First Casualty signed by 20+ CIA, Green Berets & special operators; Afghan rug from Sheberghan depicting 9/11 attacks; Four Branches engraved Badger Six bourbon; signed Horse Soldiers bourbon; Team Alpha challenge coin; J.R.Seeger’s Leatherman from Afghanistan 2001; TR-660 watch

24 years ago today, CIA paramilitary officer Mike Spann and case officer David Tyson entered a dusty fort called Qala-i Jangi. They were on the outskirts of Mazar-i Sharif, the city in Northern Afghanistan they had helped capture from the Taliban two weeks earlier. Both were

What about Andrew’s Royal Navy rank? He is a vice-admiral, a three star, after retiring as a commander, four ranks below that. He’s a vice-admiral because he is (was) a royal (ridiculous in itself) but he earned his commander’s rank. The only logical thing would be to reduce him

Congratulations to @marioledwith and @willroe2 on their fantastic, haunting six-part Poppy Day Bomb podcast about Enniskillen, where a dozen people were killed by an IRA bomb at the Remembrance Day parade in 1987. Full of insights into the unresolved and largely unaddressed

“For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.” (President James A. Garfield, Arlington National Cemetery, 1868) Nine years ago today, in Landstuhl, Germany, Nate Delemarre's life support machine was

Just found a pristine copy of first edition (1999) of “Bandit Country” in a Goodwill thrift store in Arlington, Virginia - pretty good deal at $1.99.

Can anyone identify the trees to the left and right of this North Carolina farmhouse, and the purple flowers in the foreground?

Thinking today about my friend Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, killed in action beside Shamalan canal, Helmand, Afghanistan, during Operation Panther’s Claw 16 years ago today - July 1, 2009. Rupert, who I first got to know when he was a captain in an intelligence role in Northern

Remembering Major Paul Syverson, 32, killed in Iraq this day 21 years ago - June 16, 2004. On November 26, 2001, a 2,000-pound US JDAM landed on a friendly position at Qala-i-Jangi, Afghanistan. Captain Syverson - pictured here in the foreground with Captain Anthony Jarrett and

Clive was a good pal at Corpus, a gentle soul and erudite historian who was capable, when the opportunity presented itself, of epic feats of endurance drinking.

The name of Keith Allen Butler, a former Green Beret major who served for 37 years in the Army and Marines, has today been added to @CIA Book of Honor. Butler, 56, was a paramilitary contractor who was KIA in Afghanistan on May 10, 2014. He also served in Panama, Somalia,

I was honored this Memorial Day weekend to visit a number of @CIA graves at Arlington National Cemetery, including those of William Buckley, Doug Zembiec, Brian Hoke, Nate Delemarre, and Elizabeth Hanson. It was poignant to stop by the final resting places of Mike Spann and

"This isn't the Gerry Adams show even though you might want to turn it into that” - Paul Gallagher SC. Gallagher was lawyer who took apart Thomas “Slab” Murphy in a Dublin courtroom in 1998. Murphy, named as an IRA commander, had sued for libel - he lost.

*fewer* generals