The Fire Pit

by Fred A. Ganous, SGM, USA (Ret) The departure point was LZ Washington in downtown Baghdad, which stayed busier than the Atlanta airport. The pilot in command was a Chief Warrant 4 who was well-trained in his aviation duties. He saw a convoy of five U.S. army vehicles come under …

by Capt. Larry Bailey, USN (Ret) As recounted in the average personal memoir, war is most frequently depicted in combinations of heroic actions, cowardly misdeeds, triumphs of the human spirit, and the like. It ain’t always so, however; fact is, much of war is not dramatic – it’s just sad, …

by Greg Chabot Politicians have no clue what the true cost of war is. For more than 20 years, warfighters have been deployed to hot spots around the world in the fight against terrorism. We now have an entiregeneration of warfighters who have known nothing but combat deployments. This takes …

by Mitchell “Taco” Bell So you shot down a spy balloon, huh? Here, hold my beer… Somewhere back in 2002, I was flying from LGA to Toronto Canada on the daily shuttle in the F-100 Fokker Barbie Jet. It was a typical cold rainy and miserable winter time day in …

by Heath Hansen Editor’s note: Soldier of Fortune correspondent Heath Hansen recently came across an artist who creates visceral, dark, and mesmerizing military themed works that he says “do a fantastic job capturing the deepest emotions of the GWOT veteran.” Hansen contacted the artist, Invader Girl, and sends the following …

by Nikolay Shevchenko During the Cold War, disinformation was a deadly weapon that helped advance the USSR’s interests. Here are three areas where the KGB fueled conspiracy theories about the United States. 1. AIDS was a Pentagon invention On March 30, 1987, millions of Americans heard shocking news on national …

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 …

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 …

by Brendan O ‘Byrne, The War Horse A small line of people formed in front of the stage; some of them offered a handshake or a thank you, a few wanted to tell me a story about their own experience, and others asked a question or two. An older woman …

by Heath Hansen I looked up into the big, blue sky. Far in the distance, I spotted a C-130 Hercules headed towards the open grass field I waited in. For a few moments, I watched as the plane continued in my direction. Suddenly, from the tail-end of the aircraft, paratroopers …