, and the wonderful food she always prepared for me; to hear about the simple tasks of her days.

            The King summoned me again. A report was made of my whereabouts. I presented myself to him once again. I thought it quite strange that the King in all his majesty and distinguished presence would offer me, a lowly man, a position at his table to dine with him. What more, I wondered why he was spending so much time in the palace in the first place. The King usually was in the vicinity of the battle, directing reports and commands. Yet here he was offering me food and wine. Inside I was distraught, but for fear of my life, I kept the matter to myself and obliged the King.

            For hours he fed me, and poured the wine in my cup himself. He asked about my family. He wanted to know what my upbringing was like and how I had come to be a part of his great army, when I could have remained in my former house, away from the people of Israel. He was amazed at my loyalty.

            Then he commanded me again. He told me to go get comfort at my home. He said that I would hold much higher rank in days to come, and the time for family would be diminished with such a heavy burden of responsibilities. It would be good for me to lie with my wife before I go back out to battle.

            Even in my drunken state, I would not obey the king in the matter. Again I slept at the palace gate with the rest of the servants. Again my wife would rest her head not knowing that I was inside the city, minutes from being able to lie next to her and tell her my love and devotion for her. I could never love another woman apart from Bathsheba. Yet I also could not betray my countrymen in battle. How could I comfort myself while they lived every minute not knowing if it would be their last? May God deal with me, be it ever so severely if I took upon myself such a pleasure.

            The King of Israel, David, summoned me one final time. This time he was not kind. He asked me why I did not do as he recommended. When I went to explain myself, he cut me off. He gave me a piece of papyrus paper, with a note written, The King said I was to deliver the note to the Commander, Joab.

            I did not ask what was written in that note. I did not consider myself worthy enough to know the King’s business before Joab. I left the city with haste. Hours later I was standing tall before Joab. I told him all that I had reported to the King. Joab took the note from my hand and read it while in my presence. When he finished his eyes were quickly fixed on me and he smiled. At this time I had assumed that the King had spoken of his recommendation for my promotion within the army.

            Now as I lay here in the throes of defeat in battle, I think that note contained something much more sinister, something much more to my demise than to my benefit. Joab had ordered me to a forward position where there only the best fighting men of the enemy army were located. I know this because of the intelligence that I had garnered from other enemy troops during the time when I captured those other men.

            As I sit in this cave, out in the deserts of the battle, I have come to some conclusions. I must have been naïve as well as brave before the King. He had it out for me. When I fought today, the rest of the army of Israel was told to retreat. I was surrounded by enemy fighters and I have two arrows to the chest. I’m hiding from them, although I can hear them advancing on me. I can hear their talks about cutting my head off when they find me.

            I will never see my Bathsheba again. I will never look into her beautiful lavender eyes and tell her how I want to start expanding our family, like she had always wanted. I will never feel her breasts pressed up against me as we hug for dear life, every moment I come home from yet another of the LORD’s battles. As my breath gets shallower by the minute, I wonder if I should have listened to the King. I wish now that I could have gone home one final time.

            I may never see my Bathsheba again, but I am about to see another king; The King of Heaven’s Army, the LORD himself. I hope that it is him who will repay me for my loyalty. I hope he tells me how hard I fought for him and how well I did for my countrymen. But before I die, I am going to run out of this hiding place, and try to take out at least one more enemy with the blade of my sword.

Yours Truly,

Uriah the Hittite.

           

             

 

Airbus Tour

Executive Briefings:

Airbus Helicopters &

Porzellanmanufakture Augarten

Prepared for:  INTB 6030-533

Date: February 21, 2017

By: Joseph Ware

Jacob Stafford

Yadin Herzel

 Bethany Adams

AIRBUS HELICOPTERS

The Airbus Helicopter Manufacturing Plant

in Donauwörth, Germany

 

The Airbus Helicopter Manufactory

The Mission Statement of Airbus Helicopters

Airbus' mission is to provide the most efficient civil and military helicopter solutions to its customers who serve, protect, save lives, and safely carry passengers in highly demanding environments.

 

History

Airbus Helicopters is a division of Airbus Group SE. The company’s main headquarters are in Marignane, France, but it has additional manufacturing plants around the world, including Germany, Brazil, and Australia.

