In this episode of Mr. Non Grata, Bill Alderson — Packetman007 himself — takes listeners inside a high-stakes Pentagon mystery: a 45-second network outage that plagued over 10,000 users for more than a year.

Joined by Kim Mueller, a clinical psychologist, Bill explores the human side of disputed truth — why organizations resist uncomfortable realities, and why truth-tellers so often become persona non grata.

Bill shares:

• The story of being called to the Pentagon after 9/11 to restore communications.
• A later assignment to uncover an elusive, intermittent network failure inside the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
• How technical evidence pointed to an encryption enclave — and why politics, power, and hidden relationships made the truth unwelcome.
• Why “packets never lie” and how network forensics exposes what logs and politics try to hide.

With Kim’s psychological insights, this episode unravels not just the technology of failure, but the psychology of denial. Together, they explore how truth, power, and human frailty collide in high-visibility, high-stakes environments.

If you’ve ever done the right thing and still found yourself sidelined, this story will resonate. You may discover — like many listeners have told Bill — that you too have been Mr. (or Ms.) Non Grata.