by Cliff Wade Iraq, 2007 Every now and again we’d get an outsider attached to our unit on missions. Sometimes they were enablers who proved to be assets, other times they were regarded as interlopers who got in the way. One such instance sticks out in my mind over others: …
Read More »“IED! IED! IED!” Hearts and Minds In the War On Terror
PFC Heath Hansen receiving the Combat Infantryman Badge in Afghanistan. By Heath Hansen I opened my eyes. It was still dark, but I could see the night was ending and another day in some village in Afghanistan was beginning. The smell of dip-spit and cigarette smoke betrayed the fact that the …
Read More »This Coast Guard Crew Worked All Night to Rescue People From Floodwaters On Christmas Eve, 1955
Their helicopter was never shut down, and had to be “hot-fueled” while the engine was running. Shortly after midnight on Christmas Eve, 1955, a levee on California’s Feather River collapsed, sending a 21-foot wall of water into Yuba City. Terrified flood victims who huddled on rooftops or clinging to tree …
Read More »Firefighters Enter the Inferno: ‘Sometimes You See Bad Things’
by Martin Kufus An excerpt from Plow the Dirt but Watch the Sky, by Martin Kufus Anyone who serves as a volunteer firefighter eventually will confront bad things, perhaps receiving a heartfelt “Thank you” later in compensation. This is what you sign up for and train for on a volunteer …
Read More »The Christmas Bombings of 1972: A Deafening Roar Told Me Something Big Was Happening
by David Nelson, The War Horse I woke up early on the morning of Dec. 6, 1972, to pack and say tearful goodbyes to my wife, Martie, and our one-year-old daughter, Amy. We’d decided ahead of time that my father-in-law “Pop” Lowry would drive me from Temple, Texas, to Love …
Read More »Did Allied Pilots Punk the Germans by Dropping Fake Bombs on Fake Airfields in WWII?
Did Allied forces really drop a fake wooden bomb as a joke on German forces in World War II? A story that is often retold by fans of military history has it that German forces built decoy fake wooden airfields to deceive enemy pilots – and that Allied forces, on …
Read More »Meet ‘Vanilla’: This Ultra-Long Endurance UAV Can Fly For 10 Days, Launch Microdrone Swarm
It’s not your typical Technical. In fact, it’s not a Technical at all. This new ultra-long endurance drone is launched from the back of a pickup truck; but, unlike the improvised battlewagons that have emerged in various forms since World War I, the unmanned machine is a highly sophisticated system …
Read More »I Ran a Black Market Supply Operation in Vietnam, Using Whiskey as Currency
Publisher’s note: This article includes a photo of former SOF managing editor Bob Poos, who was a war correspondent in Vietnam. ~SKK by Marvin J. Wolf, The War Horse I steered the Jeep off the dusty, rutted main road and rattled down a well-worn track until I beheld a bizarre …
Read More »Russian General Assassinated in Moscow Was Charged Over Chemical Weapons in Ukraine
A Russian general in charge of Moscow’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces was assassinated early Tuesday in Moscow, in an explosion that also killed his assistant. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and Ilya Polikarpov were killed when a bomb detonated while they walked past it. The device was concealed inside …
Read More »Chemists Recruited at Gunpoint: Inside the World of Underground Drug Labs
by Sara Garcia, Insight Crime Juan Manuel Delgado Cárdenas was months away from completing his studies in pharmaceutical chemistry and biology at the Autonomous University of Baja California when, on April 30, 2021, three men entered his family home in Tijuana and opened fire. Delgado Cárdenas was killed while two …
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