In 1992, Aerospatiale (France) and MBB (Germany) merged to form the Eurocopter Group. From 1992-2014 the company remained as the Eurocopter Group, but in 2015, the company was renamed Airbus Helicopters. From the beginning, Airbus Helicopters was innovative and formed many joint ventures with military and civilian organizations, including the US military, Korean Helicopter Program, and Australian Aerospace. 

Along with larger joint ventures within the company, it began to make many transformations in innovation from creating the fastest helicopter to improving the planet. In 2008, the company launched a Clean Sky Program, enforcing the need to make air travel more sustainable. In 2010, Airbus Helicopters created the fastest helicopter, reaching speeds up to 293 mph. Airbus helicopters has been one of the most innovative and successful helicopter companies in the world.

 

Products and Supply

Airbus provides helicopters for civil and military use. The civil uses include the following: emergency medical services, oil and gas, public services, commercial air travel, private and business aviation, and aerial work. The military uses include the following: naval, armed scout, attack, maritime, utility, and special operations. Airbus Helicopters has an in-service fleet of 12,000 plus helicopters that are operated by 3,000 plus customers in 154 countries. The civil fleet marks about 45% of the market share in the civil aviation. 

Competitors

• Enstrom Helicopter- located in the US and supply to North and South America, Australia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia.

• Bell Helicopters- located in the US and was the first to obtain commercial certification for a helicopter. Over 80-years, Bell Helicopters have delivered more than 35,000 aircraft to customers around the world.

• Boeing- US based company and provides mostly military helicopters, including the apache. 

Airbus Helicopters in Donauwörth, Germany

Donauwörth is Airbus Helicopters’ main site in Germany and is the second largest plant in the world. There are many types of helicopters built and sold at this plant for military personnel and civilians. This location has over 800 engineers, which is a “center of competence for tomorrow's helicopter technology in Germany”. The Donauwörth core business, however, is not just helicopters, but also aircraft doors. About 80 percent of Airbus’ plane doors are produced in this location. This location is also prime for transportation out of the country to multiple surrounding countries and ports. 

Competitive Context of Airbus Helicopters

    Airbus Helicopters’ is present in 29 customer centers. The company participates in a worldwide network of service centers, training facilities, distributors and certified agents. The company employs more than 22,000 people worldwide. Airbus Helicopters has become the world's-leading rotorcraft manufacturer with a turnover of 6.8 billion euros in 2015. Airbus is the market leader for the civil and parapublic segment in that it controls 45% of the market share. For the military market, Airbus has 9% of the market share. By comparison, the market leader (Sikorsky) has 22% of market share. In 2015, Airbus delivered 395 helicopter units. The numbers have declined gradually from 2011 where a total of 503 helicopter units were delivered. 

    Airbus operates with a global economic approach to face massive economic, social and environmental changes. At the end of 2015, the United Nations released a set of Sustainable Development Goals defining global priorities. These goals address the issues of development changes from climate control and natural disasters, to economic inequality and ethical business practices. Airbus is meeting these demands by focusing more specific goals of, No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-Being, Quality Education, and Gender Equality among their workforce. 

    As Airbus aligns itself to be one of the leading global citizens, the company has adopted demanding policies and rules governing all of its international trade activities, while at the same time continually improving and reinforcing standards of ethics and compliance. Some of the examples of such policies are their standards of Eco-efficiency. They strive to remain conscious of the environmental impacts of their products and processes. For a healthy and motivated workforce Airbus is motivated in such topics as work-life balance, career development, integration of disabled employees, and furthering gender balance. Airbus also reaches out to the youth in the community by preparing the next generation for future employment opportunities. Airbus fosters three programs which fosters learning among disadvantaged youth and those facing educational challenges. 

    Besides offering humanitarian aid, the company supports the economic growth of small and medium sized enterprises. It offers partnerships to companies with innovative ideas. Although the company is aimed at smaller and medium sized businesses, they are open to all legal entities with a suitable industrial or scientific framework. 

