An American multi-purpose canine (MPC) Belgian Malinois was honored for heroism under fire while serving four tours of duty with the U.S. Marine Corps. Shimanski was deployed to Jordan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia during his seven-year career and received the Animals in War and Peace Medal of Bravery for his service, an …
Read More »Solo Mission Gone Wrong: The XO Forgot Me Overnight in a Snowstorm
by Marvin J. Wolf, The War Horse On the third day of a weeklong field exercise at Fort Lewis, our company XO drove me back to the garrison for an appointment to fit me for a temporary dental prosthesis. Afterward, he picked me up and we headed back out to …
Read More »Starfish Scarf Down Sunken WWII Explosives in the Baltic Sea
by Jose Campos Turns out it’s okay to eat TNT – if you’re a starfish. The Baltic Sea is a war grave. Rusted shells, V-1 flying bombs, chemical caches, unexploded munitions – the relics of two world wars – litter the seafloor. They are toxic, deadly, abandoned, and now, astonishingly, …
Read More »Undersea Sabotage: The Hidden War Beneath the Waves
by Jose Campos Explosions ripped through the Baltic Sea in 2022, far from any battlefield, silencing pipelines that carried Russian gas to Germany. Beneath the waves, vital arteries of energy and communication had been transformed into weapons. A Ukrainian man, identified only as Serhii K., is suspected of orchestrating the …
Read More »El Salvador’s Tattoo Dragnet Flipped the Script in War on Gangs
by Royce de Melo Some meters ahead of me on the left side of the street, two soldiers armed with M16 A1/A2 rifles approach a young man. He definitely caught their attention. As the soldiers in El Salvador calmly walk up to him, the man stops and puts down the …
Read More »Fight for Survival: The Medevac Huey Crashed Hard in Alabama
by Fred Ganous, SGM, USA (Ret) The pilot in command reached up and grasped the rescuer’s shirt. “Hey asshole,” he growled. “That’s not what you say to the ones you are trying to help!” The medevac mission had ended, and the burn patient was dropped off successfully at the hospital. …
Read More »The AK-12K Rifle: Kalashnikov’s Compact Powerhouse for the Modern Battlefield
by Austin Lee In the hallowed workshops of Kalashnikov Concern, Russia’s premier firearms manufacturer, the legacy of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s designs, from the AK-47 to its later derivatives, continues to evolve as combat reports stream in from the battlefield. The latest offering, the AK-12K, a short-barreled variant of the AK-12 assault …
Read More »Gloves Up, Guns Down: The Cartel Truces of Boxing Night
by Heath Hansen Murders, kidnappings, shootings, and drug trafficking should slow down during the fight. The big fight between Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez and Terence “Bud” Crawford drew tremendous interest among the fans, up until the moment Crawford emerged the victor. This clash and others like it also have had a …
Read More »Field-Testing the ‘Operator’ Knife From Triarii Metalworks
by Greg Chabot I’m a knife guy and make no bones about it. I’m always looking for unique designs that work in the real world. As a kid, I bought all the cool looking “flea market” special blades. And the woods near my boyhood home is filled with “Rambo” type …
Read More »Aimpoint Optics: 50 Years of Red Dot Sights and Rugged Technology
In a world where weapons tech evolves fast and companies fold even faster, hitting the half-century mark is proof you’ve built something that lasts. Aimpoint – the originator and undisputed leader of red dot sighting technology – marks 50 years in 2025. With the first prototype optic developed by a …
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