Luke Ryan

Soldiers are asked to carry out some of the most unimaginably difficult and horrifying tasks a human could be asked to do. They risk their own life and limb, they are sometimes forced to watch as their friends are slaughtered, they take lives and damage families, and they often come home wounded physically or mentally. […]

The Chemical Weapons Convention is a treaty between 192 nations that essentially outlaws the manufacture, stockpiling and implementation of chemical weapons. Four UN nations are not a part of this treaty, and they are Egypt, North Korea, South Sudan and Israel (Israel has signed but not ratified). The treaty was signed in 1993, and since […]

About three years into my career as a Ranger, I was assigned a team and therefore a fellow team leader. We had crossed paths several times in the past, but he was coming from another platoon so I had never gotten to know him all that well. He was a relatively normal guy, a good […]

The U.S. Department of Defense has announced the commencement of the annual training exercise known as “Exercise Eager Lion 18” from April 18-26, 2018. Approximately 3,600 service members from the U.S. will work alongside their Jordanian counterparts in order to better train cooperatively for any future engagements the countries may endure together. This culminating exercise […]

The first time I ever heard gunshots take a person’s life, I was in the fourth grade. They would often blow up chunks of the surrounding mountain range with bundles of dynamite, but this sounded different. My Dad would later explain to me that a Sunni had shot a Shiite dead in the bazaar. It […]

Netflix has recently released a new documentary series called, “Wild Wild Country.” It’s six episodes long, each episode running around an hour each, and it dives into the Rajneesh movement that reached global headlines in the 1980s. Called a cult by some and a movement by others, the Rajneesh followed under the teachings of an […]

“When I get out, I’m going to buy a piece of land in the heart of America. I’m going to run a farm, live off the land and live in peace.” This is the fantasy of many military men and women — they long for the physical labor and connection to nature, with the peace […]

Nationwide protests have erupted since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, that took the lives of 17 students and faculty. Among the protests and picketing have been national school walk outs, where students and teachers alike have walked out of their school in an attempt to pressure politicians to instate stricter gun laws, […]

Russia exchanged some heated words during the UN Security Council meeting in regards to the rising tensions between Russia the Britain. They spoke on the recent attacks against Sergei and Yulia Skripal on British soil, to which Russia has been seeking involvement in the investigation. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global […]

The old methods of exploration — seeking out uncharted territories, risking life and limb to brave new terrain, indigenous people and unknown wildlife — have all seemed to fade into the past. Cartographers aren’t hand-drawing maps from memory and cutting through lush jungles with machetes as much anymore. Although, it could be argued that every […]

Music has been a driving, inspirational factor to human beings of all walks of life for longer than anyone can remember. Early military-centric music may go as far back as a drummer boy on a boat, keeping the tempo for everyone as they rowed. Large, organized military bands have unique histories within their respective nations, […]

There have been a million movies set in some sort of dystopian or post-apocalyptic future where killer robots are either a serious threat, or have taken over the world already. From humanoid “Terminator” robots to one of the latest “Black Mirror” episodes, “Metalhead,” these robotic organisms seem to have perfected the killing of human beings. […]