By Greg Walker (ret), USA Special Forces “Now you become part of the Nimiipuu people and we welcome you” — Spiritual leader Horace Axtell SPALDING, IDAHO — Under the shade of cottonwood and locust trees rustling in a stiff breeze, the men of Company A, an airborne Army Special Forces unit …
Read More »A Contractor Heads Back Into the Fray: ‘I Went to Touch the Elephant’
by Babatim / Free Range International I couldn’t take being out of the game anymore, so off I went to touch the elephant. I had just cracked open the first beer of the afternoon when I heard the rockets coming in. Wise now to the ways of war I stayed …
Read More »‘The Deer Hunter’ Came to Town on a Cold Night in Denver
by Jack Hawkins Released in Los Angeles in 1978, The Deer Hunter was already becoming a legendary film by the time it hit “flyover country” a few months later. I was between girlfriends, a gung-ho “seventies copper” usually “drunk on adrenaline” from the endless barfight calls (or still depressed over …
Read More »‘Pursuit,’ a World War I Flying Adventure, Marks Soldier of Fortune Fiction Debut
by Chris Crowther Editor’s note: For the first time since its founding, Soldier of Fortune presents fiction. The following is an excerpt from a novel set in World War I: PURSUIT, by British author Chris Crowther. He notes about writing the book: “I drew on my own 42 years in …
Read More »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 …
Read More »A Strange, Spectral Quiet Spooked Our Team in Afghanistan – Was It a Ghost?
by Heath Hansen I slowly poured a bit of water into my MRE heater bag and waited as the chemicals reacted and began to warm. I slid the main course into the packet and folded the top sleeve over, laying the bag against a rock or something. As I waited …
Read More »‘G is For Gonzo’: A Slice From an Editor’s Life at Soldier of Fortune
by Martin Kufus Editor’s note: Author Martin Kufus has published Plow the Dirt but Watch the Sky, a memoir of his many adventures. Herewith some excerpts from the chapter where some unusual requests come his way while he is an editor at Soldier of Fortune. The phone call had come …
Read More »Inside the Circle of Death, We Got Hit by An IED – And Garrison Bullshit From ‘Old Stinkeye’
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 …
Read More »A Bomb in the Briefcase: When Iran Planned to Launch Terror Attack in Paris
Book review by Tom Squitieri There are some who believe nations of the world have been unfair to Iran, that the nation has been maligned, miscast, and put in a corner for economic and political reasons of others. Reading “Diplomatic Terrorism” should put an end to such perceptions and shed …
Read More »In Cold War Moscow, a Moment of Hope at a Freezing Airfield
by Rick Kiernan, The War Horse On Oct. 28, 1991, I settled into an hours-long commercial flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Moscow. By year’s end, the iconic Soviet flag would fly over the Kremlin for the final time, silently signaling the collapse of the USSR after nearly seven decades. I …
Read More »