Tag: Luke Ryan

Along with 57 Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAM), 19 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM-ER) missiles were fired into chemical weapons targets in Syria this week, in both Damascus and Homs. The JASSM was developed by Lockheed Martin and fielded in 2009 — the extended range varient came into play in 2014. Much of […]

During the recent conflict involving the Myanmar/Burmese government and the Rohingya that has been described as ‘textbook ethnic cleansing,’ the Burmese have continuously denied the UN access to conduct an investigation regarding the claims of genocide. Reports from a myriad of aid organizations have all pointed toward massive amounts of human rights violations, including the […]

April 14, 1865 — The President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, sat in the Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. “Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap!” said an actor playing in “Our American Cousin” for […]

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” – H.L. Mencken Every person has it in them — the demon. I’m not sure what it is exactly, whether it’s some inner spiritual rage or some biological instinct to spur one toward survival […]

Soldiers are asked to carry out some of the most unimaginably difficult and horrifying tasks a human could be asked to do. They risk their own life and limb, they are sometimes forced to watch as their friends are slaughtered, they take lives and damage families, and they often come home wounded physically or mentally. […]

The Chemical Weapons Convention is a treaty between 192 nations that essentially outlaws the manufacture, stockpiling and implementation of chemical weapons. Four UN nations are not a part of this treaty, and they are Egypt, North Korea, South Sudan and Israel (Israel has signed but not ratified). The treaty was signed in 1993, and since […]

About three years into my career as a Ranger, I was assigned a team and therefore a fellow team leader. We had crossed paths several times in the past, but he was coming from another platoon so I had never gotten to know him all that well. He was a relatively normal guy, a good […]

The U.S. Department of Defense has announced the commencement of the annual training exercise known as “Exercise Eager Lion 18” from April 18-26, 2018. Approximately 3,600 service members from the U.S. will work alongside their Jordanian counterparts in order to better train cooperatively for any future engagements the countries may endure together. This culminating exercise […]

The first time I ever heard gunshots take a person’s life, I was in the fourth grade. They would often blow up chunks of the surrounding mountain range with bundles of dynamite, but this sounded different. My Dad would later explain to me that a Sunni had shot a Shiite dead in the bazaar. It […]

Netflix has recently released a new documentary series called, “Wild Wild Country.” It’s six episodes long, each episode running around an hour each, and it dives into the Rajneesh movement that reached global headlines in the 1980s. Called a cult by some and a movement by others, the Rajneesh followed under the teachings of an […]

“When I get out, I’m going to buy a piece of land in the heart of America. I’m going to run a farm, live off the land and live in peace.” This is the fantasy of many military men and women — they long for the physical labor and connection to nature, with the peace […]

Nationwide protests have erupted since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, that took the lives of 17 students and faculty. Among the protests and picketing have been national school walk outs, where students and teachers alike have walked out of their school in an attempt to pressure politicians to instate stricter gun laws, […]