175 articles
Abraham Golan
Abraham Golan, Hungarian-Israeli former French Foreign Legion soldier, founded Spear Operations Group (Delaware, 2015–2018), which ran a UAE-funded assassination program in Yemen and a 2016 surveillance operation against Anas Altikriti in London; sued by Yemeni MP Anssaf Ali Mayo.
Abu Azrael (أبو عزرائيل)
Abu Azrael (أبو عزرائيل), Ayoub Falih Hasan al-Rubayie, born 1978, is an Iraqi Kataib al-Imam Ali commander and PMF social-media celebrity who fought ISIS, famed as "Iraq's Rambo," later resigning from the militia in December 2023.
Aimo Koivunen
Aimo Allan Koivunen (born 14 November 1917, Alastaro), Finnish alikersantti and long-range patrolman of the Continuation War, survived an accidental overdose of about thirty Pervitin methamphetamine tablets in March 1944 near Kantalahti and a 400-kilometer solo trek in minus 20 to 30 Celsius cold.
Albert Blithe
Albert Blithe (1923–1967), Philadelphia-born US Army master sergeant of Easy Company, 506th PIR, wounded at Carentan in June 1944; wrongly declared dead in 1948 by Band of Brothers, he actually served in Korea and died on active duty in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Albert Göring
Albert Günther Göring, younger brother of Hermann Göring, was a German businessman who saved hundreds of Jews and dissidents using his family name, survived a 1944 death warrant, and died penniless in 1966.
Albina Mali
Albina Mali-Hočevar (Albina Mali), Slovenian Yugoslav Partisan courier, fighter, and combat medic born 1925 in Vinica; wounded three times, lost an eye at Turjak 1943, named national hero of Yugoslavia.
Aleida March
Aleida March de la Torre (born 1936), Cuban revolutionary, widow of Che Guevara, clandestine 26 July Movement activist and Santa Clara guerrilla; married Guevara 2 June 1959, mother of four children, director of the Che Guevara Studies Center and author of Remembering Che.
Alek Skarlatos
Alek Skarlatos (born 1992) is a Republican Oregon state representative (District 4, since 2025), former Oregon Army National Guard specialist, and 2015 Paris train attack hero who received the Soldier's Medal and France's Legion of Honour.
Ali Kony
Ali Kony (Ali Mohammed Lalobo), son of LRA leader Joseph Kony, is a sanctioned former Lord's Resistance Army deputy (UN CFi.010, listed 23 August 2016) who defected in 2021 and returned to Uganda in July 2023.
Andy McNab
Andy McNab, pseudonym of a former SAS sergeant, led the Bravo Two Zero patrol in the 1991 Gulf War, was captured, and became a bestselling author of more than 45 books.
Archie Stirling
Archie Stirling (Archibald Hugh Stirling, born 1941) is a British businessman, former Scots Guards officer, and current Laird of the Keir estate, nephew of SAS founder David Stirling; distinct from earlier Archibald Stirlings of the same family.
Augustin Jordan
Augustin Jordan (1910-2004), French soldier and diplomat, Compagnon de la Libération, Free French SAS (French Squadron) commander captured in Tunisia 1943 and held at Colditz; later ambassador to Warsaw and Vienna.
Augusto César Sandino
Augusto César Sandino (Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino, 1895-1934) was a Nicaraguan revolutionary general who led the 1927-1933 guerrilla war against the U.S. occupation, was assassinated by Anastasio Somoza García's National Guard, and gave his name to the Sandinista FSLN.
Baba Harbhajan Singh
Baba Harbhajan Singh, Hero of Nathula, was a 23rd Punjab Regiment sepoy born in 1946 who drowned near Nathu La, Sikkim, in 1968; his memorial temple, built near Tsomgo Lake and inaugurated 1983, anchors a ghost-soldier tradition including posthumous salary, promotion, and 2006 official retirement.
