Willie Blazer has a hangover. Surrounded by a sea of military memorabilia in the tasting room of his distillery in Ennis, Montana, the big ginger from Appalachia sips water from a bottle, trying to gather the energy and mental ...
Jun 27, 2022
Apr 24, 2022
‘We Slaughtered Them All’: Inside the Bloody Battle for Shewan
On July 21, 2008, Lance Cpl. Brady Gustafson was manning an M240 machine gun in the turret of a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle in the Afghan village of Shewan when a rocket-propelled grenade pierced the MRAP’s hull and ...
Apr 14, 2022
‘2034’ Authors Talk World War III, Nuclear Conflict, and America’s Future
When he served as supreme allied commander of NATO, Adm. James Stavridis spent a lot of time worrying about the potential for nuclear conflict between superpowers and the grim realities of how a third world war might shake out. Against the backdrop ...
Mar 25, 2022
‘Game: Blouses’ — Micki Free Dishes True Story of Prince’s Basketball Game With Charlie Murphy
In January 2003, Chappelle’s Show premiered on Comedy Central and planted itself firmly in America’s collective consciousness, quickly exploding as a titanic cultural phenomenon and one of the greatest sketch comedy shows ever produced. Anyone ...
Mar 09, 2022
Disney Dropped Its Obi-Wan Kenobi Trailer, and It Looks Incredible
Disney just dropped the first teaser-trailer for its long-awaited Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+ and, Sweet Baby Jesus, it has us feeling the kinds of feelings usually expressed with eggplant or water emojis. “The fight is done. We lost. Stay ...
Feb 24, 2022
1,700 Arrested as Russian Protesters in 58 Cities Decry Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine
Thousands of Russian protesters took to the streets in cities all over Russia Thursday, Feb. 24, to stage anti-war demonstrations and decry President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. OVD-Info, a protest-monitoring group focused on protecting ...
Feb 14, 2022
5 Damning Reports US Troops Would Like To ‘Reject’ Biden-Style
After President Joe Biden recently announced he is “rejecting” the US Central Command’s report outlining the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal that claimed the lives of 13 US service members and 170 Afghans, barracks lawyers all over the military are ...
Dec 15, 2021
‘They’re Trying To Drown Us’ — Veterans React After Congress Punts on Marijuana Legislation
After lawmakers in the US Senate last week dropped a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would have allowed the banking industry to do business with licensed marijuana retailers, US Navy veteran Seth Smith felt the weight of the ...
Oct 27, 2021
Colin Powell Knew How To Win; We Should Have Listened
The day after Gen. Colin Powell died at 84, I was eating chili at a dingy bar in Austin, Texas, when a haggard, middle-aged waiter appeared over my shoulder, inquiring to the Willie Nelson look-alike behind the bar, “Did Colin Powell die?” Willie ...
Sep 29, 2021
With New Recon Sniper Course, Marines Seek To Make More Elite Snipers
Under an overcast sky on an urban warfare range aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, a shooter waits for an instructor’s signal. “Let’s go!” the instructor shouts, sprinting toward a nearby building and quickly up a flight ...
Sep 15, 2021
Sex, Drugs, and Neuroscience: ‘High Risk’ Sets a High Bar for the Gonzo-Style Operator Memoir
Former British Special Air Service soldier Ben Timberlake is a bit of a degenerate. Fortunately, he’s much more than just a degenerate. Perhaps most importantly for our purposes here, Timberlake is a helluva writer, and he certainly appears to ...
Jul 21, 2021
Sources: Legendary Soldier Alwyn Cashe Will Receive the Medal of Honor
Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, the soldier who died of wounds suffered while pulling seven men from a burning vehicle in Iraq in 2005, is poised to finally receive the Medal of Honor and become the first Black recipient of the medal since the Vietnam ...
Jul 06, 2021
Dispatch: A Pioneering Recruit Leads the Way in the Crucible
Katey Hogan was about 36 hours into her Crucible when her body started failing. Since the 54-hour training event had kicked off, Hogan and roughly 400 other recruits from Lima Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot San ...
Apr 18, 2021
4,000 Volts, a Dying Man, and the Kiss of Life
Every April, many Americans join energy cooperatives and utilities across the US in celebrating National Lineworker Appreciation Day. Roughly 114,930 lineworkers work around the clock to keep 328 million Americans connected to energy, and there is ...
Mar 26, 2021
GORUCK: How a Backpack Company Became a Global Movement
“When you get good at doing hard things, it makes life a lot more rewarding.” That’s the idea upon which former Green Beret Jason McCarthy built GORUCK, the business that began as a startup backpack company at the height of the 2008 financial ...
