Badass

An ambush in the swamps, a lone scout’s night of chaos, and a jungle con that fooled the FARC. What can a small force do when an enemy has the advantage? Soldier of Fortune looks at three ways to meet the challenge. Francis Marion: How the ‘Swamp Fox’ Mastered Guerrilla …

by Jose Campos The bomb tech plunged into the water wearing his protective suit, then scrambled to free himself from the bulky gear while staying afloat. Across the pool, others struggled with the same task. It was a special kind of swim lesson for people whose next call could take …

by Jose Campos Before the term guerrilla warfare entered the American military lexicon, a wiry, cunning officer in the Carolina backcountry was already running the playbook. His name was Francis Marion – better known to the British as the Swamp Fox. From 1780 to 1782, Marion and his ragged militia bled the King’s …

by Jose Campos A fake TV crew, two secretaries and a white helicopter fooled Colombia’s most feared guerrillas into handing over 15 hostages without a shot fired. The white helicopter was running out of time, and Maj. José Luís Russi knew it. As the Soviet-built Mi-17 swept low over the …

The B-17 called Old 666 was already a wreck when they claimed it. What happened over the Pacific turned the bomber and its crew into legend. During World War II, there was a crew with the U.S. Army Air Forces 43rd Bomb Group of the Fifth Air Force that became …

by John Gartner As I sat looking out the port side window of the Dakota, I could see below me the vast expanse of Lake Cahora Bassa dam. The grey skeletal branches of long-drowned trees dotted the shoreline and seemed, in my reverie, to be reaching imploringly skyward. The surface …

Editor’s note: Longtime CIA covert operations officer James Parker Jr. often talked to me about his days in Southeast Asia, including the secret war in Laos. He told stories of another case officer and former Green Beret, George Washington Bacon III, who became a mercenary in Angola. Here is an …

by Jerry Kraus South African parachute veterans, a black Super Huey, and one hell of a water jump over Florida. Last fall, I attended a small reunion of Soldier of Fortune friends at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico. After a long day of shooting, I found myself …

by Jose Campos “I thought I was severed in half. There was no pain.” The jungle around Quan Loi erupted that night into an unholy symphony of gunfire. It was February 1970, and the darkness came alive with muzzle flashes from unseen enemy positions, each one a promise of death. …

by Gatimu Juma With civilians trapped and time running out, French Foreign Legion and Belgian paratroopers jumped into Zaire in 1978. The French segment was known as operation Bonite. CAPE TOWN BUREAU – The doors opened in the skies over Zaire, and the Legionnaires stepped into empty air. Below them …