Category: Featured

When Jack Murphy tagged me in an article posted on Facebook about the increase of piracy incidents in the Caribbean, my initial thought was, “Is there a possibility of maritime security gigs there?” — a couple of days waiting for a ship on St. Kitts and Nevis is not exactly my idea of a bad time. According […]

Yesterday an attempted prison break in a Duhok — in a prison that contained convicted terrorists — led to seven inmates being killed and several others injured. The deaths and injuries occurred when the would-be escapees set fire to their cell block. Zirka prison houses around 1,500 convicted terrorists, most of which were members of the […]

Bryce Dryden is a former medic from 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, who is heading out to the jungles of Burma to teach trauma medicine. He is working with Earth Mission Asia, a non-profit that has worked in the area for years, striving to build healthcare infrastructure among the Karen people in eastern Burma/Myanmar. […]

What follows is an extract from Pericles’ funeral oration for the fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian War. What I would prefer is that you should fix your eyes every day on the greatness of Athens as she really is, and should fall in love with her. When you realize her greatness, then reflect that […]

It is a notable thing to survive a major war. Veterans of these wars held in the highest esteem among other veterans — they have experienced things most could not imagine. Every once in a while, you will hear of veterans who served in two major conflicts. For example, due to their relatively close proximity […]

In recent years, a series of cringe worthy posts inevitably find their way on to social media that lambaste veterans and chastise civilians about what the appropriate way is to observe Memorial Day. Rather than enjoy a long weekend and some time with our families, we are now expected to be sad and solemn as […]

To say that I am excited is to vastly understate the case. Before going to Teotihuacan, the ancient pyramid complex near Mexico City constructed by the Toltecs, I had been reading a book called “Boyd” by Robert Coram. It’s the story of Air Force colonel John Boyd, the most innovative military thinker since Clausewitz. I […]

There are too many wars and conflicts around the world to keep up with. It’s difficult to stay updated on some of the conflicts that do occasionally make their way to the headlines, even just for a little bit. Firefights in Afghanistan will sometimes make the headlines, but to many consumers they look like the […]

Iraqi Kurdistan’s infrastructure has suffered drastically over the last few years. Everything from the Islamic State, construction failure, and natural disasters have caused considerable amounts of damage. Overall, everything has put a strain on the economy and that in turn has made upkeep very difficult as well. A particularly bad example of this (or good […]

For as long as people have told stories, they’ve spun tales of lost treasure. The golden city of El Dorado, the treasure of Plum Island, buried pirate treasure and lost Nazi gold trains have all found their way into our collective imagination, begging us to ask ourselves… are there any treasures left to be discovered? […]

Someone with access to the internet does not have all the world’s information at their fingertips, but it certainly feels that way. The dawn of the internet shot the information age light years ahead. Resources like Wikipedia, dictionary.com, sites that compile news together from multiple sources, and access to unlimited TED talks and history documents […]

Tragedy struck in a Santa Fe high school on Friday, as a lone gunman walked onto campus brandishing two firearms and the intent to kill. Ten students would fall dead before 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis would turn himself in, admitting that he intended to take his own life, but lacked the courage. For Americans, Friday’s death […]