Mar 25, 2021
Watch the Afghan National Army Spit Hot Fire in This Rap-Cruiting Video
The Afghan National Army is looking for a few good men. You may have heard that the US is, once again, playing the "should I stay or should I go" game in Afghanistan, so the ANA has an urgent need to fill its ranks and beef up its forces — perhaps ...
Mar 23, 2021
10 Marines Just Became the 1st To Earn the Title ‘Recon Sniper’
In a small ceremony aboard Camp Pendleton, 10 Reconnaissance Marines made history Friday, becoming the first graduates of the Marine Corps’ new Reconnaissance Sniper Course (RSC) and earning the title Recon Sniper. Marine leaders at Camp ...
Mar 23, 2021
Second Marine Commander Fired 8 Months After Training Mishap That Killed 9
The commanding officer of the California-based Marine expeditionary unit that suffered the deaths of nine members during an amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) training mishap last summer was removed from his post Tuesday, Marine officials announced in ...
Mar 08, 2021
Watch: The Inspiring Story of Annie N. Graham, the 1st Black Woman in the Marine Corps
"My mother was a patriot. She was proud to have served in the Marines," Stephanie Gilliard-Sheard says in an interview, describing Sgt. Annie Graham, the first African American woman in the Marine Corps. "She was courageous to decide to go and do ...
Mar 07, 2021
This Is Why the Apache Is a Flying Fortress
Considered the most advanced attack helicopter in the Army’s arsenal, the AH-64 Apache has racked up 4.2 million flight hours and counting since Boeing delivered the aircraft in 1984. “This is the most survivable safest aircraft in the Army’s ...
Mar 05, 2021
Inside the Marine Corps’ New Recon Sniper Course — A Visual Journey
Yesterday, Coffee or Die Magazine broke the story that the Marines have developed a new course to train snipers for the Corps’ elite Reconnaissance units. That means we can now reveal that Coffee or Die staffers have been embedded with the Marines ...
Mar 04, 2021
With Storied Sniper School’s Future in Question, Marines Launch New Recon Sniper Course
Marines in the service’s elite Reconnaissance community have developed a new training course to develop snipers for the Corps’ Reconnaissance units, Coffee or Die Magazine has learned. “Recon Marines understand the importance of being a sniper and ...
Feb 23, 2021
Meet Colonel Dave Severance, the Man Who Led the Marines That Raised the Flag on Iwo Jima
As I leaned in to shake retired Col. Dave E. Severance’s hand, the small white shapes polka-dotting his navy-blue tie came into clear relief as the iconic image of Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima. When we met in 2002, Severance was in ...
Feb 21, 2021
The Legend of Jim Capers: The Hero Who Never Was
It was around dawn on Feb. 19, 2012, when the phone rang in an apartment in Oceanside, California, rousting retired Marine Maj. James Capers Jr. from a deep sleep. Capers looked for the sound, his 73-year-old brain still soaked ...
Feb 19, 2021
Watch: ‘Bullets Don’t Have No Color’ — Montford Point Marine Recalls Defeating Racism, Tyranny in World War II
“Bullets don’t have no color,” says Master Gunnery Sgt. John Spencer, recalling the history of the Black Marines who blazed a path toward equal treatment long before President Harry Truman desegregated the US military in 1948. Spencer is one of ...
Feb 17, 2021
‘Make Them Marines’ — What ‘Black Friday’ Looked Like 18 Years Ago
Last week, I traveled to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego to document the arrival and start of recruit training for the first platoon of female recruits ever to train at the West Coast installation. In a way, the assignment was a homecoming. I ...
Feb 16, 2021
Baptism in Chaos: First Women Experience ‘Black Friday’ at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
Around 2:30 p.m. Friday, the women of Platoon 3241, Lima Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, moved into their squad bay aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and met their drill instructors for the first time. The recruits of Platoon ...
Feb 10, 2021
Female Recruits Make History, Stepping Onto Yellow Footprints at All-Male Boot Camp in San Diego
In a historic first for the Marine Corps, 60 female recruits stepped off buses and onto the iconic yellow footprints alongside hundreds of male recruits in front of the receiving barracks at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego on Tuesday. The ...
Feb 02, 2021
WATCH: SEAL Sniper Recalls Competing for Kills With ‘Legend’ Chris Kyle
Kevin “Dauber” Lacz was a new-guy Navy SEAL sniper on his first deployment to Iraq when he served alongside Chris Kyle as one of the infamous "Punishers" of Cadillac Platoon, Task Unit Bruiser, in the 2006 Battle of Ramadi. Kyle, whose teammates in ...
Feb 02, 2021
Corps Deactivates 8th Marine Regiment (Again) as Part of Force Realignment
On Thursday, the Camp Lejeune-based 8th Marine Regiment became the latest Marine Corps unit to case its colors and deactivate. The 2nd Marine Division unit joined a still-growing list of Marine units that have been deactivated as part of Marine ...
