COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating Fifty-plus years of Soldier of Fortune brings one question repeatedly to my inbox: Where did this all begin? The answer is not a mystery; it’s history. Soldier of Fortune grew from Vietnam, and its legacy still drives us today. To understand Soldier of Fortune, you have to …
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by Susan Katz Keating“We weren’t Special Forces or Airborne. We were mostly just a bunch of draftee grunts who turned out to be damn good soldiers.” The soldiers proceeded cautiously through the jungle highlands west of Pleiku, near the Cambodian border, on the morning of May 18, 1967. The men …
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by Jan Scruggs As you readers may know, I started what is now known as The Wall. The wall gets 5 million visitors a year, according to the National Park Service. The idea was not complex. We would get a site and build a memorial engraved with the names of “..the men …
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In the predawn hours of 21 December 1972, a guerrilla unit cut the phone lines to the remote farmhouse. Then they attacked. by Gatimu Juma The night was quiet along the northeastern frontier of Rhodesia. Altena Farm, a tobacco property, lay near the Mozambique border, where far-flung farms were connected …
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by Susan Katz Keating My correspondent called me from downrange on assignment in Minneapolis. I cut him off when I heard the threats. “Get out. Now,” I said. I am not printing his true name in this article. That decision is mine — one I made as his publisher, and …
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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 …
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“Hey knucklehead. See these gold wings? I’m a God damn Naval Aviator. I know how to fly this plane.” by Mitchell “Taco” Bell Dear Gang, While I was channel surfing the other day, I stopped on a news clip about two battle groups in the Persian Gulf off the coast …
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Border observers have long reported that cartels sometimes leave strange symbols or objects as territory markers along smuggling corridors. by Heath Hansen I methodically put one foot in front of the other as I make my way up the hilltop. During this hike, it seems the sun is only getting …
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The M109A7 Paladin self-propelled howitzer is the latest evolution of a gun that has served the U.S. Army since Vietnam. The 40-ton machine rocked back on its haunches, and launched a 155mm shell through the sky above Fort Bliss, Texas. The round streaked to a target downrange, while the M109A7 …
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Designed for close-quarters fighting, the M111 uses blast overpressure instead of fragmentation. Soldier of Fortune For the first time in more than half a century, the U.S. Army has approved a new lethal hand grenade for service. The weapon is the M111 Offensive Hand Grenade (OHG), now cleared for Full …
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Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers