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 »WATCH: Thunder Ball With 10th Mountain in Bulgaria
Call it Thunder Ball. Soldiers with 10th Mountain Division perfom a tactical movement during a simulated chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attack as part of Thunder Ball exercise at Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria, on Sept. 5, 2024. This type of training utilizes high-stress scenarios to refine the tactical and …
Read More »Vietnam, Afghanistan, and the Damning Truth About ‘Willful Blindness’
COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating After Vietnam, the U.S. government should have learned a powerful lesson that it never must abandon its allies. Clearly, the lesson was ignored. Several years ago at a conference in Tampa, I asked Gen. Kenneth Tovo a question that was pegged to the Vietnam War, but …
Read More »When ‘Concrete Bob’ Kicked the Ghouls Off the Front Gate at Walter Reed Hospital
by Susan Katz Keating 2006 The traffic along Georgia Avenue going south was sparse throughout the stretch of Maryland road. The bus proceeded unhindered, ferrying wounded warriors strapped into gurneys or propped up with i.v. lines attached, and belted into seats. Many were profoundly changed men and women with missing …
Read More »A Serial Killer Roams the ‘Fractured Streets’ of This Intense Novel by Author West Havoc
Book Review by Heath Hansen Ever wonder what it’s like to be a street cop? The politics? The bureaucracy? The intensity? Or what it feels like to face a crazed maniac? The adrenaline high? The danger? The uncertainty? Fractured Streets has it all. I was recently perusing noir crime books on Amazon …
Read More »Former Hostage Reveals ‘Shocking, Inhumane’ Treatment While Captive in Gaza
Israeli commandos rescued Andrey Kozlov and three other hostages in the daring “Operation Arnon.” by Elon Perry The interview with Andrey Kozlov was not going well. I had asked him, early on, to talk about his time in captivity. The conversation appeared to have stalled already. His answers mostly came …
Read More »California Banned His Flamethrower – So He Moved to Wyoming
This man says he moved to Wyoming in order to exercise his right to fire up a flamethrower. Allan Hovland, formerly of California, told the Cowboy State Daily that he became enthralled with flamethrowers a couple years ago. “It was just one of those things,” Hovland said. “I was looking …
Read More »Attack at Abbey Gate: The Scene From Above
A U.S. military aircraft captured this scene at Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on 26 August 2021. There is no narration to go with the vid, but the scene clearly is chaotic. An ISIS suicide bomber launched an attack at the gate, killing 13 American …
Read More »Soviet-Era Light Machine Gun is Weapon of Choice in Ukraine
A light machine gun that was designed eight decades ago is turning up on the frontline in Ukraine. The RPD can be used in the section support role but can also be operated by a single soldier to assault a position, including a trench. It was designed back in 1943/44 …
Read More »Wounded at War, This Soldier Created a Program to Help Veterans – Through Puppies
by Sgt. 1st Class Ashleigh Martinez Editor’s note: I first met Chuck Ziegenfuss when I wrote an article about him for PEOPLE magazine, when he was donating voice-activated laptops to wounded warriors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Before long, I was part of another group that cooked for …
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