“It’s more than putting a bit of grass on your helmet and thinking that’s sufficient camouflage.” Shine, shape, shadow, and more… these are the factors a sniper must consider when working to remain hidden. British Army instructors from 1 Royal Anglian conducted a stalking exercise where six potential snipers aimed …
Read More »Did Allied Pilots Punk the Germans by Dropping Fake Bombs on Fake Airfields in WWII?
Did Allied forces really drop a fake wooden bomb as a joke on German forces in World War II? A story that is often retold by fans of military history has it that German forces built decoy fake wooden airfields to deceive enemy pilots – and that Allied forces, on …
Read More »Army Widow Awarded $1.7 Million in Wrongful Death Suit Against VA
An Army widow who held the government accountable for her husband’s suicide was awarded $1.7 million to settle a wrongful death claim against the Department of Veterans Affairs. Army veteran Jason Moon contacted the South Bend Vet Center in Indiana in 2020, seeking care for mental health issues. He had …
Read More »At Fort Bragg, We Trained Under Special Forces Legend Nick Rowe: ‘S is for Survival’
by Martin Kufus Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Plow the Dirt but Watch the Sky, a memoir by Martin Kufus, a former editor at Soldier of Fortune. This chapter shows Martin’s experience at the Special Forces SERE Instructor Qualification Course, where he encountered the legendary Col. Nick Rowe – …
Read More »Pilot James Swett Became an Ace on His First Combat Mission
As a young second lieutenant in 1943, James Swett embarked on his first combat mission at the age of 22. Within 15 minutes, he was a fighter ace with seven enemy kills to his credit. Swett arrived for duty in February 1943 at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal Island in the …
Read More »An Infantryman Comes Home From War
by Heath Hansen March 2006. My tour was over. I had survived. No more fire-fights. No more IED’s. No more raids. No more rocket-attacks. I was going home. Many servicemen spend time in-country without ever leaving “the wire.” As an infantryman, I basically lived outside the wire. Being shot at, …
Read More »The Sands of Agadez: Where a Woman Knows More Than She Should About Gun Lords and Mercenaries
by Carl Hancocks For the past four years, the city of Agadez has been what could barely pass as home for a woman without a name. Nigerian, she fends for herself as a sex-worker, but that was not how she arrived in this place. Her story is that of a …
Read More »Putin Must Not Be Insulted: Inside the Mysterious Agency That Controls Russia’s Internet
by Mike Eckel, Daniil Belovodyev, and Anton Bayev In the first half of October 2022, employees of an obscure Russian government department working out of a small business center in northeast Moscow were worried about the weather. Not Moscow’s weather, but rather weather in four regions of Ukraine that President …
Read More »A Swedish Mercenary in Iraq: A Ghostwriter’s Ode to Axel Stal
by Jonas Vesterberg It was back in 2016. I was at home in Los Angeles when I got a call from my agent in Stockholm. “I have a project but nobody here in Sweden wants to touch it. Maybe you could take a look?” I suppose I was known as …
Read More »Irish Rebels Fought the 1916 Easter Rising With Smuggled Mauser Rifles
In Dublin, Ireland, on Easter Monday, 1916, nationalists proclaimed the founding of the Irish Republic. Bolstered by some 1,600 followers, they staged a rebellion against the British government in Ireland. They didn’t have planes nor tanks, and only limited use of artillery. Instead, the rebels made a stand using personal …
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