Deep in the jungle, there’s no medevac, no backup, and no room for mistakes. At the Marine Corps Jungle Warfare Training Center, instructors teach Navy corpsmen to be the light in a dark time. For 10 relentless days, they learn to survive, treat the wounded, and move through terrain that wants …
Read More »‘I Wanna Jump From a Big Iron Bird’: Following in Dad’s Boot-Steps to Become a Paratrooper
by Heath Hansen I looked up into the big, blue sky. Far in the distance, I spotted a C-130 Hercules headed towards the open grass field I waited in. For a few moments, I watched as the plane continued in my direction. Suddenly, from the tail-end of the aircraft, paratroopers …
Read More »Apache Down in the Strait of Hormuz: Combat Search and Rescue Enters the Drone Age
by Dan O’Shea Two pilots in the water, a tight rescue window, and a craft with no one aboard showed how unmanned systems are adding new options for bringing Americans home. On a half-moon lit night, flying above the northernmost point of the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. Army Apache …
Read More »So You Want to Be a War Correspondent
COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating The work has been called the most dangerous form of journalism. Amid my daily influx of emails, text messages, and phone calls, I frequently am hit up by people who want to go downrange under my name. They approach me with variants on the following requests. …
Read More »Beyond Dirty Harry: Five Shoulder Holsters That Earn Their Place
by Susan Katz Keating The first time I gave serious thought to shoulder holsters was not at a gun counter or on a range. It was when I spotted the ones worn by the men following me. That story is for another day. I was working on an investigative story, …
Read More »Grizzly! A Life or Death Encounter In the Yukon
One of the rules in the Yukon Territory is that hunting guides must always be within hearing distance of their hunters. This is a good rule, as we soon shall see. It was the first day of an early September expedition when hunting guide David O’Farrell brought an archery hunter …
Read More »Stolen Steel, Deadly Fire: Minigun Ambush in Vietnam
by Hooligan My logbook called it a routine troop lift. My gut told me otherwise. I was still green – a “Peter Pilot” in Army slang – flying right seat in a Huey. The Aircraft Commander sat to my left, cool and unshakable, though his name has long been lost …
Read More »How I Saved My Unit From Death-by-Trackers
On this particular day, I was feeling quite fed up with all the fucking trackers. I went on a rant. And then… by Cliff Wade Back in Garrison, 2015 The Army is big on trackers. They track unit’s training requirements, numerous administrative actions, leave dates, fire extinguisher expiration dates, duty exemptions, …
Read More »From Magenta to Roswell and Beyond: Soldier of Fortune’s UFO Files, Declassified
by Susan Katz Keating The movie just dropped. The files keep coming out. We’ve been covering this for years. Here’s your field briefing. With a major UFO film hitting theaters, the timing feels almost scripted. But at Soldier of Fortune, we didn’t wait for Hollywood to greenlight a script before …
Read More »The FBI’s ‘Hottel’ UFO Memo That Broke the Internet
The Bureau spent years chasing flying saucers. Then it stopped. One memo explains why the public never trusted that decision.by Jose Campos The Roswell story was high on the public radar when the FBI’s Dallas Field Office fired off an urgent cable to Director J. Edgar Hoover. An object had …
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