The campaign to retake Mosul from ISIS was one of total war. The enemy had no intention of either surrendering or retreating, nor of leaving a single building standing or civilian unharmed as ISIS literally fought to the death. This was the environment, the “battle space” in military terms, that Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7, under the command of Lieutenant Jacob “Jake” Portier found itself. The platoon was fighting alongside the Iraqi Emergency Response Division, a unique security force primarily trained by U.S. Special Forces and commanded by Major General Abbas.
The El Mozote Massacre, by Greg Walker
Maj. Natividad de Jesús Cáceres Cabrera, second in command of the Atlacatl Immediate Reaction Battalion, was frustrated. He’d just ordered the men under his command to begin killing the children of El Mozote. They’d shown little hesitation in the killing of adult and elderly men in the village, and no hesitation at all in leading away the young girls, most between 12–to–15, whom they gang-raped, then butchered.
Losing the Last Greatest Battle: Why Military-Related Suicide Isn’t Going Away
It is unacceptable to hear a soldier say, “I did all they asked of me. Why are they doing this?” as Matt Brown posed to me just weeks before shooting himself in his quarters at Fort Lewis. Perhaps this is how Meriwether Lewis felt on that dark, cold night in October 1809 as he crawled across the ground, dying from his self-inflicted wounds as those who could have helped hid behind closed doors and watched him bleed to death. Lewis, whose name graces the Army’s largest base in the Pacific Northwest, died alone, unwanted, and abandoned in his hour of greatest need.
Running Iron Podcast Number Four — Greg Walker
US Army Special Forces veteran and retired lawman Greg Walker joins the Running Iron team for a wide-ranging interview. The author of 16 books and numerous articles for Soldier of Fortune, Black Belt Magazine, and many others, Greg sits down with Craig & Jim in the historic bunkhouse on the Figure 8 Ranch to talk knives, books, martial arts, his experiences in El Salvador and Iraq, and the art of kissing camels. Finally, Greg weighs in with winner-predictions for a lightning round of no-holds-barred celebrity fistfights. A Poet-Warrior of the Old School, this is an interview that will make you laugh, make you think, and stroke the warrior impulse embedded in your DNA.
