Mike Perry

Throughout the Second World War, the Resistance in occupied countries played an important role in keeping the Germans off balance and tying up forces vital to the war effort. Nary had a day gone by without a bridge or a train being blown up somewhere in occupied Europe. To combat the problem, German forces carried […]

During the early years of World War II, the United States Marine Corps Raider battalions became the first American elite units committed to battle the Axis. Though originally conceived as a counterpart to the British commandos, the Raiders proved to be much more, and like their English brethren, laid the groundwork for the future while […]

The Special Forces Sergeant pulled the small rectangular Claymore mine from its pouch. Though he couldn’t see the Soviet built truck, he smelled its fumes. The distinctive low rasp of its diesel engine spewed a heavy, acrid odor that hung under the dense jungle canopy for hundreds of yards. Unwinding the detonation wire, he sensed […]

Green Beret Sergeant First Class Jerry Shriver knew the luck that always seemed to accompany him departed the moment the Huey left earth…

The men dropped to one knee on the side of a dirty mountain road, their breath frosting into tiny, pulsing clouds as they focused a stare toward the objective. From here the twin peaks belied a peaceful scene of deep green slopes and gentle curving crests that melded with countless others in the region. Any […]

The shadows in this deepening night moved with purpose, beaten grass forming into footprints as they halted, then moved as one until fanning out into a wide swath, almost abreast to halt again just below the crest of the mountain top. They maneuvered amidst jagged rocks, while eyes, rimmed with a dull green glow peered […]

For almost 6 months after December 7th, 1941, the Japanese war machine swept all before it in a series of attacks and offensives that shocked the United States and its allies. In this period, dozens of islands, most with insignificant names bound for glory, were set up to form barriers to protect the Japanese mainland. […]

By the Spring of 1970 the United States found itself entering a 5th year of combat operations in South Vietnam. Richard Nixon’s pledge of turning the war over through Vietnamization – that is, making the South take over the bulk of the fighting – was underway. Yet hundreds of miles north, in cramped, filthy cells, […]

One of the great stories to emerge from the Second World War was that of the British pursuit and eventual destruction of the German battleship Bismarck. By January 1942, the tale already began to pass into legend when a new threat, just as dangerous, sailed from Germany and dropped anchor in a Norwegian fjord. The […]

The 4 men appeared normal, their blue attire that of the Algerian Presidential police with Air Algirie logos inscribed. They stepped aboard the Airbus A300, belonging to Air France Flight 8969 as it readied to depart Algiers for Paris with 229 passengers on Christmas Eve, 1994. Moving from aisle to aisle they requested passengers passports. […]

Thursday, October 13, 1977, began as just another routine trip for the crew of Lufthansa Flight 181, as the Boeing 737 departed the island of Palma de Mallorca bound for Frankfurt Germany. On board, 86 passengers and 5 crew members went about their business, while the coast of mainland Europe slipped by below them. Little […]