The Fire Pit

by Susan Katz Keating Jack Carr and James M. Scott have produced a master class in how to write contemporary history. Morning reveille had not yet sounded on Oct 23, 1983, when a terrorist drove a bomb-laden truck into the headquarters and barracks building of the U.S. Marine Corps peacekeeping …

by Mike Holmes In late October 2005, my team and I had been dropped off in a terrible little place on the Baghdad-to- Amman highway called Ar Rutbah, to coordinate supply convoys coming out of Jordan with the Marines who controlled this sector. The convoys mostly carried fuel and supplies …

by Susan Katz Keating 2006 The traffic along Georgia Avenue going south was sparse throughout the stretch of Maryland road. The bus proceeded unhindered, ferrying wounded warriors strapped into gurneys or propped up with i.v. lines attached, and belted into seats. Many were profoundly changed men and women with missing …

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 …

Book Review by Heath Hansen Ever wonder what it’s like to be a street cop? The politics? The bureaucracy? The intensity? Or what it feels like to face a crazed maniac? The adrenaline high? The danger? The uncertainty? Fractured Streets has it all. I was recently perusing noir crime books on Amazon …

by Hooligan I hoped to shoot the first VC I saw who poked his head over the wall, and at least get his AK to defend myself.  All this while the enemy machine guns were firing and mortars going off. It started out as just another boring Ash & Trash …

by Sgt. 1st Class Ashleigh Martinez Editor’s note: I first met Chuck Ziegenfuss when I wrote an article about him for PEOPLE magazine, when he was donating voice-activated laptops to wounded warriors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Before long, I was part of another group that cooked for …

We keep on driving, and I ask, “Where the fuck are we going?” With a smile and laugh Ali replies, “It’s just up here, buddy.” Being paranoid, I lock and load my M16. I figure worse comes to worse, I’ll smoke him and find my way back. by Greg Chabot …

by Heath Hansen When William Yeske asked if I’d be interested in reviewing his book, Damn The Valley, I was eager to see what he had put on paper. As I found out later, he’d served as an 82nd Airborne Paratrooper, in the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR). Considering I …

Two of our great friends sat down for a chat in their respective studios – and here’s the result. Our esteemed board member Ric Prado appeared on Tall Tales With Taco Bell, hosted by the one and only – you guessed it! – Taco Bell. They chat about Ric’s adventures …