by Susan Katz Keating Why did Soviet forces abandon Afghanistan in 1989 after nearly 10 years of war? Western analysts have burned through terabytes trying to explain it. What else besides the fierce Mujahideen drove the Red Army to retreat with nothing to show but shattered pride? Some credit the …
Read More »Tortured, Shot, Stuffed in a Trunk: One Dead Cop Triggered a Day of Hate in Iraq
by Greg Chabot The beginning of February 2005 was a busy time in Baqubah. Insurgent activity had picked up considerably, keeping all of us at the Police HQ on our toes. With the end of the deployment coming, I had tried multiple times to extend my tour but was denied. …
Read More »The Night Soviet Police Murdered a KGB Agent – And Triggered a Bloodletting
by Boris Egorov At the end of 1980, on the outskirts of Moscow, Soviet policemen beat to death a KGB major, and staged it as a robbery. They had no idea what dire consequences the encounter would have for them and the entire Soviet police force. On the morning of …
Read More »AWOL at 17: The ‘Perfumed Burglar’ Deserted the Navy, Robbed Half the State, and Escaped San Quentin
Perfume, purloined jewelry and a millionaire’s son form the complex story of Herbert Repsold, a Navy deserter who also was known as the Perfumed Burglar. In the early 1900s, Repsold was a troublesome youth. Growing tired of his son’s antics, the elder Repsold cut off his son’s cash and forced …
Read More »‘Mayday! Clear All Airspace Below Us!’ When Our Plane Lost Pressure in Flight: A Pilot’s Story
We were leaning over the throttles, breaking the seals on our masks, and yelling at each other. by Mitchell “Taco” Bell To all my passenger friends out there who always text me with the crazy pilot questions, I can assure you as pilots we train for this stuff all the …
Read More »The Enemy Lay Bleeding in Iraq – and the Spanish Photographer Watched Our Every Move
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 »The Trench Broom: 12-Gauge Shotguns in the U.S. Military
by Austin Lee From the muddy trenches of World War I to the urban battlegrounds of modern conflicts, the 12-gauge combat shotgun has earned a fearsome reputation as America’s close-quarters and door-breaching weapon. Winchester M97 and M12 trench guns, with accessories. Chambered for the 2.75-inch shell loaded with nine pellets …
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 »Hedgehog Armor: The Spiked Shield to Stop Drones From Turning Tanks Into Fireballs
by A.R. Fomenko VIENNA BUREAU – On the battlefields of Ukraine, steel beasts now crawl under strange new hides – bristling, porcupine-like shells known as “hedgehog armor.” It’s the latest mutation born from drone-saturated warfare, where a cheap quadcopter can gut a million-dollar tank before the crew even knows it’s coming. …
Read More »Havana Syndrome and the ‘Moscow Signal’: A Sobering Red Flag
by Susan Katz Keating Did a Russian assassination team inflict the mysterious Havana Syndrome on American targets, or has an innocent unit been framed, as Moscow would have us believe? Here is one Red flag to consider. It comes in the form of a decades-long Soviet offensive that the Kremlin …
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