The southern New Mexico border is a vast expanse of unforgiving terrain, where people enter at their own risk. These U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Sentinel take to the skies in a UH-72 Lakota helicopter to patrol the terrain. Come along for an inside look at a patrol flight …
Read More »Special Forces at War: A Deadly Firefight in Iraq
by Alex Quade Diyala Province, Iraq — Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (A-Team) 072 rolled into the village. It was dead quiet. Nothing moved. Suddenly, “squirters”—people running away from the village and cars leaving at a high rate of speed. Clearly, something of interest was in that village. A-Team Commander …
Read More »Ordeal on Firebase 6: A Brutal Battle in Vietnam
by Jose Campos They knew the enemy was coming. On that day in March 1971, Army 1st Lt. Brian Miles Thacker and his seven-man team braced for the inevitable. But when the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) launched their assault, it was not a question of whether the firebase would fall …
Read More »Along the Texas Border, US Troops Secure the Frontier
by Jose Campos SIERRA BLANCA, Texas – The arid landscape outside Sierra Blanca has long been a favored corridor for human smuggling and narcotics trafficking, exploited by organized criminal networks. Now, with U.S. troops in the field, the human part of the landscape has changed. Under orders from U.S. Northern …
Read More »Fixed Blade EDC: The Skallywag Tactical MDV Plus One
Review by Greg Chabot I’m always looking to upgrade my EDC when it comes to edged weapons. Preferring a fixed blade over folders it can sometimes be difficult to find a knife that has mounting options and ease of concealability that a folder can give. I believe I have finally …
Read More »Swimming Through Shark Infested Waters in World War II: When Charles French Rescued His Fellow Sailors
by Carole Engel Avriett Excerpted from Midnight in Ironbottom Sound, by Carole Engel Avriett. Editor’s note: Early on September 5, 1942, the US Navy’s USS Gregory was sunk by Japanese fire near Guadalcanal. One sailor, Mess Attendant 2nd Class Charles Jackson French swam for hours through shark-infested waters while towing …
Read More »‘Death is Our Business’: The Lethal World of Russian Mercenaries
Book Review by Heath Hansen John Lechner’s Death is Our Business is an intense, no holds barred journey through the history of the most notorious Private Military Companies (PMC) in the world. Yevgeny Prigozhin, once a small time criminal, selling hot-dogs on a street corner and in time growing his …
Read More »The ‘Liberator’ One-Shot Pistol Secretly Given to Resistance Fighters in World War II
by Robert Ramsour The FP-45 was an unknown and surreptitious pistol developed in WWII to help our captured allies regain control of their country, or province. In order to conceal its real function as a firearm, our government represented this pistol as a flare projector. It was officially called the …
Read More »Snipers: Masters of Disguise
Snipers are masters of disguise, sometimes changing their camouflage several times before reaching a target. British army snipers show us how it’s done in the snow, at a military base in Estonia. Thanks to the folks at NATO for making the vid.
Read More »Our Helicopter Was Broken Down in a Field – and the Viet Cong Opened Fire On Us
by Hooligan I hoped to shoot the first VC I saw who poked his head over the wall, and at least get his AK to defend myself. All this while the enemy machine guns were firing and mortars going off. It started out as just another boring Ash & Trash …
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