Luke Ryan

America’s attention was suddenly shifted toward Hawaii on Saturday, as alerts were sent out warning of a “ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii.” The text message claimed that it was not a drill. Since then, authorities have claimed that this was a mistake — not the actions of a foreign government or “hackers,” simply human […]

Yangon, Myanmar/Burma — A mass grave containing the bodies of 10 dead Rohingya Muslims has been uncovered in Rakhine State, Burma; the Rohingya combatants in the area have told authorities that the people buried were not a part of their organization. The government had earlier admitted to killing 10 “terrorists” in September, but have since […]

Fiction has found its way into the hearts and minds of cultures all across the globe, in countless forms and varieties. From the “Epic of Gilgamesh” to the latest installment of “Die Hard” and everything in between, we’ve been practicing the art of telling untrue stories to each other for thousands of years. The last […]

My last deployment was a little rougher than the rest, and I came home with an injury from which I would make a full recovery. The nature of the injury is not really worth mentioning, and many on the ground that night were hit much harder — some lost their lives, some lost limbs or […]

When most people thing of Walt Whitman, they think of “O Captain! my Captain!” Perhaps this is from a high school English class like mine, perhaps it’s from the “Dead Poets Society” movie with Robin Williams. However, he wrote hundreds of other poems and was quite popular in his day — though just as controversial, […]

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is described by the Concussion Legacy Foundation as “a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma.” A degenerative disease is one that essentially deteriorates organs or tissues — in this case the brain. CTE can affect people in a variety of […]

Most people prefer the ease of GPS over a map and compass — in a combat scenario, stopping and conducting map-checks by definition leave the element exposed, it takes unnecessary time, and requires the element to set up security and then break it again down upon movement. GPS takes all of those out of play, […]

You don’t have to have a service dog to enjoy the benefits of having a dog (in fact having a service dog if you don’t need one is damaging to the service dog industry). Simply owning a dog and taking care of it can be an incredible form of companionship, fulfilling responsibility, and ultimately a […]

BBC (available on Netflix) has released the fourth season of “Peaky Blinders” recently, a show centered around British gangsters of the same name in 1919. We follow Tommy Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy, as he takes his small, hometown, family-run gang beyond the small pickings of local crime and into some high-risk high-reward criminal ventures. […]

Burma/Myanmar — Two Reuters journalists were arrested on December 12, and have recently been charged under the “Official Secrets Act.” The two journalists, Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, had previously reported on the violence in Rakhine state with the Rohingya people. More often than not, the government tends to keep tight control over their media […]

The laws surrounding several types of drug offenses in Iran have been repealed, possibly saving approximately the 5,000 prisoners who are currently on death row in the country. Iran has historically had a hard stance on drugs, and getting caught with 30g of cocaine would automatically warrant the death penalty — that’s just over an […]

Sgt. Zachary Mayne, former team leader of 3rd Ranger Battalion, has suffered two separate combat traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) during his deployments to Afghanistan. In an interview with SOFREP, he said that, …my second blast TBI definitely shifted my views on the whole issue. I only had headaches for a few days from the first, […]