   

Questions to Consider for the Site Visit

• Numerous companies have recently successfully test flown autonomous drones capable of carrying people - essentially pilotless helicopters. Is Airbus Helicopters currently doing any public research into this field? Are pilotless helicopters the future of the industry?

• Both recent and upcoming elections in European Union member countries suggest that the future of the EU in its current form is uncertain. Is Airbus Helicopters in any way concerned that a potential breakup of the EU will impact the company’s ability to continue to operate seamlessly within multiple European countries?

• Airbus Helicopters’ website mentions that the company covers approximately 150 countries globally - essentially three quarters of the recognized countries in the world. Are the remaining 50 countries simply unexplored opportunities, nonviable options, or something else?

• Given the obvious financial and logistical barriers to entry into the helicopter manufacturing industry, Airbus Helicopters does not have many direct competitors. However, it does face competition from a few major companies. What stands out as Airbus Helicopters’ unique competitive advantages?

PORZELLANMANUFAKTURE AUGARTEN 

The Augarten Porcelain Manufactory

in Vienna, Austria

The Augarten Porcelain Manufactory

History: The Augarten factory was the second European porcelain factory to be founded--299 years ago in 1718, although it closed between 1864 and 1923. Now it is located in Augarten Castle.

     Primary Products: vases, lamps, and figurines. The standard tableware styles are grouped as Classic, Art Deco, or Trend, which can be combined with various patterns..Augarten offers customization as befits a luxury product. The flagship store is located in Vienna (Wien), and additional stores are located in Linz and Salzburg. Artistically, the firm strives to honor tradition as well as embrace modernity.

     Promotion: Museum by the factory, a café, guided tours, workshops, and a dedicated magazine.

Competitive Context of Porzellanmanufakture Augarten

Austrian Economy: The European Commission (EC) expects the Austrian economy to expand slightly. The country is under pressure to improve employment of women, increase the effective retirement age, and incorporate an influx of refugees into the labor market (EC). Meanwhile, subsidization in Austria continues to both help and hinder economic development. EurActiv Germany reported that Austria allocated almost 28% of its 2014 GDP to subsidies and incentives, second only to France (Vytiska).

Required Industry Resources: Energy costs have been increasing, and manufacturers in the EU are faced with becoming more energy efficient. The EC reports that Austrian energy cost per value added as of 2012 were at less than 5%--less than half of Hungary’s estimate percentage cost.

     Raw Materials: Feldspar, quartz, and white kaolinite. Scandinavia, Germany, and Czechia have been historic sources for these minerals for the Augarten factory (Neyt). The Augarten website explains that the raw porcelain mix is proprietary, and must be allowed to mature for a various number of months depending upon the consistency required. Forming a given piece will be followed by initial firing, glazing, main firing, and then painting. Painting may be alternated with up to six additional firings.

     Skilled artisans are required to produce fine quality porcelain. The Augarten website describes a simple object uses multiple molds that must be carefully joined together. Various manufacturing steps such as the amount of time to allow raw porcelain to mature require significant expertise and experience.

     Sample of Competitors: Since Porcelain has been held in high regard in Europe for a few hundred years, many of the Augarten competitors in Europe have similarly historic traditions. These include Royal Limoges and state-owned Sèvres (France), as well as Meissen and Fürstenberg (both in Germany).

Questions to Consider for the Site Visit

• How have increasing energy costs impacted effectiveness, if at all? What kinds of strategies or technological innovation have been considered to help mitigate energy requirements?

• What are some of the challenges of balancing a traditional reputation with modernity, for example in terms of marketing and branding?

• Have new countries that have been brought into the EU helped to make key raw materials more available or cheaper?

