This in from U.S. Central Command in Tampa: the record of a raid, as documented by American forces. The U.S. conducted a precision airstrike in Northwest Syria, targeting a senior leader of an Al-Qaeda affiliate group. CENTCOM tells us the Feb. 23 strike eliminated Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior …
Read More »Badass Pilot Wrestles Plane to a Landing When Canopy Shatters Mid-Flight
What do you do when your aircraft canopy shatters in flight? “Keep flying,” Dutch aerobat Narine Melkumjan says. She took to social media to share the video of herself doing just that during the “distressing” experience, hoping that her fellow pilots would take note. A couple of years ago during …
Read More »Eyewitnesses to War: Villagers Kept Record of Who Died Inside Airless ‘Dungeon of Death’ in Ukraine
by Mark Krutov, RFE/RL The elderly and sick died quietly. Crowded with hundreds of others held captive by Russian soldiers for four weeks in an airless, unsanitary school basement in Yahidne, a village in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine, the ill and the frail were particularly vulnerable. Several could …
Read More »Starved, Stabbed, and Tortured: This British Army Veteran Was Captured by Russians in Ukraine
Shaun Pinner was convicted of being a mercenary and undergoing training to carry out terrorist activities, among other charges. A British Army veteran who went to Ukraine to fight against Russia counts himself lucky to have survived fighting in the war, let alone being held captive by Russian troops. Shaun Pinner …
Read More »The Bloody Shores of Iwo Jima: A Veteran Tells His Story
Donald Raasch is one of the few men alive who fought in the fiercest battle in Marine Corps history. by Lance Cpl. David Brandes and Lance Cpl. Ethan Miller MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. – The corporal dragged his body up the obsidian sheet of sand speckled with other water-logged Marines. He clambered …
Read More »WATCH: B-52’s in an Undisclosed Location
This in from CENTCOM: A formation in an undisclosed location. Here’s an interesting formation. Two U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress long-range strategic bombers, along with two F-15E Strike Eagles and two Iraqi Air Force F-16IQ Vipers, take flight over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility on Feb. 17, 2025. …
Read More »Pilot James Swett Became an Ace on His First Combat Mission
As a young second lieutenant in 1943, James Swett embarked on his first combat mission at the age of 22. Within 15 minutes, he was a fighter ace with seven enemy kills to his credit. Swett arrived for duty in February 1943 at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal Island in the …
Read More »Soldiers Kidnapped in Central African Republic: Among the Shadows, Where the Dead Tend to Stay
by Gatimu Juma The last anyone saw of Celestin Bakoyo and Elie Ngouengue, they were stepping into a police station in Bangui, in the Central African Republic. That was on January 24. Since then—nothing. No official charges, no explanations, just silence. And in a country where men vanish and never …
Read More »‘The Phantom’ Fouled the Latrine; We Had to Find Him Before Sarge Flushed Us All Down the Toilet
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 »Damage to USS Harry S Truman From Collision at Sea: Updated, With CO Firing
The commanding officer of the USS Harry S Truman was relieved of duty following the collision. The Navy released a first look at exterior damage to the USS Harry S Truman (CVN 75), following a collision at sea near Port Said, Egypt. The Truman collided with merchant vessel Besiktas-M on …
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