by Heath Hansen It was 0530 hours the morning our first sergeant kicked open the door to our tent, and told us to “get the fuck outside and form it up!” Late the previous night, we returned to base from a 10-day mission in Afghanistan. I could see through a …

by Gatimu Juma Publisher’s note: Gatimu Juma, who reports from the Horn of Africa, told me he was working on a story about the Al-Shabaab terror group. Nearly a year went by, and I couldn’t reach him. Finally he surfaced to tell me where he was all that time: convalescing. …

Krasmir Kamenov was found shot dead along with his wife and two others in their home in a suburb of Cape Town in 2023. The killings remain unsolved. by Tony Wesolowsky He was one of Bulgaria’s most notorious mafia kingpins, who rose through the ranks in the chaotic 1990s, acquiring …

by Katie Lange The morning of October 3, 2009, brought a hail of gunfire to Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan – and for Army Staff Sgt. Ty Carter and American soldiers from his unit, it was a day of tremendous courage in combat. READ MORE about brutal combat in Afghanistan …

When Gene Metcalfe boarded the C-47 that would drop him just outside of Nijmegen, Holland, a British lieutenant gave him a box of condoms. Gene was to be among the first to jump into what should have been a picture-book meadow, free of German troops. Instead, it was defended by …

It reads like an ordinary patent. A citizen of the United States, living in Weber County, Utah, has invented “certain new and useful improvements in firearms.” No fanfare. No grand claims. Just a statement of fact. Yet those lines would lead to a sidearm that rode in the holsters of …

by Austin Lee In the pantheon of firearms, few pistols command the reverence of the 1911. Its century-plus legacy, forged in the crucible of conflict, continues to inspire innovation. Enter Military Armament Corporation’s (MAC) latest offering: the JSOC 1911, a .45 ACP masterpiece that channels the gritty, high-stakes modifications of …

by Mitchell “Taco” Bell A pilot flying a 737 meets a coordinated laser attack inside Mexican airspace. Guadalajara, MX? Yeah, the law there is optional. That is the best comment about having a seemingly coordinated attack on a civilian airliner on approach into Guadalajara, Mexico.  Those green lasers that can point …

Afghan guards and Gurkhas ran to the fight. The bomb answered back. by Robert M. Kurtz It was April 2010, and I was on an assignment to evaluate the security measures and contracted security provider of a project compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Anyone who has ever been to Kandahar can …

by Austin Lee The KA-BAR fighting knife has been a steadfast companion to U.S. Marines for more than 80 years, earning its place as one of the most legendary blades in military history. Adopted by the Marine Corps in 1942, the KA-BAR has slashed through jungles, pierced enemy defenses, and …