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The Fire Pit

Lore, Adventure, Stories of Fortune, Books, Entertainment, Veterans’ Issues

‘The Mother’: A Soldier’s Haunting Encounter in Iraq

by Cliff Wade Iraq, 2006 We found ourselves in the home of an Iraqi family during a massive clearing operation in an area characterized by terrain varying between urban landscape, farmland, palm groves, and small villages. We had been clearing routes of improvised explosive devices all morning. We had been …

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Mew, Mew, Mew… Can Social Media Take a Joke?

We love being serious here at SOF, but we’ve been having great fun on a certain social media platform, joking around that kittens are more palatable than scary stuff. If you’ve come here from our [certain place] page, what do you think? Would this uncensored image be totally un-funny to …

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Mail Drop: Dear Soldier of Fortune, Send Info Fast

“You’re the only one I can tell this to,” and other communiques. Mail drop! By popular demand, here’s a new feature at Soldier of Fortune: A peek into our inbox. Here’s what arrived recently. Send us a note, and you, too, might appear in a future edition of Mail Drop! …

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We Attacked the Jungle With Flamethrowers and Explosives

by Marvin J. Wolf, The War Horse Tall, muscular, broad-shouldered, with a full head of white hair, Brig. Gen. John M. Wright Jr. scrambled up a termite mound, some 30 feet wide at the base and seven or eight feet high, and gestured for us to draw into a semicircle. …

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Soviet Submarines Raced to Find Us in the Atlantic – But We Flipped the Script On Their ‘Secret’ Operation

by David Chetlain, The War Horse In spring 1987, the Soviet Union launched Operation Atrina, scrambling five Victor III-class submarines from their Kola base that raced toward U.S. Naval installations along the Atlantic coast. The USSR claimed its submarines were undetected. It was a lie then and it remains a …

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They Called Us Mercenaries, Gunslingers, and Worse: A Contractor’s Story

by Mikial The author tells Soldier of Fortune: “All of my work was with Department of Defense contractors. We never considered ourselves mercenaries although we were called mercenaries, gunslingers, and worse at times. It was difficult and dangerous work and also sometimes boring. We often lived rough in camps and …

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‘The Lady Captain’ Hired Only the Best Looking Men For Her Swiss Mercenary Band

Mercenary bands in Switzerland for centuries were much feared by their enemies – and prized by the families that owned them. One group in particular – the Zerlauben family – ran a robust mercenary enterprise during the old Swiss Confederacy, supplying men for the Swiss Guards and other outfits. Family …

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Four Marines and a Night on the Town: What Possibly Could Go Wrong?

by Al Hagan The night started off fairly typically, just four Marines in a car, going out on the town to slam down beers. And it was innocent for most of the night, drinking and shooting pool.  I’ll call my companions Mike, John, and Steve, to pick some random names …

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