 

Work Cited

Augarten Wien:

“Porcelain Production in the Augarten Porcelain Manufactory.” n.d. https://www.augarten.com/en/augarten-world/manufactory/

“300 Years of Tradition.” n.d. https://www.augarten.com/en/tradition/

“Das Augarten Magazin” can be accessed here https://issuu.com/augarten/docs/augarten_magazin_issuu_27102016

European Commission:

“Council Recommendation” May 18, 2016. http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/pdf/csr2016/csr2016_austria_en.pdf

“Europe 2020 in Austria.” May 18, 2016. http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/europe-2020-in-your-country/osterreich/country-specific-recommendations/index_en.htm

“EU structural change 2015.” 2015. http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/eu-structural-change-2015-pbETAA15001/

Neyt, Johanna. “The Art of Porcelain.” The Vienna Review. July 1, 2011. http://www.viennareview.net/on-the-town/the-art-of-porcelain

Vytiska, Herbert. “Austria’s Unwieldy Subsidies System.”” EurActiv. January 7, 2016. https://www.euractiv.com/section/euro-finance/news/austria-s-unwieldy-subsidies-system-continues-to-cost-the-country/

"50 Years BO105 A Living Legend and a Pioneer." Helicopters: Civil Helicopter and Military Helicopter - Airbus Helicopters. 20 Feb. 2017.

My Grey-Wolf Experience

 

12/31/2013

Big-Joe-Radio

My Grey-Wolf Experience

This blog is for my baby Joanne. Daddy is proud of you working your first job as a teenager. Can daddy borrow some money!

            The year was in the two-thousandth and fourth year of our Lord (2004). I was at the tender age of 25. Young, dumb and full of nonsense.  I may have been lacking in the intelligence department, but I was full to bursting in the heart department. Or maybe I was just too stupid to know when to quit. Either way I was about to embark on a journey that would take me to near death experiences, and on the other side I would know some things about myself that I would have never known had I not taken those chances. What I am talking about is the time I took a trip up to Wyoming to learn the trade of oil rigging work. It nearly cost me my life I believe, but to this day I consider it a time of high adventure. Enjoy the ride.

            I didn’t really have too much going for me at the time. I was working a normal blue-collar job, just trying to live from paycheck to paycheck. I managed to find myself repairing furniture at American Furniture Warehouse. It was an ok job but It lacked any kind of fulfillment. I was fresh out of active duty Air Force. I really had no idea what to do with my life at that point. Go to school, or go to work were pretty much my choices back then. I chose to work for a while since I really had no clue what I wanted to do with myself. The problem was that sitting in a warehouse and working with paint fumes, guys whose only care in the world was getting high, and not that great of a paycheck left me very unchallenged. There was something inside of me that felt tortured as I begged myself to go out in search of who I would become. Sooner or later I usually listen to that inner voice.

            I don’t know how I came upon the idea or what started the process, but I came across an ad in the paper that had to do with going to a school up in Casper, Wyoming. The job was Rough-necking. That job entails working on oil rigs. That’s all I knew at the time. The eye opener was that they would get you placed on a rig where pay was between 35-35$ an hour. Being that I was making 15 dollars an hour, this is what I set my heart on. I called the school and got an enrollment date. I think the school was like 2 weeks long and I don’t remember how I paid them or what I paid them. I was about to discover the true costs associated with this choice.

            Giving American Furniture Warehouse my two weeks’ notice was no problem. That firm had a habit of firing people for little to no reason. Colorado is a right to work state which means that sort of behavior is not illegal in the slightest way. You even mention the word “union” in that place and you were gone. They worked the crap out of you and treated you like crap. Most of the people I knew who worked there had criminal records or were just passing the time until something better came along. I was not going to miss this place at all. I saved up some money for food for the next few weeks and took care of rent and other bills while I would be traveling for a while. I was excited to go.

            So the day comes and I leave Denver Colorado for Casper, Wyoming. It was during December. It was relatively cold. I had a shitty Ford Taurus back then. It got me from A to B, but if I would have known then what I know now, I would not have made the trip in that car. As I got to Cheyenne, Wyoming there were no issues with the driving. From Denver up through Fort Collins and into Cheyenne the weather was fine. The only thing I noticed was a little wind in Cheyenne. A little would soon turn into a lot. This would soon be accompanied by snow and ice as well.

