Rotarian of the Day for the October 17th meeting was our own, Captain Nathan Welch, USAF. Nathan has served several TDY's with the JIATF-S in Key West Fl. doing detection and monitoring operations to help fight drug and human trafficking in support of national and partner nation security. The military including AWACS from Tinker AFB is helping conduct a "Quiet war" in the Caribbean against "Go-Fast" boats often used to carry illicit drugs and other cargo across borders. Aggressive interdiction of a large fast deadly aircraft is often enough for the trafficker to unload their cargo and turn back to home base without a shot being fired. Cartels average an income of $650 BILLION (with a "B") annually as an estimate. and Cocaine accounts for $85 Billion of that. Cutting into this any can significantly decease the amount of drugs available on the street or increase the price to a point that it becomes prohibitive to be a user. By removing over 192 METRIC TONS of cocaine off the high seas in 2015, and 14 tons off of flights the task force made a significant dent in the trade of drugs. Still there is more work to do. Over 93% of smuggling between countries is done across high seas using fast boats, submersibles, jet skis, and planes. There are over 40 MILLION square miles of ocean that the task force has to track surface traffic. Truly this is a daunting task! The main objective is not to have an open door on the southern flank of the United States. We also want to avoid international incidents such as having a country like Honduras which has shoot-down authority, cause an international incident by shooting down an innocent aircraft or board a citizen's boat on a legitimate cruise. Their job is tough folks, and people with experience and common sense like Nathan help keep the task force on an even keel, and stay effective against the bad guys. Hats off to our military on this important mission!