by Carl Hancocks For the past four years, the city of Agadez has been what could barely pass as home for a woman without a name. Nigerian, she fends for herself as a sex-worker, but that was not how she arrived in this place. Her story is that of a …
Read More »MiG Pilot Viktor Belenko: ‘I Am the Luckiest Man Alive’
by Susan Katz Keating In retrospect, it seems fitting that I met Viktor Belenko in Reno. He was a gambler hanging out in a gambling town, surrounded by pilots in their fast moving aircraft, barreling wildly around pylons. I went there many years back, looking for stories to be found …
Read More »Trapped Inside a Burning ‘Punishment Hut’ in WWI Germany: A Prisoner’s Story
Here at Soldier of Fortune, we uncovered a long-ago story of an atrocity during World War I, when eight prisoners met a horrific fate while captive in Germany. Here is the tale, as told by a fellow prisoner, “Pedro.” ~SKK Pedro’s Tale I was sailing on an English ship. She …
Read More »Ranch Dog Rescues Missing Toddler After Harrowing Night in Arizona Wilderness
by Bobby Dee “Buford was just sitting there with the little kid. Just brought him up from the horse pasture and brought him over to the gate and was just hanging out with him.” A two-year-old boy who vanished from his home Monday afternoon was found safe the following morning …
Read More »Lost Night in Kuwait: When My Driver Took a Detour Into the Desert
We keep on driving, and I ask, “Where the fuck are we going?” With a smile and laugh Ali replies, “It’s just up here, buddy.” Being paranoid, I lock and load my M16. I figure worse comes to worse, I’ll smoke him and find my way back. by Greg Chabot …
Read More »Missed by a Keystroke: A Typo Enabled the Boston Bomber to Slip Through Security Net
COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating The case of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is a grim lesson in what happens when the security safety net has holes. Long before the smoke cleared on Boylston Street in April 2013, long before the manhunt in Watertown gripped the nation, warnings had come in. They arrived not …
Read More »‘Get the F— Down!’ The Entire City Went Insane That Day, When We Were at War in Iraq
by Greg Chabot Editor’s note: This story contains some very raw, violent material that could bring readers back to their own stark experiences at war. ~SKK April 9th, 2004 Author’s note: During this time TF- 1/6 soldiers were living in three locations in the city. Troops were at the Provincial …
Read More »Old Hands, Listen Up: The Younger Warriors Need You
COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating I recently did my annual demographic survey on the Soldier of Fortune audience – and the results prompted me to send a message to certain readers. Old hands, listen up. This is for you. Bear with me for a little context. In the survey, the big …
Read More »Extortion on the Border: The Northeast Cartel Controls Flow of Drugs and Migrants Into Texas
The Northeast Cartel is not well known inside the U.S., but the powerful group controls key territory inside Mexico, along the border with Texas. The group holds sway over Nuevo Laredo, a staging ground for drugs and people headed into the United States. Journalist Parker Asmann visited the border town, and …
Read More »Notorious Fugitive ‘The Fly’ Gets Swatted in Romania
by A.R. Fomenko VIENNA BUREAU – The European underworld called him La Mouche. The Fly. Only 30 years old, Mohamed Amra had been a specter for months, slipping through the cracks and mocking the law with every breath he took as a free man. On Saturday, his luck ran dry. Authorities spotted …
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