The editor and writer, James Heidenry, talks to Sebastian Junger about his recent book, our troops.
What was the genesis for War?
Well, in 1996 I was asked to write a magazine story about some westerners who were kidnapped in Kashmir. They’d been kidnapped by former Mujahideen who continued training in Bin Laden’s camps. I said I’d do the assignment if I could go to Afghanistan to report on the broader problem. That was my first trip and I just ...
Continue Reading →Soldiers For The Truth has become Stand For The Troops. Our new name reflects exactly what we do on behalf of all concerned Americans—stand for the troops—and more specifically, stand for our frontline troops, our young heroes who stand tall for us and our country out at the tip of the spear.
Our mission remains the same: to ensure that America’s frontline troops get the best available personal combat gear and protective equipment, including body armor and helmets. In fact, the military ...
Continue Reading →On April 6th, B.E.S.T. Greenwich will be holding an April in Paris event at Saks Fifth Avenue in downtown Greenwich. Saks has generously agreed to donate 10% of sales on that day to Stand for the Troops, a 501 (c)(3) charitable foundation designed to make sure that our troops have the best protective gear and combat equipment available. Join us for April in Paris and learn how you can Stand ...
Continue Reading →Senator Lindsey Graham believes that if night raids end then this would be a “disaster” for General Petreaus’ strategy – that in effect, he will fail. The raids, he said, were crucial to the military strategy. Now wait a minute, night raids run counter to COIN principles, so why all the drama? Pull out FM 23-4, the COIN bible Petreaus authored and waxes soothingly to elected officials and policymakers, and ...
Continue Reading →The B.E.S.T. (Best Equipment to Support our Troops) 4th Annual Benefit is set for October 15, 2010. Proceeds as always help SFTT protect America’s frontline troops by ensuring they have the best available equipment to make it home alive and in one piece.
B.E.S.T. is the annual ...
Continue Reading →Thanks to superb pro bono legal representation by a team from the NYC office of Kirkland & Ellis, LLC, a federal district judge has issued his ruling on SFTT’s editor’s request under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) for forensic records held by the Department of Defense regarding the performance of government-issued body armor. The ruling was characterized in the following way by a news service covering legal issues:
(CN) – A ...
Continue Reading →I have been pondering for some time what more I could do to help promote Soldiers For The Truth’s Basic 5 Campaign. My latest effort has been to inform politicians running for congressional and statewide offices of our cause. Politicians are never more accessible than when running for office, so my plan is to take advantage of that situation and that is what I did!
Last Saturday I attended a private reception in Arkansas for several politicians running for ...
Continue Reading →Article first published as Deficient Guns Expose Troops in Afghanistan on Technorati.
On the heels of the General Accountability Office (“GAO”) report of the improper testing of body armor supplied to U.S. troops and the recall of 44,000 defective military helmets manufactured by Federal Prison Industries, comes equally discouraging news of serious deficiencies in the M4 carbine and M2 Heavy Machine Gun (“HMG”) supplied to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
In a report entitled “Increasing Small Arms ...
Continue Reading →Colonel David “Hack” Hackworth, my dear late husband, died in my arms five years ago this month. As of May 1st, to celebrate Hack’s unique life and legacy, Soldiers For The Truth is launching a year-long 5th Anniversary Celebration to honor his lifelong dedication to America’s frontline troops.
Our first event will be a public wreath ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery planned for May 22 to honor Hack’s legacy. I ...
Continue Reading →As an Army 2nd Lt stationed at the Pentagon during the Viet Nam war, I still vividly recall the military brass scrambling to deal with one crisis after another while pretending that they were in control of a war that had already been largely lost. With Robert McNamara at the helm, competent military leaders were replaced by faceless bureaucrats who were more adept at tabulating body counts than combat itself. Working at the Pentagon during that period was a surreal ...
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