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Stories from the field that show doctrine colliding with reality
Field notes are how I document what actually happened when systems, people, and missions intersected under pressure. Some went well. Some went sideways. All of them taught me something about how resilient systems really work.
Before AI, before everyone had a 4K camera in their pocket, video inside government felt risky and mysterious. Executives worried about looking foolish.Scientists worried about oversimplifying their work.Comms teams worried about policy, branding, and accessibility. And everybody avoided the camera. That was the environment at the U.S. Forest Service in 2017 when I decided to…
Know What Room You Are In: A Lesson From Hubbard Brook Note:This is one vignette from the 60th anniversary of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in 2015. Names and technical details are simplified to keep the focus on the pattern. 1. Context: Hubbard Brook at 60 Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is one of those rare…
A Forest Service Story About Narrative, Resilience, and Memory Disclaimer:This case study is based on volunteer work I did with a U.S. Forest Service region during the Chief’s Operation Care & Recovery effort. I developed this material independently and shared it with that region to support their resilience efforts. All interpretations, conclusions, and lessons here…
“Proudly Maintained By Mike E.” On a tour of Hoover Dam, I noticed a small plaque on one of the generators that said “Proudly Maintained By Mike E.” It has been living in my head as a systems principle ever since. The plaque that explained the whole system Hoover Dam is an easy place to…
In late 2005, in places like Bay St. Louis on the Mississippi coast, I learned the hard way that trust and sovereignty mattered more than any federal logo on a badge. The backdrop: a coast that had already paid Hurricane Katrina did not hit every community the same way. New Orleans dominated the headlines, and…
A field note on responsibility outrunning authority when the system breaks and the mission does not. In April 2010, the Iceland ash cloud grounded flights across Europe. It also turned a routine civil-military engagement into a test of whether I could actually deliver when the system fell apart. The backdrop: former Warsaw Pact, new realities…
Field Note Context: Fire and Aviation Management, United States Forest Service A former Navy camera operator joined USFS Fire and Aviation Management as a media specialist. His footage was sharp. His audio was clean. His compositions were strong. And yet, product after product was quietly rejected by the Washington Office. The problem was not his…
Every complex system has code, data and diagrams. Underneath all of that, it has human contracts. Not the legal documents, although those matter too. I mean: When human contracts are clear, systems can be messy and still work. When human contracts are broken or absent, even perfect architectures will fail under load. Pastor vs Relief…
On paper, airspace is neat. Lines on a chart. Numbers. Altitudes. Clearances. In the real sky, the envelope is shaped by weather, workload and human limits. I learned this the day a very experienced rotor wing pilot looked at a cross country route I had been given and said three words that stayed with me:…
There are only two kinds of gates in a system: The first kind produces compliance.The second kind produces safety. I learned that two different ways. When The Task Book Actually Means Something In wildland fire, the task book is more than a form. If you want to be: you carry a task book. The book…
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