Category: Expert Analysis

Read A Marine Goes to College Part One and Part Two. While plenty of college life felt foreign to me, one thing I knew I’d have no trouble getting used to was the drinking.  For better or worse, the Marine Corps will teach a guy how to drink. In the military, just about every event […]

Websites all over the internet that promise transitioning veterans advice about finding work in the private sector often target language first.  While just about every social niche develops its own unique take on contemporary vocabulary, the military may be the worst.  With acronyms and gibberish sounding titles littering our every sentence, and curse words filling […]

A negative lead is typically used when engaging a stagnant target while the shooter is moving. A negative lead can also be used on a moving target. Negative leads are typically seen in high-wind velocities, when the target speed is relatively slow. Let’s use the following as an example: A 175-grain .308 HPBT bullet Bullet velocity of 2650 FPS A wind […]

Four days before Christmas in 1968, Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first human beings ever to leave Earth and successfully complete an orbit around the moon.  It was the second manned flight of the Apollo program, and its success created the basis for Neil […]

So, here I was in the Erbil Rotana, itching to get started on our documentary. But before we were headed anywhere, we had to do all the basic kit check and preparation required, as well as get the most up-to-date briefing on the situation on the ground. There was plenty to do. First was a trip […]

This year at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) special guest speakers included none less than President Trump at an event viewed by many as a barometer for the future of the American right.  It isn’t unusual for CPAC to have some minor controversies but this time many were shocked as Trump supporters enthusiastically waved miniature Russian […]

Bill Paxton is that guy you’ve seen in a hundred movies, but somehow always manage to confuse with Bill Pullman.  One of them gave an incredible speech in “Independence Day” (Pullman) – the other played characters that were sometimes cringeworthy, like the wannabe-spy car salesman wooing people’s wives in “True Lies” (Paxton), but for guys like […]

The Islamic State in Mosul has turned the process of creating devastating car bombs into one that has all the hallmarks of assembly line efficiency. Iraqi Army and counterterrorism units are encountering car bombs with frustrating regularity, so much so that they have developed tactics, techniques, and procedures more designed to mitigate the damage when one […]

I read a lot of comments.  Whenever one of my articles goes live, I do my best to hop in and read every comment beneath it when my schedule permits, and although it’s likely bad for my health, I often read the comments posted to Facebook as well.  The content we write about begs for […]

Most people are familiar with the statistics commonly bandied about regarding the relatively high divorce rates of military personnel. Although these rates generally are not quite as high in non-military populations, divorce remains relatively common among veterans. Questions commonly arise as to what impact the end of a marriage will have upon veterans’ military pensions. The […]

Read A Marine goes to college (Part 1) here. Being back in school took some getting used to, but not in many of the ways I anticipated. My first attempt at going to college ended before it began.  I was a high school football player with aspirations that didn’t extend further than just finding a […]

There’s a lot of talk, in all branches of the military and the defense/firearms industry, about situational awareness, and appropriately so.  If you don’t know what’s going on around you, you can’t react appropriately to an emergency.  But there are elements of situational awareness that haven’t been cultivated, especially in the military, to the detriment […]