Colonel Edward Lansdale (second from left) with C.I.A. Director Allen Dulles and United States Air Force Chief of Staff General Nathan F. Twining and C.I.A. Deputy Director Lieutenant General Charles P. Cabell at The Pentagon in 1955. U.S. Air Force Archive. During the Hukbalahap Rebellion in the 1950s, the CIA employed psychological warfare to weaken…
By Michael Kurcina Mike credits his early military training as the one thing that kept him disciplined through the many years. He currently provides his expertise as an adviser for an agency within the DoD. Michael Kurcina subscribes to the Spotter Up way of life. “I will either find a way or I will make…
Viet Cong soldier stands beneath carrying his AK-47 rifle. He was participating in the exchange of POWs by the Four Power Joint Military Commission. Photo by SSgt. Herman Kokojan – Defense Visual Information Center. During the Vietnam War, the United States employed various forms of unconventional warfare to undermine enemy operations. Among these clandestine tactics, one of the…
He came home with powder still in his pores,the scent of cordite sunk deep in his marrow.Eyes scorched hollow by muzzle-flash nights,where blood ran quicker than thoughtand names were lost before they were spoken.His sleep is a thicket of cries cut short,a language of bone and grit,spoken once and never forgotten. Now the world wants…
This is a common scam that can turn your vacation into a nightmare. Imagine you’re enjoying a beautiful day at the beach and decide to rent a jet-ski at what seems like a reasonable price. The friendly vendor offers to hold your passport as a security deposit, and you agree. After half an hour of…
I still recall my Western Civilization teacher Mr. Archer discussing this concept when I was in the 10th grade. My father discussed it with me, about an the 1963 South Vietnamese coup d’état of President Ngô Đình Diệm and the Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam. They were deposed by a group of CIA-backed…
Portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu by Kanō Tan’yū (1602–1674). Osaka Castle main tower. Cropped. The Iga Revolt, also known as the Tenshō Iga War (天正伊賀の乱), was a defining conflict in 16th-century Japan, pitting the shinobi of Iga Province against the overwhelming forces of Oda Nobunaga. The war, fought in 1579 and 1581, marked the destruction of…
By Michael Kurcina Mike credits his early military training as the one thing that kept him disciplined through the many years. He currently provides his expertise as an adviser for an agency within the DoD. Michael Kurcina subscribes to the Spotter Up way of life. “I will either find a way or I will make…
Achnacarry (Scottish Gaelic: Achadh na Cairidh; ‘field of the fish-trap/weir’) is a small hamlet, private estate, and a castle in the Lochaber region of Highland, Scotland. It occupies a strategic position on an isthmus between Loch Lochy to the east, and Loch Arkaig to the west. The settlement has a long association with Clan Cameron: Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel built the original Achnacarry Castle in about 1655. This was destroyed…
“A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.” —Isaiah 42:3 God doesn’t ask for perfection, only that you keep rising, trusting His mercy more than your own strength. —D. + + + When you stumble—speak out of turn, lose your patience, get swept into some needless quarrel—don’t…