Tag Archives: Featured

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 It had been quiet in Baqubah with some IEDs going off and some occasional small arms fire in the city. This was about to …

by Austin Lee Imagine a battlefield where the sharpest weapons are not forged in steel, but whispered in incantations and wit, where shadows cast by candlelit rituals eclipse the glare of spotlights, and the line between spy and sorcerer dissolves into the shadows. What if the most guarded state secrets …

by Martin Kufus Somali piracy already was waning in 2012 when I arrived on the Indian Ocean as a member of a four-man rifle team guarding a client’s cargo ship against hijack. It was my first time aboard an ocean-going vessel. This one was an Asian-flagged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) …

by Heath Hansen I slowly poured a bit of water into my MRE heater bag and waited as the chemicals reacted and began to warm. I slid the main course into the packet and folded the top sleeve over, laying the bag against a rock or something. As I waited …

by Greg Chabot For Halloween, Greg Chabot leads us down the rabbit hole in search of the legendary Giants of Afghanistan. So gather ’round in the dark and hold your flashlights under your chins, while Greg tells the tales. ~SKK Throughout history there have been phenomena and sightings of things …

by David Chetlain, The War HorseI spent 18 months in training before reporting to my first submarine. I learned a lot about damage control, sonar, electronics, and how to distinguish a sperm whale from a humpback whale. But nothing prepared me for the disconnection from Earth that distorted my perception …

by Austin Lee Project Acoustic Kitty was a real CIA initiative in the 1960s during the Cold War, aimed at using cats as covert listening devices to spy on Soviet officials. The plan involved surgically implanting a microphone in a cat’s ear canal, a small radio transmitter at the base …

After the Soviets discovered huge reserves of natural gas in Uzbekistan, this part of the USSR became the main gas producing region in the country. But things went wrong, and one of its key gas fields turned into a man-made disaster of unimaginable magnitude. Hellish fire The unprecedented emergency at …

Specialist Ezra Maes and his two armor crew teammates were jolted awake by their M1A2 Abrams tank as it rolled downhill at nearly 90 mph with them inside. The sheer force of the vehicle hitting an embankment threw Maes from his position, and his right leg was immediately pinned down …

by Tim Patterson, The War HorseIn the moments immediately after the collision—after an alarm had sounded at 2 a.m.; after the boat had rocked violently to starboard, rolling 45 degrees and back again; after many of USS Philadelphia’s sailors were thrown from their beds; after a DVD player had flown …