by Heath Hansen It was 0530 hours the morning our first sergeant kicked open the door to our tent, and told us to “get the fuck outside and form it up!” Late the previous night, we returned to base from a 10-day mission in Afghanistan. I could see through a …
Read More »Deadly Venom: I Was Bitten by a Black Mamba Snake in Africa
by Gatimu Juma Publisher’s note: Gatimu Juma, who reports from the Horn of Africa, told me he was working on a story about the Al-Shabaab terror group. Nearly a year went by, and I couldn’t reach him. Finally he surfaced to tell me where he was all that time: convalescing. …
Read More »Mark Kelly’s ‘Refusal’ Narrative Fails Under Scrutiny
COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating Senator Mark Kelly claims he released a November 2025 video to remind U.S. service members they are obligated to refuse unlawful orders. They already know that. And when fundraising surges and presidential speculation follow, the explanation deserves closer scrutiny. Clarity has finally cut through the fog …
Read More »The Mobster Who Knew Too Much: Death of a Bulgarian Crime Boss
Krasmir Kamenov was found shot dead along with his wife and two others in their home in a suburb of Cape Town in 2023. The killings remain unsolved. by Tony Wesolowsky He was one of Bulgaria’s most notorious mafia kingpins, who rose through the ranks in the chaotic 1990s, acquiring …
Read More »Comrade Cup Shooting Match: Cold War Rifles Compete in Florida
by Austin Lee The word is out, and it’s moving through the ranks like a radio call in the dark. The first annual Comrade Cup is coming; a one-day shooting match celebrating the timeless battle rifles of the Eastern Bloc and their Western counterparts. On March 28, the rifles of …
Read More »This American Paratrooper Was Captured by SS Troops During ‘Operation Market Garden’
When Gene Metcalfe boarded the C-47 that would drop him just outside of Nijmegen, Holland, a British lieutenant gave him a box of condoms. Gene was to be among the first to jump into what should have been a picture-book meadow, free of German troops. Instead, it was defended by …
Read More »John Browning’s M1911 Was Patented on Valentine’s Day
It reads like an ordinary patent. A citizen of the United States, living in Weber County, Utah, has invented “certain new and useful improvements in firearms.” No fanfare. No grand claims. Just a statement of fact. Yet those lines would lead to a sidearm that rode in the holsters of …
Read More »The MAC JSOC 1911: A Modern Salute to a Special Operations Legacy
by Austin Lee In the pantheon of firearms, few pistols command the reverence of the 1911. Its century-plus legacy, forged in the crucible of conflict, continues to inspire innovation. Enter Military Armament Corporation’s (MAC) latest offering: the JSOC 1911, a .45 ACP masterpiece that channels the gritty, high-stakes modifications of …
Read More »Cockpit Under Fire: Laser Strike on Final Approach Into Mexico
by Mitchell “Taco” Bell A pilot flying a 737 meets a coordinated laser attack inside Mexican airspace. Guadalajara, MX? Yeah, the law there is optional. That is the best comment about having a seemingly coordinated attack on a civilian airliner on approach into Guadalajara, Mexico. Those green lasers that can point …
Read More »Massacre at Bien Hoa: These Americans Were the First to Die at War in Vietnam
by Susan Katz Keating America’s fight in Southeast Asia began before our country knew that a war was unfolding, on a single night when two men were the first to die by enemy fire in Vietnam. It happened on July 8, 1959, in Bien Hoa, some 20 miles outside Saigon. …
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