Best of SOF

by John Coleman If there’s a lesson to be learned from merc work, it’s this -you are on your own. When you put your trust in others, or rely on outside forces for salvation, you’re buying yourself a one·way ticket to the oblivion of a mercs’ limbo: jail if you’re …

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 Jim Lechner Editor’s note: Army Ranger (Ret) Jim Lechner wrote the following hymn to comradeship and patriotism – an essay that reverberates among those who long for the lost clarity of war. A veteran of multiple Special Operations missions, Lechner was wounded in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in …

by Susan Katz Keating The Ninth Situation of War, when you must fight without delay, is Desperate Ground – Sun Tzu “Watson. Wake up. Woods. Everyone. Wake the hell up.” The sentinels raced through the lean-to, alerting the team with urgent news: the Taliban were at the wire. Hours earlier, Sgt. …

By Chris Sajnog From the May 2015 issue of SOF Across the ages, every great society has celebrated and revered a great warrior tradition and passed on the stories of these heroes in folklore. We can look back to the Spartans, Roman legionnaires, Vikings, knights, samurai or Aztecs, and each …

JIMMY STEWART FLEW IN VIETNAM?   WHAT MOVIE WAS THAT !!​ ©  J David Truby 2018 Brig. Gen. James Stewart (middle) and the crew of the Green-2 B-52 on February 20, 1966. The aircraft flew a classified Arc Light bombing mission over Vietnam with Stewart aboard as an official observer. Stewart was …

A Handful of Hard Men: The SAS and the Battle for Rhodesia    by Hannes Wessels Africa Unathorized With the collapse of colonialism and the European retreat from Africa the then colony of Southern Rhodesia refused to follow the political fashion of the time and succumb quietly. They decided to …

Christian Lambertsen and the Secret Story Behind Scuba From the archives of the CIA  Dr. Christian Lambertsen  The men and women of the Office of Strategic Services. (OSS) developed many spectacular devices for war-time use: exploding coal, invisible ink, tasteless poisons, miniature cameras and exotic knives. Some of these developments …

Huey in Vietnam By Eric Blehm In LEGEND, bestselling author Eric Blehm takes as his canvas Southeast Asia, and tells the unforgettable account of the U.S. Army’s 240th Assault Helicopter Company and Green Beret (Studies and Operations Group) Staff Sergeant Roy Benavidez, who risked everything to rescue a Special Forces …

by Alex QuadeDiyala Province, Iraq — Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (A-Team) 072 rolled into the village. It was dead quiet. Nothing moved. Suddenly, “squirters”—people running away from the village and cars leaving at a high rate of speed. Clearly, something of interest was in that village. A-Team Commander Captain …