Luke Ryan

On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis made an unannounced visit to Kabul, Afghanistan, his presence there a secret due to security concerns. He was there to “take stock of the security situation — I want to talk to our Afghan partner leaders of the unity government, and I want to talk to our troops.” […]

There are certain memories that snap you back to the past. Smell can carry you all the way back to the earliest memories, like Grandma’s house on a Sunday, or freshly cut grass in the morning. The sharp bite of the cold can bring back memories of childhood Christmas, or training missions in the worst […]

“I looked into his eyes and I saw the eyes of a killer.” I’m sure you’ve heard some variation of this line in the past. What do “killer eyes” look like? Is there some indicator of soullessness? Is there some look on a man’s face or some mannerism that signals his thirst for blood? Having […]

You know it when you see it, and you probably see it several times a day if you’re driving pretty much anywhere in America. Affixed on top of the flagpole, above the flag itself, stands a golden sphere, decoratively topping it all off. The golden colored or bronze looking orb is not at the end […]

When people think of the loss of life in a war, they generally think of soldiers sustaining traumatic injuries. However, conditions on the battlefield are anything but healthy, and disease has often inflicted serious casualties on forces that scramble through months of jungle mountains, or scrape through muddy trenches for weeks on end, and sometimes […]

Imagine you’re a German soldier during WWII, just for a moment. It’s nearing the end of December, and you’re in a coastal town in far west Norway — England is somewhere across the icy waters. It’s freezing cold, and British boats are closing in. Troops are about to charge the garrison, and the first landing […]

If you have heard of Sun Tzu and “The Art of War,” then you’ve probably seen this: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you […]

March 9, 1862:  It was the second year of the American Civil War, and the confederacy had acquired a frigate by the name of the U.S.S. Merrimack. They altered the ship, heavily armoring it and adding significantly more firepower, turning it into a formidable ironclad ship, the C.S.S. Virginia. The boat absolutely pummeled wooden Union […]

The VA has long been entangled in controversy, and they seem to constantly be going from scandal to another. There are many good-willed and honest officials, but corruption has certainly taken hold on a significant number of ranking VA employees. Of course there are the problems with slow and/or poor service, pitfalls with the transplant […]

The Los Angeles Veterans Affairs facility in West L.A. has been embroiled in controversy for many years. This is the same facility that leased out their property to privately owned businesses, which wound up in a major lawsuit. They were building an amphitheater, and had been leasing land to Twentieth Century Fox Television, as well […]

There are a few movies that stand out when I think of tactically legitimacy on the screen. Of course “John Wick” and its sequel will always stand out, but — despite Keanu Reeves’ awesome display of firearm proficiency — they aren’t necessarily meant to be 100% realistic, they’re meant to be awesome and entertaining. Which […]

As is common with delegations from the country in question, Myanmar/Burma was denied access to the conference regarding the genocide in Burma late last month. The conference in Berlin gathers together leaders and scholars from all over the world, particularly Europe, to discuss and encourage leadership from various countries to take action against the Burmese […]