            There next 178 miles from Cheyenne to Casper were some of the scariest moments of my life. A trip that should have only taken 2 and a half hours took me over 6 hours. As soon as I left Cheyenne, on I-25, I witnessed the wind and snow so hard that the snow would literally come in directly sideways. If the wind changed direction (which it did constantly) and the snow was coming at you, you could barely see a foot in front of the car. The snow was covering the highway. Underneath the snow was ice so bad that if I drove faster than 35mph, my rear end would slide behind me. What really freaked me out as well was that every 20 or so miles the highway had crossing guards like at a train stop. There was a sign that said something like, “Highway closed when guard down”. That right there told me that this was a normal occurrence in the state of Wyoming. I had not adequately prepared myself for such a risk that I was taking. If the highway did close I would miss my first day of class the following morning and I am sure I would have been kicked out of the program. I was alone and knew absolutely no one or nothing in this miserable adventure.

            Well I eventually made it into the cold city of Casper Wyoming. I found the hotel that I was instructed to go to. The school was paying for that thank God. To this day I am almost certain that if my car had broken down on the way here, I would have died. The snow got very deep in some spots and in Wyoming; you can travel many many miles between a single towns. Freezing to death was a very real thought for me, but that was past me now. At least for now. There were about 20 other guys that would be in my class. We were all from different parts of Wyoming, Montana, or Colorado. Much like myself, it was just a bunch of young guys trying to find a way to earn a living. I’m talking some real country boys too. I was roomed together with a guy from Montana. He was a peculiar guy. I asked him quite a bit about Montana. People get away with murder up in Montana quite a bit, or at least that is what he stressed. When I asked how, he told me that there are a million mine shafts in the state. You cross paths with the wrong people and your body could end up in one of those to never be found again. He was a tough rancher’s type of guy. He drove a big truck of course. But hearing him talk about his state like that made the hairs on my neck stand up quite a bit. He was revealing to me a dark side of the Midwest that I was still young and naïve about. There are parts of this country that still have that wild, wild west spirit in them. When you get a young man who has not been influenced by the rat-race fast paced life of city dwellers, you are going to hear some shit. I would soon embark on a journey that would make me realize just how much colder the world could be.

            My attitude at this point was one that looked like this; No matter what, I could not quit. I had no job anymore. I nearly got myself frozen to death in the trip up here. I thought I had made it through the tough part. I would realize the holes in that thought process. The guy who would be our teacher was someone with over 20 years in the oil rigging business. All the way up from a floor hand, which is the guy who does the most labor, to the driller, all the way up to owning rigs himself. That is a HUGE journey. The guy was tougher and meaner than any man I have ever witnessed. Obviously he was driven enough and made some smart business choices in life to get him to where he is now.  This guy would not tolerate any weakness or laziness. If I didn’t get past this school then that was it. I would have come here for nothing. I would have taken such risks and induced the costs so far for nothing.

            I learned all there was to learn about the oil rigging business. There were tests. There was a training rig on the school’s property. The brainy stuff was nothing. The head instructor that I told you about would clean half the class size with the physical tests that he would require from us. If you failed or dropped out, that was it. He had a “Hell Week” all of his own. The month was December. Casper is always freezing at this time, and the wind never stops. On the training grounds every day after class sessions he would make us run with wheel barrels full of sand through the snow for as long as football field lengths. Sometimes up hills too. We would also have to dig holes of 3x3 foot and 3 foot deep holes in the cold ground. Afterwards he would tell us to fill them. All the while this is going on we are being dehumanized and ridiculed, coached into giving up so we can go to the warmth of our prior lives. I thought it was the stupidest shit in the world, but at the same time I had nothing else to fall back on to. I couldn’t quit even if this asshole wanted me to. All these physical activities were timed too, so the hammer hit that much harder.

            Well your boy got through it. That saying that you become strong when you have no other choice is truer than a mother-fucker. Yet here we go again. This is barely the beginning of what I would have to go through. Finishing that school was just so I could get my ticket to the show as they say. That show would nearly kill me. The school placed me on a rig out near Mesa Colorado.  I knew nothing about where I was going, and again I would be taking more chances as I moved further into life. This time I would not travel alone anymore either. I had a few travel buddies to go with; a few guys that I had met in the school that were placed with the same company, on the same rig. The Company was with Grey Wolf Drilling Company.

