Badass

With the SAS in Mozambique, We Parachuted Into Enemy Territory While Bombs Exploded on the Ground Below

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 …

Read More »

This American Paratrooper Was Captured by SS Troops During ‘Operation Market Garden’

When Gene Metcalfe boarded the C-47 that would drop him just outside of Nijmegen, Holland, a British lieutenant gave him a box of condoms. Gene was to be among the first to jump into what should have been a picture-book meadow, free of German troops. Instead, it was defended by …

Read More »

The Flying Legend, ‘Black Sheep’ Col. Pappy Boyington

by Katie Lange  Editor’s note: SOF publisher Susan Katz Keating knew Col. Pappy Boyington in the 1980’s when he frequented the Nut Tree airport in Vacaville, California. Here is a story of his life in uniform. Colonel Gregory “Pappy” Boyington was one of the service’s greatest and most legendary pilots. …

Read More »

An Infantryman Comes Home From War

by Heath Hansen March 2006. My tour was over. I had survived. No more fire-fights. No more IED’s. No more raids. No more rocket-attacks. I was going home. Many servicemen spend time in-country without ever leaving “the wire.” As an infantryman, I basically lived outside the wire. Being shot at, …

Read More »

Wounded and Outgunned, ‘Misfit’ B-17 Crew Flew Disabled Aircraft to Accomplish Vital Mission

History-making missions are often best told in photos, so it’s pretty cool to know that photos were the mission of one of the most highly decorated aircrews in U.S. military history. During World War II, there was a crew with the U.S. Army Air Forces 43rd Bomb Group of the …

Read More »

George Washington Bacon, the CIA’s Man in Laos Before He Became a Merc in Angola

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 …

Read More »

Ed Freeman and Bruce Crandall Flew Unarmed Helicopters Under Fire in Vietnam

Ed Freeman was close to retirement when war broke out in Vietnam. He was an experienced pilot by then and assigned to the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, which was sent to deliver troops to what became known as the Battle of Ia Drang, the first major battle between the United …

Read More »

The Battle of Bayonet Hill: Lewis Millett and the ‘Wolfhounds’ at War in Korea

The last major bayonet charge in American military history took place in Korea on February 7, 1951. The charge was carried out by the men of Easy Company, 27th Infantry “Wolfhounds,” during the Battle of Bayonet Hill. The soldiers were led by Cpt. Lewis Millett, who had been awarded the …

Read More »

Cold War Navy SEAL James Hawes Talks About Che Guevara, War in the Congo, and More

  Sometime in 1965, Navy SEAL James Hawes landed in the Congo with cash stuffed in his socks, morphine in his bag, and a basic understanding of his mission: recruit a mercenary navy and suppress the Soviet- and Chinese-backed rebels engaged in guerrilla movements against a pro-Western government. He did …

Read More »