The Fire Pit

by Susan Katz Keating “The Taliban are behind my door.” The whispered words came through the phone in the pitch of night, hours after Kabul fell on August 15, 2021. My friend “Hakim,” a man I had been trying from afar to help leave Afghanistan, called me from inside his …

by John Stryker Meyer When I read Soldier of Fortune Magazine recently, I was pleasantly surprised to see an article on a MACV-SOG legend. He was Green Beret medic and later CIA operative George Washington Bacon III, who met an untimely death in Angola at the hands of Cuban commies …

by Cliff Wade It was the kind of place where a man earned his name on a bracelet for all eternity.  Iraq, September 2007 In an attempt to win over hearts and minds, we would sometimes be tasked with delivering humanitarian assistance (HA) to local villages or neighborhoods. We would …

by Heath Hansen Happy National Airborne Day to all you servicemen and servicewomen who volunteered to serve your country at a “higher” level! Created in 2002, by then President George W. Bush, National Airborne Day honors all the Nation’s airborne armed forces. READ MORE from Heath Hansen in Soldier of …

by Cliff Wade Iraq, 2007 Much more often than not, our missions in Iraq were meticulously planned out well ahead of time. However, there were occasions when opportunities were presented that did not allow enough time for applying the proper troop-leading procedures, and we just winged it.  One such instance …

By Greg Chabot In mid-2005 the name Juba struck fear into coalition troops in Baghdad. He had become a folk hero to the insurgency with his attacks on check points that were filmed and uploaded to the internet along with a graphic novel written about him. He would leave an …

by Mitch “Taco” Bell Sometimes you never know who your neighbors are and I don’t mean that in the ax murderer scenario way, but in the sense that you have true heros hiding out in plain sight. Take Tommy King, for instance. One weekend we had a giant wind storm and …

by Greg Chabot Note from the author: The following is all from my perspective and how I remember it. Any inaccuracies are on me. Overview I often get asked, “What was the most dangerous mission you went on?” My reply: “Logpack to FOB Warhorse.”  Baqubah in 2004-05 was not a …

On this particular day, I was feeling quite fed up with all the fucking trackers. I went on a rant. And then… by Cliff Wade Back in Garrison, 2015 The Army is big on trackers. They track unit’s training requirements, numerous administrative actions, leave dates, fire extinguisher expiration dates, duty exemptions, …

by Mitch “Taco” Bell We called him “Pyro” after he ran around the Charleston O’Club, drunk as hell, butt-naked with a rolled-up newspaper stuck in the crack of his rear, on fire, and a green tee shirt over his head with two eyes cut out. Tonight, his in-flight emergency was …