Claymore: World’s most famous mine?

Claymore: World’s most famous mine?

The Claymore is perhaps the most famous mine of the latter half of the 20th century.  Making a name for itself during the Vietnam War, it was used to great effect by US forces to repel assaults and initiate ambushes. Over the years, allies and enemies took notice, and it has spawned many copies while […]

Op-Ed: The OSCE Monitoring Mission- Ukraine

Op-Ed: The OSCE Monitoring Mission- Ukraine

By now if you have been following the Ukrainian conflict, you will have seen or noticed and organization that calls themselves the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) the guys driving around eastern Ukraine in white Toyota Landcruisers. Below is a mission statement from their website. Who we are The OSCE has a comprehensive approach to security that […]

A Delta Force father’s lamentation to his children: The sound of silence

A Delta Force father’s lamentation to his children: The sound of silence

(for Small Daughter and GeoV) It has been suggested, that, if, you could convince yourself that you were already dead, the torment of dying wouldn’t bother you (as much). I already know what it’s like to be dead, having been dead before: there isn’t shit over there on the other side; no light, no tunnel, […]

Rugby and mental toughness: How a college club prepared me for the Marine Corps

Rugby and mental toughness: How a college club prepared me for the Marine Corps

Although immensely popular elsewhere in the globe, rugby didn’t start gaining any real traction in the United States until fairly recently.  It’s similarities to some of American’s favorite sports, namely football and soccer, may have kept many from embracing what seems like a brutal bastardization of the two – but I think it has more […]

Missing Indonesian man found in the stomach of a 23 foot python (graphic images)

Missing Indonesian man found in the stomach of a 23 foot python (graphic images)

When I was a kid, my dad didn’t talk much about Vietnam.  I knew that he served as a combat medic, and thanks to his customary plastic bottle of Black Velvet after dinner, I heard him mention the horror and trauma associated with treating American soldiers that had been caught in napalm strikes once or […]

The indestructible Toyota Hi-Lux is finally coming to America

The indestructible Toyota Hi-Lux is finally coming to America

As a young man in the US Army the first vehicle I went looking to buy was a Toyota Hi-Lux.  Just as many soldiers are likely to buy a AR-15 rifle patterned off of the M16 or M4 that they use in the service, the Hi-Lux is a mid-sized pickup truck that punches way above […]

Remembering Greg Fronius, KIA in El Salvador 31 March 1987

Remembering Greg Fronius, KIA in El Salvador 31 March 1987

Thirty years ago today on March 31, 1987, Special Forces SSG Greg Fronius was killed in action in El Paraiso, El Salvador when guerrilla forces from the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) attacked the Salvadoran base during an early morning attack. Fronius was 27 at the time of his death and left behind a […]