Survival

by Marvin J. Wolf, The War Horse On the third day of a weeklong field exercise at Fort Lewis, our company XO drove me back to the garrison for an appointment to fit me for a temporary dental prosthesis. Afterward, he picked me up and we headed back out to …

by Jose Campos Turns out it’s okay to eat TNT – if you’re a starfish. The Baltic Sea is a war grave. Rusted shells, V-1 flying bombs, chemical caches, unexploded munitions – the relics of two world wars – litter the seafloor. They are toxic, deadly, abandoned, and now, astonishingly, …

by Fred Ganous, SGM, USA (Ret) The pilot in command reached up and grasped the rescuer’s shirt. “Hey asshole,” he growled. “That’s not what you say to the ones you are trying to help!” The medevac mission had ended, and the burn patient was dropped off successfully at the hospital. …

by Martin Kufus Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from  Plow the Dirt but Watch the Sky, a memoir by Martin Kufus, a former editor at Soldier of Fortune. This chapter shows Martin’s experience at the Special Forces SERE Instructor Qualification Course, where he encountered the legendary Col. Nick Rowe – …

Soldier of Fortune In a daring mid-winter mission, a Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J Hercules crew braved total darkness, ice, and sub-zero temperatures to rescue three Americans from Antarctica’s remote McMurdo Station. One American required urgent medical care, while two others needed medical assistance. Officials did not disclose the …

Deep in the jungle, there’s no medevac, no backup, and no room for mistakes. At the Marine Corps Jungle Warfare Training Center, instructors teach Navy corpsmen to be the light in a dark time. For 10 relentless days, they learn to survive, treat the wounded, and move through terrain that wants …

by Martin Kufus Author Martin Kufus was a volunteer firefighter in Texas, and participated in disaster ops there. He embarked on a tense mission in 1998, after flash floods wreaked havoc along the southern border. The following is based on a chapter from his book, Plow the Dirt but Watch the …

One of the rules in the Yukon Territory is that hunting guides must always be within hearing distance of their hunters. This is a good rule, as we soon shall see.  It was the first day of an early September expedition when hunting guide David O’Farrell brought an archery hunter …

Then-Corporal Kenneth “Rock” Merritt poses for a photo. (Courtesy Photo) During World War II, Kenneth “Rock” Merritt was aboard a plane that got lost over France. Here are his memories of his experiences in the Army from 1942-45. His words are as follows. … I was sworn into the Army on …

by Gatimu Juma Publisher’s note: Gatimu Juma, who reports from the Horn of Africa, told me he was working on a story about the Al-Shabaab terror group. Nearly a year went by, and I couldn’t reach him. Finally he surfaced to tell me where he was all that time: convalescing. …