            We get to the little rinky dink town a few weeks after the school was done, and reported to the rig that we would call home 2 weeks a month. That was the schedule; two weeks on, two weeks off. 14 days straight of working 12 hour shifts in some of the muddiest and cold working environments that you can think of. It was fun, dangerous, and cold all at the same time. Me and my two new bros were put up in one of the houses rented by the drilling company. Here’s how that situation works; you roll into town, get to the house, and find whatever closet, room, bathroom. Wherever there is space that you can find to lay your head for the next two weeks. You learn not to trust anyone because people will steal from you in a heartbeat. Here is the dilemma…oil rig workers can be some of the toughest, shadiest, meanest mother-fuckers you will ever work for and with. They make construction workers look like pussies.

            My first week at the new job was pure hell for me and my new compadres. The rig was out in the middle of nowhere deep in the mountains where snow was a constant theme. We were so out in the back country, that even in the small town that we were shaking up in didn’t have cell phone coverage. Those two weeks of working would become what felt like prison sentences. There was no communication with the outside world. The work itself would make me lose at least ten pounds per trip. And the people were meaner than shit. You had to discover how to either be tough, or play the part. Weakness was instantly attacked.

            On an oil rig there are what you call “floor-hands”, “Derick-hands”, the “driller” who is the boss, and the “company man”. He owned the rig. The driller was the main boss pretty much. He stood in a heated room watching the computers to see the trajectory and depth that the thousands or so of pipe was drilling underground. The derrick hand basically was the guy who was responsible for lassoing the pipe to the holding areas and other functions that would have him high up in the tower. If you were afraid of hights, don’t count on doing this job. You will probably be forced to do some of his job anyways, which is something I learned very soon. As a floor hand you connect pipes, un freeze pipes with a steam hose, and disconnect the pipes when the driller is raising all those 60 foot pieces of pipe out of the ground. The work is so fucking dangerous. You can get a finger smashed between a pipe so quickly. You can get frostbite. You have people yelling at you all the time to get out of the way, give me this, go fuck yourself newbie…stuff like that. They really test your limits as well. These guys are fucking jacked. You didn’t need to work out at a gym with this kind of work. I would bring a cooler full of microwave pizzas, hot pockets, snacks, all kinds of sandwich stuff, whatever.  When there was time to eat, you gorged yourself because you were at such a high calorie burn that if you didn’t you could easily pass out.

            Let’s talk about the mother-fucking people you would work with. The driller straight looked like Johnny Bravo on steroids. He probably had a 32 inch waist, 6 foot tall and shoulders and chest the size of a professional weight lifter. He was mean as shit too. They would always test the new guys. He would drop tools in the six foot pools of mud where the water mixed with mud and say something like, “get my tool faggot, or you’re fired”. Or “put your harness on and go up to the top of the tower before I beat your ass asshole”. This was how people taled to each other on these things. I am not exaggerating. And if you whined about the work you literally risked getting jumped by the other guys on the rig. I seen it happen too. It was a dangerous environment. The people came from rough backgrounds, some even out of prison, and to top it off a lot of the guys were using meth to keep themselves up for those many days of hard work. I did this kind of work for six months, and I truly believe I worked for some of the scariest people I would ever come to work for. The way you dealt with it was by humor. You had to learn quick to portry that nothing bothered you, even if it did. When a guy called you a faggot, you responded with something like, “Fuck you, asshole, I’ll suck your dick quicker than your mom does on new year’s eve!”. You had to find a way to survive, and showing weakness only got you eaten alive.

            When those two weeks were over it really felt like you were being let out of prison. Eventually you got cell phone reception back on the drive back to wherever you called home. All the money you saved up during those two weeks were easily wasted on booze and woman. Towards the end I got mean as fuck too. I remember one night on the rig, a new guy told me he would not help me life some heavy stuff. I took a leap pipe collar and threw it at his head. He dogged it, but I am sure if he would not have moved, I would have killed him. I would not have given a shit either because in that moment, life could have not been much worse. I was strong as strong, mean, and Horney as fuck from all the aggression I had learned to deal with. Finally I couldn’t do it anymore. I don’t know how or when I did it, but I must have pinched a nerve somewhere. On my final trip to the rig I lost all felling from my shoulders down, but not all the way. Just that numb feeling you get like when you fall asleep on your arm. I wouldn’t get feeling back in my fingers for a full year. When I went to go see a doctor about it, he told me I could do permanent damage if I went back to that line of work. I was heartbroken for about two minutes. Then I realized I couldn’t play that tough guy anymore, the work was killing me, and I didn’t want to spend my life doing that kind of stuff in the first place. I listened to the doctor and moved on to the next chapter of my life.

