A Soldier of Fortune
Speaks
Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown (USAR - Ret.), Editor
and Publisher of the notoriously politically incorrect Soldier of Fortune magazine, and his
co-author, Vann Spencer, recently published his astonishing autobiography, I Am
Soldier-of-Fortune: Dancing with Devils.
This is one of those books you just have
to read. Col. Brown is an American icon. His life story is so wild, you might
be skeptical were it not all demonstrably true. The flavor of the book is
captured in the prologue. Col. Brown recounts a time he and a few compatriots
were huddled in the flat bed of a pickup truck in the center of Sarajevo, while
12.7 mm machine gun rounds flew overhead:
What the hell was I
doing here, anyhow? I had long lost count of the times I had asked myself that
question when caught in some hotspot with no escape hatch in sight, vowing that
I was done with jumping into the heat of hostilities between some vindictive
ethnic groups or hashish-crazed warring tribes. Again as the tracers screamed
overhead, I tried to convince myself that it was all for the sake of the
readers of my adventure magazine,Soldier of Fortune, but who was I kidding?
Mama Brown's boy hadn't changed much since those wild college days when Fidel
Castro's Cuban revolution came calling.
Going all the way back
to pre-Castro Cuba, Brown has either been a witness or participant in
practically every war, conflict or skirmish across the globe for the last 50
plus years. In Cuba's case his youthful idealism actually put him on Castro's
side at first, but he quickly switched when Castro's malevolent intentions
became clear. During the Vietnam War, he was a Special Forces officer until an
injury forced his departure.
From 1975 to the present, he has done all this
while publishing Soldier of Fortune magazine.
In 2010, the magazine celebrated 35 years of continuous operation, a
celebration I reported on for Right Side News,
Breitbart and others, here.
Former Green Beret and author (Across the
Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam) John Stryker Meyer, says of Dancing with
Devils:
"The book is
written in Brown's flamboyant, self-effacing style, and through it all I've had
a chance to reflect on his red, white and blue patriotism as one of America's
most fearless journalists and, yes, a soldier for fortune who cares about God
and Country."
Soldier of Fortune though he may be, his
fortunes were few and costs many. Most of his sojourns into foreign lands were
made on his own dime, and he shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to
support causes that our government -- to its eternal disgrace -- wouldn't. He
funded an extensive effort to find Vietnam War POW/MIAs, including construction
of a company-sized camp inside Laos to facilitate the ultimately fruitless
search. He repeatedly sent teams of volunteers to Central America to train
forces battling the Cuban-supported Communist Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the
Communist FMLN insurgency in El Salvador. A number of his courageous reporters
lost their lives in the dangerous places no other journalist dared tread.
One of his volunteers, veteran and firearms
expert Peter G. Kokalis, traveled to El Salvador repeatedly for nine years
to train its Special Forces. When FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Fumes
was elected in 2009, Kokalis sadly concluded "I left another country whose
war we had won only to lose the peace." For this we can thank the gutless,
corrupt, self-serving, seditious media hacks and politicians we generously
refer to as "liberals," most revoltingly personified by the current
White House Occupier.
But I digress.
Col. Brown and his intrepid staff scooped the
CIA and the U.S. military a number of times in securing newly fielded enemy
small arms and ammunition for U.S. evaluation. For example, they obtained the
first samples of ammunition used in the Soviets' new AK-74 assault rifle. The
CIA hated them for it, though they reaped the benefits of SOF's work for free.
As Newsweek reported in 1981:
They don't like to admit
it, but intelligence analysts at the CIA and the pentagon rely on an adventure
magazine published in Boulder, Colorado for some of their best information on
Soviet military operations in Afghanistan. Every month the analysts comb
through grenade launchers and other Soviet weapons that the magazine's
correspondents in Afghanistan have somehow acquired...
Brown also brought innovative tactics to the
field of battle that assisted our side. For example, during the Nicaraguan
civil war, U.S. supported (sort of) CONTRAs were being hammered by the
communist Sandinistas, newly supplied with Soviet Mi-24 "Hind" attack
helicopters. Col. Brown widely distributed an advertisement offering $1 million
to any Nicaraguan pilot who defected with an intact Hind. It was reported by an
ABC News reporter with Nicaraguan Sandinista contacts to have grounded the
entire Hind force for three weeks while the Sandinistas' Cuban advisors brought
in trustworthy replacement pilots.
Col. Brown personifies that rugged, determined,
can-do American spirit that has saved our nation's bacon countless times, but
today is an endangered species. Being slowly suffocated by mind-numbing
political correctness, educational indoctrination, media fraud, political
corruption, heavy taxation and economic malpractice, our nation's spirit is
being crushed.
Within the military, endless deployments under insane rules of
engagement that hand both the advantage and the initiative to our
enemies, are killing our warriors, while this president assures us that their
deaths will serve no
ultimate purpose. With the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell,
homosexual and lesbian activists are now terrorizing the
rank and file with anti-Christian, "gay rights" political
indoctrination, while homosexuals are responsible for a disproportionate
number of sexual assaults in the military. People loyal only to
Obama are replacing an unprecedented number of seasoned top brass
forced out in what retired Major General and Medal of Honor recipient Patrick
Brady calls a purge,
and this administration is stripping the military budget to hollow force
levels while throwing trillions of tax dollars at friends and political
supporters.
But I digress... again!
It is difficult not to with the insanity this
president has wrought. Col. Brown's book is a breath of fresh air and reminds
us that with spirit, determination, courage and ingenuity, one individual can
accomplish amazing things living in the land of the free and home of the brave.
Let's try to keep it that way. Read his book
and be inspired.
No comments:
Post a Comment