The Biden four by J.M. Phelps Members of Blackwater are petitioning the Supreme Court in an effort to find the justice that has eluded them. It was September 16, 2007, when a Blackwater security team – following a very massive explosion in Nisour Square, Baghdad – responded to assist another …

THE U.S. ARMY IN VIETNAM FROM TET TO THE FINAL WITHDRAWAL, 1968-1975   y the beginning of 1968 the United States had been involved in military operations in Vietnam for over seven years and in major ground combat for two-and-a-half years. In-country U.S. military strength had risen to 485,000, and …

EL PARAISO AND THE WAR IN EL SALVADOR (1981–1983) by Charles H. Briscoe, PhD for SOC.mil From 1980–1993, the government of El Salvador, with U.S. assistance, waged a national counterinsurgency (COIN) campaign against guerrilla forces of the FMLN (Frente Farabundo Marti de Liberación Nacional). That COIN campaign was one of the …

By Dr. Martin Brass From the January 2008 issue of SOF In the last four of a five part series on the American merc who had the most impact of any American in the decade-long El Salvador war, SOF chronicled the adventures of Harry Claflin.   SOF launched Harry’s wild …

By Lewis Sorley From the April 2012 issue of SOF THEY GOT PLATITUDES Brigadier General Edwin Simmons, later the long-serving Chief of Marine Corps History, recalled a commanders’ conference convened by Westmoreland at Nha Trang. The room was filled with senior officers who had served in World War II and …

Mad Mike Hoare by Chris Hoare By Chris Hoare Author of Mad Mike Hoare  Fifty years ago, Stanleyville in the Congo was the scene of one of the most savage crimes of the last century, the cold-blooded massacre of hostages by the Simba rebels. Mercenary soldiers from 5 Commando under …

By Henri Lepetit for SOF Four years after Rhodesia was handed over to that homicidal maniac Mugabe through notoriously farcical elections, I found myself whiling away the time in Durban Natal, South Africa. It ought to be remembered that a large portion of the hapless – and, contemptibly irrelevant to …

Springfield Armory’s XD (M) 5.25 Pistol Bob Pilgrim From the January 2012 issue of SOF Competition and Combat Although bred for the various competitions of the action shooting genre, it is the author’s contention that Springfield Armory’s latest polymer pistol, the 5.25 XD(M) in 9×19 mm would perform, with minor …