 

Thank you for reading an episode of my journey.

Hanns “Stone Face” Sharff... Master Interrogator

 

Hanns “Stone Face” Sharff

Master Interrogator

Big-Joe-Radio

6/22/2014

History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future. — Robert Penn Warren

 

Today I want to give my own little introspective on some of life’s experiences mixed with what we all know as American history. Particularly I want to write about the history of interrogations during World War 2. In the mean time I also want to introduce to you the most successful interrogator from WW2, Hanns Scharff.

First of all I want to state that as human beings we are on this journey that sometimes seems like a rhythmic circle “of life” if you will. We have all seen the Disney movie, Lion King, so that phrase should instantly pop up an image in your head. But what exactly does that mean? I personally think it means that we remember the questions and struggles of life from our youth. We cannot see the meaning of the current struggles that we face, or the reasons that we will continue to face struggles for the better part of our lives.

I believe the “full of life” years that we live in are both a blessing and a curse. First of all we are filled with the desires to grab life by the horns and go as hard and as far as we want. We have not quite learned the boundaries of our existence yet. These years are full of our beauty yet completely lacking of our wisdom. We will learn many hard lessons during these years. The good thing is that we will be beautiful on the outside while doing it. Life will be in the process of scaring us, so until then, this is why our bodies are at our most lustful and sexual selves as well. Our loins are filled to the brim with life, but our minds are nearly empty and void of all reason to control that life.

Now back to the history at hand. Specifically let’s consider Hanns Scharff. The young man is born in East Prussia (modern day Poland). He is the son of a military man who eventually goes into the textile business. Hanns follows his father and learns the trade. He also goes to South Africa to learn how to become a salesman. Gentleman, as an economics man, myself, that tells me that he learned the theory that to become a good salesman, you have to put your clients, or customers’ needs and wants above yourself. Even ancient economics writers would explain that to draw the demand of consumers, one must be almost a market psychologist. By that I mean he must understand not only the function of the market in which he plans to sell his products, but more importantly, the perspective of the customers in which he plans to draw his profit. Hanns would later use these skills in a totally different and dangerous environment. He would use those skills to become the most feared interrogator for the NAZI war machine.

So recently I have been reading the book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, by Viktor E Frankl. He was a Jewish psychologist who eventually found himself as a prisoner at Auschwitz and Dachau. He describes in full detail the horror that many other books go into very deep detail. I would prefer not to venture down that road. During his imprisonment at theses death camps, Frankl discovers and creates his own theory called logotherapy. This theory stresses a man’s freedom to transcend suffering and find meaning even in his worst of moments.

His imprisonment becomes to a psychologist, the most practical testing ground for this theory. In his book, there are basically three stages to captivity. Before a person enters the first stage there is what is called a “delusion of reprieve”. Imagine you are a prisoner on death row. For this conversation, let’s assume that you know without a doubt that you know you belong there. Yet on or before the day of your execution, you are filled with emotions that somehow the governor or court of appeals will give you reprieve and so you will be able to go back to your former way of life. This is that “delusion of reprieve” that I am talking about. What almost always happens though is that transitional period where your past life ends, and the immediate and swift change or consequence in your life immediately destroys your ability to go back and thus thrusts you into your new stage of living.

This transitional period is also what almost every Jewish prisoner felt on the trains to their new destinations. Once in captivity, stage one of captivity happens. This is the “Shock and awe” moments. In the initial captivity moments you learn quickly that you are no longer in control. Your identity has been stripped down to where you are not much more than skin and flesh covering a soul. The time when you are showered and processed into your new dwelling place only enhances that new truth. You’re no longer a name, social class, work title, or anything that would allude to the fact that you have any sort of relationship with another human being in this world. In fact you are just a number and so your own human identity is immediately damaged and discarded. It is very scary stuff. Inside you may even laugh morbidly at your own “delusion of reprieve” that you had experienced prior to your new world becoming open to you.

