108 Comments
We attended Winter Haven High School together and sometimes worked out together and were on the same football team.
Scott went on to become the youngest Navy SEAL ever, at just 17. The same age that some students today say, "We are just kids, leave us alone." At 17, Scott was no kid. He was a man. And a SEAL.
Read more: Scott Helvenston was lost in Iraq on 31 March 2004
16 Comments
If it were not happening to me so often, all these complaints might seem like exaggeration. They are not exaggeration. Of the recent about 120 days, my account has been blocked for 60 days. Why? This earned the first 30-day Facebook suspension:
Read more: Censorship: Facebook Strikes Again, in Favor of North Koreans
33 Comments
Do not dare say any truth about Chong Dae Hyup on Facebook. Facebook blocked my account again, for 30 days, for this simple sentence: “Koreans sure are easy to fool. They even think Chong Dae Hyup is on their side.”
I researched Chong Dae Hyup (CDH) in Korea. Went to their headquarters, conducted long intervews with members there and on the Korean streets and in California. CDH is a straight up communist organization who works for North Korea and does bidding for China. One of their members already tried to assassinate our Ambassador.
26 Comments
Morgan Freeman and National Geographic Caught in Tall Tales
In the first minute of Season 1, Episode 1, Freeman launches with:
“When I was 18, I joined the Air Force. And I did well enough on my tests to qualify as an electronics countermeasures operator. But, I was told I couldn’t take that job. Apparently, no black man could fly with the Strategic Air Command.”
Freeman joined the Air Force in 1955, the same year Rosa Parks courageously refused to vacate her seat in the colored section of a bus, to a white person. The white section was full. There were special building entrances for colored folk, waiting rooms, and separate schools for children. In 1955, three blacks were lynched.
Morgan Freeman served his country honorably during a period of severe racism in the United States.
Reality check: Freeman was born in 1937.
The first black fighter pilots entered U.S. Army Air Corps flight school in 1941. The Airmen served valiantly in Europe in World War II and helped end segregation. They became the famous The Tuskegee Airmen.
31 Comments
Helmand Province, Afghanistan. (cr. Michael Yon)
President Trump thinks he can solve the AfPak dilemma. In his speech, Trump talked about winning. There is no winning to be had beyond safeguarding our national interests.
This is all a distraction from a gigantic problem: China. On our scale of concern, Afghanistan is microscopic by comparison to China and other challenges, yet on our scale of priorities, the price of nation building in Afghanistan dwarfs the price of securing our borders.
Afghanistan is at the periphery of our influence bubble. Pluto. Our footprint is a speck in the Asian beyond. The President called on Pakistan and India to do their parts. How often we have heard this.
24 Comments
15 June 2017
Yesterday, a busy Facebook page published some of my work. This sparked lively conversation. Some Soldiers cued me in. The story revolved around an intense, close firefight in Mosul that ended with hand-to-hand combat and my finding an empty M-4 rifle, loading it and firing.
Pardon the language, but in the comments a reader named Mitchell Spillman asked:
"Want to explain to me how the fuck the journalist reloaded a rifle? Whered he pull the mag from, his ass?"
Read more: Iraq: How I got the Ammo to shoot at the al Qaeda Guy
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13 October 2016
Kingdom of Thailand: The body of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, has passed away. His Loving Soul is with us now.
With sad heart that I write these words. I was told by sources close to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej that he passed away one hour ago, at about 1415 Thailand time. As I write these words, it has not yet been announced, but when you read these words, it will have been officially announced.
1 Comment
My book Danger Close is now Available as E-book -- please buy it:
13 Comments
ไมเคิล ยอน เป็นนักเขียนชาวอเมริกันและช่างภาพการสงคราม เขาเคยทำงานอยู่ในกองกำลังพิเศษ กรีนแบเร็ต ในช่วงต้นทศวรรษที่ 1980 ก่อนจะกลายเป็นนักเขียนเกี่ยวกับข่าวสงคราม ไมเคิล ยอนถือเป็นสื่อมวลชนที่สำคัญคนหนึ่ง ที่เคยเป็นพยานอยู่ในเหตุการณ์ ก่อการร้ายชายชุดดำ ในบริเวณแยกราชประสงค์ กรุงเทพมหานคร ปี พ.ศ.2553
ล่าสุด ไมเคิล ยอนได้เปิดเผยถึง กรณี ของ ภรรยาชาวไทยของนาย แอนดูร์ แมคเกรเกอร์ มาแชล ซึ่งพึ่งถูกจับกุม ข้อหา ตัดต่อภาพใส่ร้ายสถาบันฯ เมื่อเช้าวันที่ 22 กรกฎาคม 2559 ที่ผ่านมา โดย นาย ไมเคิล ยอน ได้ระบุ ลงในเฟสบุ๊คส่วนตัว Michael Yon โดยระบุว่า ตัวภรรยาและนาย แอนดูร์ แมคเกรเกอร์ มาแชล สามีของเธอ เคยพยายามตามรังควานข่มขู่ นาย ไมเคิล ยอน ในกรณี ที่ นาย ไมเคิล ยอน เขียนข่าวนำเสนอ เกี่ยวกับชายชุดดำ และการ พยายามก่อการร้ายของกลุ่มหวังเปลี่ยนแปลงทางการเมืองในประเทศไทย นายไมเคิลยอน ยังระบุอีกว่า
Read more: ไมเคิล ยอน นักข่าวอิสระชาวสหรัฐชี้ นักข่าวต่างชาติและภรรยา มีเจตนาไม่หวังดีต่อประเทศไทย
11 Comments
Newly released declassified Top Secret document.
