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 …

Just making contact with a submarine carries an extra measure of danger for a smuggler. by Susan Katz Keating Smugglers for the Chapitos branch of the Sinaloa Cartel balk when ordered to pull “submarine duty” along the group’s fentanyl trafficking routes, a security official told Soldier of Fortune. “They hate …

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 Heath HansenIt’s a gray, cold, and windy autumn day as I arrive and step out of my vehicle. The snow is beginning to stick to the North Brabant earth under my feet as I approach the house. A man opens the door, shakes my hand, and welcomes me into …

The United States seized a sanctioned Venezuelan oil tanker off the country’s coast, President Donald Trump said Wednesday. “We’ve just taken control of a tanker off Venezuela – huge, the largest one ever – and there are other developments unfolding,” said Trump. Watch the vessel being seized, below. Attorney General …

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 …

ANALYSIS by Susan Katz Keating A Virginia man was arrested in connection with pipe bombs planted in Washington, D.C., the FBI confirmed. The devices – set outside the Republican and Democratic national party headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021 – have haunted investigators for nearly five years. Even with Brian Cole …

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating Something strange crackled through the shortwave radio bands coming out of Russia this summer. The long-dormant station UVB-76  –  known to old intelligence hands as the “Doomsday Radio” – buzzed to life on June 4, and began broadcasting again. The transmission was cryptic. The voice …

by Susan Katz Keating The Ninth Situation of War, when you must fight without delay, is Desperate Ground – Sun Tzu “Watson. Wake up. Woods. Everyone. Wake the hell up.” The sentinels raced through the lean-to, alerting the team with urgent news: the Taliban were at the wire. Hours earlier, Sgt. …

by Susan Katz Keating It remains one of the strangest and most unsettling unsolved mysteries of the Vietnam War. The stories were too strange to be true; and at first, no one believed them. American patrols in Vietnam returned from the jungles near the DMZ and along the Laotian border …