The next phase of captivity is what is called the “settling in” stage. Your mind is a very powerful thing. I personally think it is the most powerful weapon on this planet. The book I am reading only goes on to solidify that belief. Even through the shock of the previous stage, your brain will actually create defense mechanisms that are unconsciously at work to help you adapt and overcome even the worst of circumstances. That is what logotheropy is all about. In his book, Frankl goes into deep detail on a spiritual experience that he had with his wife during his captivity. He spoke about in his soul how he had that spiritual closeness with her and even remembers to this day the words that they spoke with each other in captivity. What throws you off is that began to realize that Frankl never hear from or saw his wife ever again when they were separated before the train ride. Yet he in his circumstances learned to make not only peace with such a horrible experience, but he saw the beauty of life amid the death that surrounded him and was a constant threat to his life every day.

Let’s go to another setting shall we! Hanns Scharff is quite the character of death himself. Yet it was not to any Jewish prisoners, but to American and British prisoners of war. Prisoner of War camps are filled with a “softening up” technique. A prisoner who has arrived with secrets is not just going to open the beans about what he knows inside his head. He has to be softened up, or otherwise put in a situation where he has endured so much pain or mental anguish that he wants nothing more than the “Pain-Train” to stop. This is where torture comes into play.

There are many methods of torture. Many American POWs in Korea and Vietnam went through some of the most horrible tortures you can imagine. Think of having your elbows tied together behind your back. Then your ankles are tied to your hands which are behind you, and you are then systematically hung upside down from the roof and continually beaten sometimes until bones are broken. There are instances of Iraqi POW beaten across the face with a bag over their head with a 4x4. When that did not work, extreme electrocution wires were placed in the mouth of said pilots so that inevitably all the teeth would be broken as the body convulsed violently at this treatment.

These instances of torture teach one thing; the only thing that you truly own in captivity is your confession. But there is a breaking point. If your captor wants it bad enough, he will get some sort of information from you. Few…and I mean very few of us are strong enough to ride the pain-train all the way until there is no more track to follow and we never return.

Hanns Scharff never mistreated his prisoners like this. If there was a softening up phase, it was before the prisoners entered into his presence. What happened next is the reason Hanns was so effective as an interrogator. He was a complete gentleman to all his prisoners whom he questioned. He used his sales training to learn how to get inside of a prisoners mind without the prisoner even knowing what Hanns was looking for in the first place. He was very much using sales techniques to in essence make his subjects his “customers” so to speak. He didn’t brutalize them but in fact showed them complete respect. He even offered them a cigar and wine. Hanns would eventually become the interrogator for not only bomber pilots, but the most VIP pilots of high rank and information. He knew how to get into their state of mind. He was the master of getting their motivations, which is what all sales, business, economics, and market psychology is all about.

Most if not all the POW’s that would succumb to his techniques were amazed at how they divulged information to Hanns without even realizing it. One prisoner of war even stated that Hanns would make small talk about the weather, or something that would be considered non consequential, yet somehow they had fallen into his trap. After the war, the United States actually invited Hanns Scharff to the country to learn about his techniques. Many of his techniques are still used today in our own interrogation methods. Hanns was eventually allowed to become a citizen of the same country that he was at war against. Hanns eventually settled into doing art mosaics and other skills that he had learned in his father’s textile business. His art is seen in the capital building of California, many universities, and brace yourself for this little known fact; one of his well-known mosaics is the art piece for the Disney movie, “Cinderella”. Talk about the circle of life.

 

 

 

Sources…

1.     https://globalecco.org/learning-from-history-what-is-successful-interrogation-

2.     Man’s Search for Meaning. Viktor E Frankl. A Jewish Psychologist and former prisoner of the Nazis at Auschwitz and Dachau.

3.     Skindrud, Erik "The Good Soldier: Lessons from the past for this generation’s military interrogators" www.ocweekly.com September 9, 2004

4.     Smith, Mary and Barbara Freer Stalag Luft I Online "The Luftwaffe Interrogators: Dulag Luft - Oberursel"

5.