KYIV, Ukraine—Seventy-four years later, I reached up and broke off a small piece of a branch that was long and gray. It was bent in the strange, contorted ways it had blindly grown to look for light here at the cold bottom of the ravine, where the forest canopy above had turned the sunny spring…
Author: The Tactical Hermit
Armed Texan and Part-Time Bard.
The History of Guerilla Warfare: Ancient Bullet Supports Accounts of T.E. Lawrence
Experts say discovery in the desert, near scene of famous train raid, seems to prove British diplomat’s memoir was not just a tall tale A bullet from a Colt gun found in the Arabian desert lends credence to TE Lawrence’s own account of his part in the Arab revolt in the early 20th century. Until…
Ancient History: Were The Vikings First To Discover North America? The Evidence Sais Yes
The Vikings’ claim to be the first Europeans to reach North America will receive a huge boost, with the announcement of the discovery of a new site that marks the farthest known westerly point of the Norse exploration across the Atlantic. Scientists working with the BBC will today reveal that they believe they have discovered…
Cold War Files: After-Action-Report (AAR) of a Rhodesian Ambush
Imagine initiating an ambush with a 40 mike-mike training round. That would be a Bad Thing. This ambush, as remembered by our friend and former Rhodie troopie Nick Bliksem, is just about as bad (but not quite). This was during the “Second Chimurenga” period of the Rhodesian Bush War, back when Jimmy Carter was POTUS,…
Traveling Armed Part 1: Know the Law and NEVER Assume
I travel a lot. Frequently I do so with a firearm. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to focus on just that: traveling (and flying) with a firearm (vs. how I carry, how I secure it, etc. — that will come in the future). As a retired LEO (that’s Law Enforcement Officer…
Cyber-News: How To Hack An Election
Andrés Sepúlveda rigged elections throughout Latin America for almost a decade. He tells his story for the first time. It was just before midnight when Enrique Peña Nieto declared victory as the newly elected president of Mexico. Peña Nieto was a lawyer and a millionaire, from a family of mayors and governors. His wife was…
Military History: From Private to Four-Star, Famous Generals That Rose From the Ranks
“Awarding of battlefield commissions to NCOs for leadership under fire is common in wartime, rare is the commanding general, admiral or field marshal who began his military career among the rank-and-file.” THE U.S. MILITARY CALLS THEM “mustangs” – ordinary soldiers who’ve risen from the ranks of the enlisted to join the officer corps. Seen as something…
Modern Crime: Fed’s Try To Unlock Phones Because of Drugs NOT Terrorism
UNTIL THE FBI backed down from its battle with Apple over accessing the iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, it seemed the agency had chosen a near-perfect case on which to make its stand against encryption. By refusing to write software to help law enforcement crack Farook’s phone, Apple was made to…
Military Defense News: A Tour of the USS Zumwalt, America’s First Stealth Ship
A reporter for Defense News is the first to spend time on the USS Zumwalt as it conducted builders trials off the coast of Maine. The 610 foot long, 16,000 ton stealth destroyer, the first of her class, is undergoing extra testing before delivery to the U.S. Navy. The Zumwalt‘s iconic slab-sided profile, in which no…
Cyber-News: FBI Is Pushing Back Against Judge’s Order to reveal TOR Browser Exploit
Last month, the FBI was ordered to reveal the full malware code used to hack visitors of a dark web child pornography site. The judge behind that decision, Robert J. Bryan,said it was a “fair question” to ask how exactly the FBI caught the defendant. But the agency is pushing back. On Monday, lawyers for…