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 Jose Campos The wounded were stacked shoulder to shoulder on the aid station floor, their uniforms covered in blood and dirt. Some called out for morphine. Outside, rifle fire cracked through the darkness, coming closer. The line had broken. Captain Ben L. Salomon moved from man to man, working …

by Jose Campos The flight went bad in the high, thin air above North Carolina. Major William Rankin, who flew for the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II and Korea, was on a routine training hop in in his F-8U Crusader. He was an experienced pilot, and expected to …

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 …

by Royce de Melo I was sitting in my hotel room in London in early 2016, catching up on business while attending a discreet security and law enforcement event. I was following up on a shipment of US Ordnance M60E6 Light Machine Guns (LMGs) that had gone to Canada. Little …

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 …

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 …