In this episode of The Tactics Meeting, we take a hard, honest look at how drills and exercises are designed—and why doing them the same way we have for the last 20 years may no longer be serving responders, organizations, or the public.

Joined by an experienced panel—Liesl Peterson, Agneta Dahl, Mark Curtis, and Suzanne Lagoni—we dig into the uncomfortable reality that many exercises have become repetitive, predictable, and overly focused on checking boxes rather than building real capability.

The conversation explores what we may be getting wrong, what we’re failing to test, and how “successful” exercises can still leave responders underprepared for the complexity, ambiguity, and pressure of real incidents. We talk about breaking out of familiar scenarios, embracing friction and failure in a controlled way, and designing exercises that actually stretch decision-making, leadership, and coordination.

If you’ve ever walked out of a drill thinking “we’ve done this before”, this episode is a challenge to rethink why we exercise—and how we can do it better.

In this episode, we step back from the headlines to look at what ship fires keep teaching us—again and again. We talk through the realities of marine firefighting response, how communities can track air quality during smoke events, and why “general average” can suddenly matter a lot when cargo is lost. We also preview regional efforts to sharpen preparedness, including upcoming work through harbor safety partners and new coordination initiatives along the Columbia River.

In this episode of The Tactics Meeting, Dan Smiley gathers a roundtable of experts to tackle the invisible but growing threat to the maritime industry: Cyber Security. We are joined by first-time guest Charles Grau from Fairwater, who brings his background in aerospace and the to the table. Together with regulars Jim Butler, Mark Curtis, and Theo Camlin, the panel discusses why the biggest threat to a vessel might not be the sea itself, but the vendor walking up the gangway with a thumb drive.

From the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack to GPS spoofing in the Red Sea, we explore how the threat landscape is shifting from traditional oil spills to cargo fires and digital intrusions. The group also debates the challenges of connectivity during an incident—balancing the security of VPNs and firewalls against the need for real-time information sharing via tools like Starlink.

In this episode, we cover:

• Aerospace vs. Maritime: Charles compares high-regulation aviation security to the current state of shipping.
• The Human Firewall: Why well-trained crew members are your best defense against phishing and social engineering.
• IT vs. OT: Understanding the difference between Information Technology and the Operational Technology that actually drives the ship.
• Response Reality: Mark shares a story about training responders on software during an active ship fire in the North Sea.
• The "Sticky Card" Problem: Navigating the digital divide when different agencies can’t use the same software.

Save the Dates:

• March 24-25, 2025: National Harbor Safety Conference in Seattle, WA.
• October 21-22, 2026: Washington State Maritime Cooperative Planning Conference in Tacoma, WA.

Sponsors: This episode is brought to you by Gallagher Marine Systems (GMS) and the Washington State Maritime Cooperative (WSMC).