So you want to find a lost city? Congratulations: you’ve joined an exclusive and perilous club. For hundreds of years, explorers, dreamers, scholars, and fantasists have fanned out across the world, in search of humanity’s lost cities. … Read the article
Beneath the plains of Afghanistan lie the remains of a fabulous city: Alexandria Beneath the Mountains, founded by Alexander the Great. For centuries, it was a meeting point of East and West. Then it vanished. In 1833, … Read the article
The unforgiving Afghan winter has settled upon the twenty-two men of Marine Special Operations Team 8222, call sign Dagger 22, in the remote and hostile river valley of Bala Murghab, Afghanistan. The Taliban fighters in the region … Read the article
What does it look like to come of age in the Muslim Brotherhood, to find yourself skipping classes and revolting against the state? In an organization that prioritized the principle of “listening and obeying,” how did Muslim … Read the article
The vastness of the moonless night sky swallowed the turboprop drone of the four blacked-out Combat Talons high above Pakistan’s Baluchistan province. Headed north, the planes crossed into Afghan airspace at about 11 p.m., October 19. Skimming … Read the article
As soon as we were on the tarmac of the airfield, mortar rounds came in on our position. I (Nick Irving) thought again about our HVT and … Read the article
Forward Operating Base Chapman was located just outside the town of Khowst, in an area controlled by the Taliban, close to the border with Pakistan. Named after Special Forces sergeant Nathan Chapman—the first … Read the article
In the sniper world, we constantly move after firing. A sniper will fire one to two shots, possibly three, from one position, before having to move. If you stay still, you will be identified—and … Read the article
Immediately after graduating high school, I was sent to Ft. Benning to attend US Army Basic training under the Option 40 contract (US Army Ranger Contract). Before enlisting into the Army, my life long goal was to … Read the article
October 7, 2014 marks the 13th “anniversary” of the war in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom). It was on this date in 2001 that the United States and United Kingdom began a bombing campaign against al-Qaeda and … Read the article