Former American diplomat William Boudreau encountered mercenaries during his career with the Foreign Service. Here are his recollections and observations about them. by William Boudreau    I will not advocate for a humanitarian award for any mercenary I have known. However, they embrace humanity. My point is they were …

by Mitch “Taco” Bell We called him “Pyro” after he ran around the Charleston O’Club, drunk as hell, butt-naked with a rolled-up newspaper stuck in the crack of his rear, on fire, and a green tee shirt over his head with two eyes cut out. Tonight, his in-flight emergency was …

The recipe was simple: make a fire; boil water in any metal container at hand; put the ammo in the boiling water; and cook for four to five hours. by Nikolay Shevchenko During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Russian soldiers were often seen boiling their ammo for hours in a …

by Heath Hansen A flash of light lit up the sky ahead of me, and I heard an explosion. My adrenaline kicked in and I started searching for the source of the explosion. I clutched my weapon and prepared to defend the base. ANBAR, IRAQ – Even though it was …

by Kevin Cresswell Picture the scene: It was early hours on July 4, 2003, at Camp Slayer in Baghdad, Iraq. There were several hundred U.S. troops and a handful of odds and sods ‘Brits & Aussies.’ In the middle of the lake was a boathouse with a flagpole. During the …

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 Heath Hansen It’s not often that the absence of a story makes my day, but today that’s exactly what happened. I had a free afternoon and decided to head Southeast, into the San Diego Mountains, looking for any indications of illegal entry, or drug smuggling, into the United States. …

by John Gartner As I sat looking out the port side window of the Dakota, I could see below me the vast expanse of Lake Cahora Bassa dam. The grey skeletal branches of long-drowned trees dotted the shoreline and seemed, in my reverie, to be reaching imploringly skyward. The surface …

by James Woods Editor’s note: Reader James Woods sent this story about his father in law, who had an interesting time one night after dark during WWII. My father in law was assigned to the HQ company of an engineer unit as a driver during WWII. The unit was going …

by Jim Lechner Editor’s note: Army Ranger (Ret) Jim Lechner wrote the following hymn to comradeship and patriotism – an essay that reverberates among those who long for the lost clarity of war. A veteran of multiple Special Operations missions, Lechner was wounded in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in …