Tag Archives: Featured

by Susan Katz Keating It was a horrific event in the annals of Naval Special Warfare. On Aug 6, 2011, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, was shot down in Afghanistan. In the process, 30 American military servicemen and a U.S. military working dog were killed. Within hours …

by Jose Campos “I thought I was severed in half. There was no pain.” The jungle around Quan Loi erupted that night into an unholy symphony of gunfire. It was February 1970, and the darkness came alive with muzzle flashes from unseen enemy positions, each one a promise of death. …

After that night our extended holiday in Mozambique ended. The war had come to us. Story from Jaime De Melo. Written by Royce de Melo Things had been very quiet since my battalion’s arrival by ship in Mozambique in August 1970. We had been posted to various sectors in the …

by A.R. Fomenko Hidden beneath the border, sophisticated tunnel networks have turned Ceuta into one of Europe’s most enduring corridors for organized cross-border smuggling. VIENNA BUREAU – It was the kind of pursuit that runs slow and cold. Spanish authorities hunted in vain for years to uncover a smuggling tunnel between …

by Susan Katz Keating Wave of drone attacks continue to light up targets deep inside Russian territory and beyond. But the notion of drones doing the killing isn’t as new as it might seem. The history of drones is long, strange, and full of surprises. The roots run deep into …

by A.R. Fomenko VIENNA BUREAU – A massive wildfire inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone revived scrutiny of the radioactive timber trade, wartime disruption, and the shadow economy investigators say has operated inside the contaminated forest for decades. Flames vaulted across the tree tops, carried by wind gusts that whipped through the …

Years after his death, sworn testimony alleged that Mitchell WerBell III didn’t die of a heart attack after all; he’d been poisoned. The allegation remains one of the most curious episodes connected to the legacy of the legendary OSS veteran and firearms designer. by Jose Campos Mitchell WerBell III had …

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 …

by Jonathan Stumpf A dispatch from Ukraine. News of Prigozhin’s mutiny rips through the International Legion like wildfire. Stretched out on our cots, “Austria,” “Niente,” and I feverishly track the latest developments on our smartphones. I gave Niente his nickname because he wanted to be called “Nothing.” He had joined …

by Jose Campos In the shadow of Japan’s Mount Fuji, Marine explosive ordnance disposal technicians trained with live ordnance, refining the precision stand-off techniques used to safely neutralize dangerous munitions. The rocket motor lay on the range at Camp Fuji, waiting to be destroyed. Marine explosive ordnance disposal technicians regarded …