If you’re a guns and gear guy who enjoys reading an action-packed fiction thriller that isn’t too far from reality, then you need to read The Terminal List by Jack Carr. I’ve read several fiction thrillers in the past, but get halfway through and end up losing interest and shelve the book. Not the case […]
Downtime
A Navy SEALs Guide to Mastering Fear | Learning to swim
I grew up on the water. Love it, spent my childhood in it, and a good chunk of my adulthood, too. But there’s a reason people use water when they want to drive you to the edge of sanity and break your spirit. If I say, “I’m going to drape a cloth over your mouth […]
A Navy SEALs Guide to Mastering Fear | Night Ops over the Persian Gulf
It’s nighttime over the Persian Gulf, summer of 1995. The four of us— pilot, copilot, another crewman, and me— have been out in our H-60 Seahawk helicopter doing sonar ops. It’s been a long night, and we need to refuel on a nearby destroyer before heading back to the aircraft carrier we’re calling home. The […]
A Navy SEALs Guide to Mastering Fear | Fear of the water
My friend Kamal is a world traveler; he has meditated with Tibetan monks in the Dalai Lama’s monastery, trekked the Himalayas, and hiked the Camino de Santiago in Spain. He served in the U.S. Army and studied to be an ER doctor. He has launched tech companies, runs his own venture capital firm, and is […]
Watch: Making Black Rifle Coffee in the Field
One of the things I remember from field exercises in the military is making coffee in the morning. During my time that involved using an instant coffee packet from our MRE’s and boiling up some water in our canteen cups (good stuff!). Even nowadays there is just something about making coffee in the wilderness that […]
Old Glory in Thailand during Operation Cobra Gold
This picture was taken by one of my teammates in the mid-1990’s. Alpha Company, 2nd Ranger Battalion was deployed to Thailand in support of Operation Cobra Gold. A large-scale training exercise that had us working with the Thai Commandos in the jungle regions. It was miserably hot during our time in Thailand but we appreciated […]
Photo of the day: Remote outpost in Kunar, Afghanistan
Taken on top of a remote outpost in Kunar, Afghanistan just after a firefight where insurgents attacked our larger COP with recoilless rifles and small arms. My platoon and I returned fire with machine gun fire and Gustav’s as well as provided FSO duties to walk our 120mm Howitzers on target. *Photo was taken in 2012 […]
Build Guns With Dad – An 80% Build For Father’s Day
When I was a kid, my dad was a car guy, or well a truck guy. His hobby was to take 60 and 70s model Fords and restore them. For one summer we both worked together on a truck, and it was an opportunity for us to bond. My dad and I never had much […]
A Leash and Collar That Improve Dog Training
See the benefits of the Ruffwear Chain Reaction Collar and Slackline Leash – how they can change your training and add versatility to time well spent.
Photo of the day: My summer adventure and my day hike loadout
I enjoy photography as well as traveling, hiking, and adventuring. Naturally, my hobbies tend to merge. As much as I enjoy the hiking season, I don’t enjoy the hordes of people that come with it. I travel the tourist hotspots during the offseason but tend to limit myself to local secrets during the summer. Immediately after my […]