War

by Susan Katz Keating Why did Soviet forces abandon Afghanistan in 1989 after nearly 10 years of war? Western analysts have burned through terabytes trying to explain it. What else besides the fierce Mujahideen drove the Red Army to retreat with nothing to show but shattered pride? Some credit the …

by David Nelson, The War Horse I woke up early on the morning of Dec. 6, 1972, to pack and say tearful goodbyes to my wife, Martie, and our one-year-old daughter, Amy. We’d decided ahead of time that my father-in-law “Pop” Lowry would drive me from Temple, Texas, to Love …

by Susan Katz Keating China and other foreign actors are using Ukraine as a testbed, deploying cut-outs and deniable assets to gather real-time data on drones, intelligence sources told Soldier of Fortune. The grainy figures moved across the screen, creeping through murky terrain like shadows come to life. A blip …

by Fred A. Ganous, SGM, USA (Ret) Our deployment in Iraq from 2006 to 2007 was a rollercoaster of emotions, marked by both triumphs and tragedies. The crash of “EASY 40” still stands as one of the darkest days of our deployment. This UH-60 Blackhawk, bearing tail number 84-23984, was …

by A.R. Fomenko VIENNA BUREAU – On the battlefields of Ukraine, steel beasts now crawl under strange new hides – bristling, porcupine-like shells known as “hedgehog armor.” It’s the latest mutation born from drone-saturated warfare, where a cheap quadcopter can gut a million-dollar tank before the crew even knows it’s coming. …

Watch this Russian soldier with the call sign ‘Kasper’ talking in Russian about UAV warfare. “We always try to trick, it’s like playing chess,” he says. “Everyone is trying to outsmart in order to hit the enemy.” The soldier belongs to Russia’s 34th Separate Guards Motorised Rifle Brigade (Unmanned Systems …

by Gatimu Juma It should have been a routine flight. The Bush War was well underway in Rhodesia, but on that day in 1978, civilian air travel was safe. Or so it seemed. On the afternoon of September 3, 1978, the passengers and crew aboard Air Rhodesia Flight 825 learned …

by Marvin J. Wolf 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. “Gentlemen, I give …

By Heath Hansen I opened my eyes. It was still dark, but I could see the night was ending and another day in some village in Afghanistan was beginning. The smell of dip-spit and cigarette smoke betrayed the fact that the platoon was awake and breaking down the patrol base. “Get …

Here at Soldier of Fortune, we uncovered a long-ago story of an atrocity during World War I, when eight prisoners met a horrific fate while captive in Germany. Here is the tale, as told by a fellow prisoner,  “Pedro.”  ~SKK Pedro’s Tale I was sailing on an English ship. She …