Bachir Gemayel
Bashir Gemayel (بشير الجميّل, 1947-1982), Lebanese Forces militia founder and Kataeb leader, son of Pierre Gemayel; elected Lebanese president 23 August 1982 with Israeli backing, assassinated 14 September 1982 before taking office.
Basil L. Plumley
Basil L. Plumley (1920–2012), US Army command sergeant major of three wars, sergeant major of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at Ia Drang, portrayed by Sam Elliott in We Were Soldiers.
Bernard Jordan
Bernard Arthur Jordan (1924–2015), British D-Day veteran, Royal Navy officer, and former mayor of Hove, who escaped his care home in 2014 to attend the Normandy 70th anniversary commemorations, later depicted in The Great Escaper.
Billy Billingham
Mark 'Billy' Billingham MBE QCB is a retired SAS sergeant major (Parachute Regiment 1983–1991, SAS from 1991 or 1992) and Chief Instructor of Channel 4's SAS: Who Dares Wins, former bodyguard, and author.
Bishnu Shrestha (विष्णु श्रेष्ठ)
Bishnu Prasad Shrestha (विष्णु श्रेष्ठ), born 1975 in Parbat, Nepal, is a Naik of the 7/8 Gorkha Rifles, Indian Army, who fought 30-40 train robbers alone with a khukuri on the Maurya Express in 2010 and received gallantry medals.
Boston Corbett
Boston Corbett, born Thomas P. Corbett, was an English-born American hatter and Union Army sergeant who shot and killed John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin, in 1865.
Bowe Bergdahl
Bowe Bergdahl (Robert B. Bergdahl), U.S. Army sergeant who left his Afghanistan post in June 2009, was held nearly five years by the Haqqani network, released in a May 2014 Guantanamo prisoner exchange, and convicted of desertion in 2017.
Bruce Shand
Bruce Middleton Hope Shand (1917-2006), British Army major with the 12th Royal Lancers, twice Military Cross winner, Dunkirk veteran, German POW 1942-45, wine merchant, and father of Queen Camilla.
Camilo Torres Restrepo
Camilo Torres Restrepo (1929–1966), Colombian Catholic priest, sociologist, and ELN guerrilla; co-founded Colombia's first sociology faculty, led the Frente Unido, and died in his first combat; precursor of liberation theology.
Carlos Manuel Hoo Ramírez
Carlos Manuel Hoo Ramírez ("El Cóndor", born 1978) is a Mexican ex-special-forces soldier (GAFE/GANFE) who served as bodyguard and private secretary of El Chapo Guzmán, was captured with him in Mazatlán on 22 February 2014, and was sentenced to about ten years in prison.
Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan
Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan, also known as Comte d'Artagnan, was a French soldier who led the King's Musketeers and died at the 1673 siege of Maastricht, later becoming the hero of Dumas's novel.
Charles Robert Jenkins
Charles Robert Jenkins, US Army sergeant born 1940 in Rich Square, North Carolina, who deserted across the Korean DMZ in January 1965, spent nearly 40 years in North Korea as a propaganda figure, married abductee Hitomi Soga, and faced court martial in Japan in 2004.
Charles Thau
Charles Thau, born Chaim Thau, was a Jewish partisan from Poland who fought at the Battle of Berlin and is the Soviet soldier at the center of the 1945 Elbe handshake photograph.
Chris Hani
Chris Hani (Martin Thembisile Hani, 1942–1993) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary who served as chief of staff of the ANC's armed wing and was assassinated in April 1993.
Chris Kyle
Chris Kyle, also known as Christopher Scott Kyle, was a US Navy SEAL sniper credited with 160 confirmed kills in Iraq and known through his 2012 memoir American Sniper.
Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan, pen name of Colin Armstrong, is a British author and former SAS soldier (born 1961) famous as the sole escapee of the Bravo Two Zero patrol in the 1991 Gulf War and author of The One That Got Away and the Strike Back novels.