Category: War Stories

(Author left, and assault team engaging targets with Mark 19 in extreme cold weather environment) Since I first started my physical training program(s) at 13 years old, I never took intentional periods off for rest: not a month, not a week, not a day. There certainly were days where it was not possible to train, […]

The following is an excerpt from “Bones One Zero,” the memoir of Army combat medic Reuben Ryan. THE TOUGHEST MAN “Bones One Zero, this is Bones OPS,” It was our Operations SGT at FOB Taji, SGT Graham. “Bones One Zero,” CW3 Bottolene replied as our Blackhawk headed back south from Balad after completing an Urgent […]

(Continued from Part I) (Feature photo courtesy of the author (L) and Thomas Story (R)) (Dedicated to: Mr. Thomas Story) My parents did a swimming job of keeping racism out of our house. They had friends of all kinds, they listened to possibly every genre of music in existence. They made no comments, used no […]

Sometimes, my stories or articles might lead some to believe that I’m cool. This probably isn’t one of them. Two years ago, I was a full-time college student just out of the Corps.  I was attending school in Framingham, Massachusetts, a few hours south of my hometown in Vermont, affording me the opportunity to take […]

Physical fitness and selection are one in the same. I wrote before about the mental component, maybe the most important. It’s still nothing without a base. The base is physical fitness. Let me demystify selection. Because it’s similar to joining a sports team. Except this team is both all-encompassing and niche at the same time. […]

(Feature photo: Author (left) and bud Jorge Torrespico, Ft. Benning, GA circa 1980) For my friend and little brother, Mr. Brice Menaugh I was born George Edward Hand IV, descendant of Alan Hand who arrived from Hungary to NYC in 1905, where he was a cobbler (makes/repairs shoes). From Al Hand, came his sons George […]

When and if you go to selection, you’ll no doubt hear it was harder “back in the day.” Regardless of when you go, you can’t just wing it. Everything about selection is personal. There are trials where you’re working in teams, but it’s still a personal evaluation. There is no team, only individuals. Beyond that, […]

It was a cold early morning in southern Iraq as I stepped outside and up to the B6 Land Cruisers parked next to the curb. I was on my way to assist another sister security company in completing a site survey for an upcoming contract near the Iranian border; about 300km from my location that […]

Now, it was long about time: we sat on the pool deck in neat rows and columns, shivering spiritedly, sucking in all available ambient sunlight like a Goddamned black hole (Brian Kimber sanctioned epithet). The skies became ashen and sober. Leaves, crisped and seared began to rustle as a whisper of vermouth wind swept them […]

The military, as a whole, needs to be depicted as fairly useless in superhero movies. After all, why would we need a Norse god or a Hulk to fight our battles if the armed forces were equipped to do so themselves? More often than not, tanks and military aircraft exist in these films solely to […]

I met a man once that fought in the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.  He was a small man, and looked even smaller because his age prevented him from standing completely upright.  He wore thick glasses that rested across a crooked nose and a deep purple scar on his cheek.   We exchanged greetings and I […]

Hand to hand combat is an important part of training for every service member, but that doesn’t mean that every service member knows how to fight.  In the Marine Corps, every recruit must earn their tan belt (the equivalent of a white belt) in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program before graduating from recruit training.  […]