Luke Ryan

It was February 3, 1780 out in rural Connecticut. Barnett Davenport, a veteran of the American revolution, beat a man and his wife to death, and then burned their home with their three grandchildren inside. The grisly homicides captivated the minds of a brand new America, horrified at the actions of one of their own. […]

Spc. Devin James Kuhn, 24, was killed after a shot was heard on Camp Rilea in Oregon. He was on the way to the Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria when he succumbed to his wounds. Right now, officials say that the shot was due to training, though the facts are still coming in and the investigation […]

The Associated Press released a report recently, confirming at least give mass graves filled with the bodies of Rohingya men, women and children. Many of the men were difficult to identify as their faces were either burned with acid or shot beyond recognition. According to multiple Rohingya Muslim sources at the massacres, the soldiers came […]

I recently found myself traversing the American countryside once again, cruising 1,140 miles from Tampa, Florida to Gary, Indiana right up to Lake Michigan (pictured above). Travelling in this country has never ceased to amaze me — the seamless movement from state to state, the richness and variety of cultures in the peculiar corners of […]

What do you think of when you think of war music? Maybe you think of the civil war style snare drum with an accompanying trumpet, maybe you think of an orchestra of brass and strings that could be put to a war movie about brave soldiers in harrowing circumstances — there’s a good chance you […]

Memoirs are important for two reasons: for the author, so they don’t forget those precious details that threaten to get washed away with the waves of time; and to the public, who ought to know exactly what goes on. I hear complaints about the number of veterans writing memoirs, and I understand it, but the […]

Burma/Myanmar — Mrauk U is a town in eastern Burma, in northern Rakhine State, where the violence with the Rohingya has taken place in recent months (though Mrauk U has been largely spared, until now). Somewhere between hundreds and thousands (depending on who you talk to) gathered in the town in remembrance of the Kingdom […]

On Jan. 31, 1945, Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, was led out by an armed detachment in the late morning in eastern France. He wore his uniform, though it was stripped of all insignias, rank and other designations; a green military blanket was draped over his shoulders. The members from the 109th Regiment put a black […]

KSHB’s 41 Action News reported it first from Kansas City, Missouri. An organization by the name of the Veterans Community Project has made substantial progress in their latest endeavor: building 30 “tiny homes” for 30 homeless veterans. They have completed the first 13 and hope to move in homeless vets soon, and have now even […]

This isn’t a story about combat heroics. It’s just about doing what needs to be done, in the very essence of the phrase. It was the middle of the Afghan night; the air was hot and my sweat was cold, matting my clothes to my body under my kit. I breathed heavily as the NODs […]

A “halal” internet has been a topic that’s been brought up in Iran several times in the past, and has once again resurfaced in the wake of the recent protests across the country. It would mean the strict control of the internet to make it coincide with Islamic law — and being an Islamic country, […]

War is hell. You’ve heard the phrase, and I suppose it’s true. The worst things I’ve ever seen have been in a war, though some of the most courageous and admirable things I’ve ever seen have also been in a war. With extreme darkness you notice the contrast of a little light a whole lot […]