73 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Daniel A. Dailey
Daniel A. Dailey, 15th Sergeant Major of the Army (January 2015 to August 2019), career infantryman and combat veteran of Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom who drove NCO development reforms including STEP and the Basic Leader Course, later an AUSA vice president.
David Isom
David L. Isom is a U.S. Navy SEAL and the 6th Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since June 2025; also a Georgetown law librarian and folk musician of the same name.
Death of LaVena Johnson
Death of LaVena Johnson: 2005 death of Army PFC Lavena Lynn Johnson, 19, in Balad, Iraq, ruled a suicide by M-16 gunshot; her family disputes the finding, alleging rape, murder, and a cover-up.
Dmitry Utkin (Дмитрий Валерьевич Уткин)
Dmitry Utkin (Дмитрий Валерьевич Уткин), call sign 'Wagner', was a retired GRU lieutenant colonel and field commander of the Wagner Group, which took its name from his nom de guerre; he died in the August 2023 plane crash with Prigozhin.
Dmytro Yarosh
Dmytro Yarosh (Дмитро Ярош, born 1971) is a Ukrainian nationalist politician who led Right Sector 2013–2015, commanded the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps (DUK) in Donbas, ran for president in 2014, and founded the Ukrainian Volunteer Army.
Doug Hegdahl
Doug Hegdahl (Douglas Brent Hegdahl III, born 1946), U.S. Navy seaman apprentice and Vietnam War POW at the Hanoi Hilton, called "The Incredibly Stupid One" for feigning illiteracy, memorized about 256 fellow prisoners' names to "Old MacDonald" and disclosed them after his August 5, 1969 release.
Edan Alexander
Edan Alexander (עידן אלכסנדר), Israeli-American Golani Brigade soldier from Tenafly, New Jersey, seized October 7, 2023 and Hamas's last living American hostage, freed May 12, 2025 after 584 days via US-Hamas backchannel talks.
Eddie Gallagher (Navy SEAL)
Eddie Gallagher is a retired US Navy SEAL chief whose 2019 court-martial over the death of an Islamic State prisoner in Mosul ended in acquittal of murder but conviction for posing with the corpse, followed by Trump's intervention restoring his rank and Trident.
Floyd James Thompson
Floyd James "Jim" Thompson (1933–2002), U.S. Army Special Forces colonel, was captured in South Vietnam on March 26, 1964 and held 3,278 days, the longest of any American POW in history, released March 16, 1973.
Geronimo Pratt
Elmer "Geronimo" ji Jaga Pratt (1947-2011), Black Panther Party leader in Los Angeles, wrongly imprisoned 27 years for a 1968 murder; conviction overturned in 1997 over concealed informant evidence, $4.5 million settlement followed.
Gilad Shalit (גלעד שליט)
Gilad Shalit (גלעד שליט), born 1986, Israeli armored corps soldier captured by Hamas in June 2006 at Kerem Shalom and freed October 18, 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar.
Hugh Thompson Jr.
Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr. (1943–2006), American Army warrant officer and OH-23 helicopter pilot of the 123rd Aviation Battalion who halted the My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968, saved civilians, reported the killings, and received the Soldier's Medal in 1998.
Ike Atkinson
Leslie "Ike" Atkinson (Sergeant Smack), 1925-2014, retired U.S. Army master sergeant from Goldsboro, North Carolina, who ran a Bangkok-to-North Carolina heroin network via duffel bags and hollowed furniture, not coffins, and was convicted in 1976.
James Hewitt
James Hewitt (born 1958), former Life Guards major and Gulf War tank commander, known for his five-year affair with Diana, Princess of Wales, the 1994 book Princess in Love, and his repeated denials that he fathered Prince Harry.