I read it several times. Generally speaking, we already knew of Saudi culpability in the 9/11 attacks. After all, 15 of 19 hijackers were Saudi, and there remains mountains of other evidence.
These 28 pages contain many specifics ranging from Florida and across the country to California to Oregon. These pages should be of great interest to journalists, and to people who live in neighborhoods where some of these mosques exist, etc.
3 Comments
13 July 2016
by Michael Yon
911: “What is your Emergency?”
Caller: "She's back!"
911: "Who is back?"
Read more: 911 Call: Former Ambassador Kristie Kenney back in Thailand
15 Comments
8 July 2016
Many veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and other such wars, likely view this news cycle through a different glass.
Using Iraq as example, after things truly began to spin out of control in 2004, many people were fighting for vastly different reasons. The situation was difficult to track even for dedicated analysts. Just who was fighting whom, and for what reasons, often was a great mystery even to our intelligence people.
Amid the chaos of unstructured conflict and war, the always-there lunatic fringe is uncorked. Suddenly the actions of a serial killer look like the work of an insurgent or group. Criminality skyrockets, and what would earlier have been seen as just a bank robbery looks like part of a movement.
9 Comments
4 July 2016
We put the EXIT in Brexit, haha!
Happy Independence Day, America!
Read more: Happy Independence Day you bunch of New World Traitors!
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The British and others have much basis in fact for wishing to leave the EU and its nonsensical Eurocrats.
This post explains a trivial matter by comparison, but by scaling up this example it becomes easier understand their anger and frustration.
My Canon DSLR cameras shoot video that is of sufficient quality to use in major motion pictures. The quality is extremely high. Many filmmakers use the Canon Mark III 5d.
I use the same model for interviews and other situations to capture maximum details. I just used this camera in 11 countries during ‘comfort women’ research.
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[A quick note from Michael]
This is unbelievably huge and complex. Many people already are blaming the British. Especially the English are to blame, they think.
But this is not their fault. This is the fault of the EU. British have been saying for years that they are unhappy, and they were ignored. They were taken for granted.
They do not like to be taken for granted.
They were shouting at the top of their lungs while smug Eurocrats ignored them.
20 Comments
19 June 2016
Tim is a retired Marine infantry officer. I spent much time with Tim in various provinces in Afghanistan, such as Nangarhar, Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Nimoroz.
Good Lord almighty we went everywhere together, often alone or with just one other man, an ex-Aussie Soldier named Shem.
First time Tim picked me up in Kabul to take me to Jalalabad, Nangarhar, there was a bag beside me in the backseat filled with grenades. I said I'll just help myself to a couple of these.
We were going down roads sometimes passing burning and blown-up, shot up vehicles. IED holes, and people who obviously were Taliban and associates, yet somehow we got away with it. You had to be there to believe it.
I was not advertising this at the time due to the obvious peril, but we both learned a lot about the war which left both of us ahead of the curve when writing about it.
This morning I checked Tim's website and saw that he posted on the Orlando shooting.
Our thoughts are parallel on this.
Read more: Orlando Shooting: Excellent Piece by Marine Tim Lynch
19 Comments
16 March 2016
Several years ago, Mr. Gingrich called me about something and I still have his private number. So I called him this evening from China to ask his thoughts about Donald Trump. This audio is short and unedited, though it kicks in about 20 seconds after we started talking:
If the above player doesn't work you can access the audio directly here.
12 Comments
UPDATE 14 Feb 2016:
This came from a former EOD officer and close friend who served two tours in Iraq and still teaches internationally on the topic:
Oh, before I forget, they really need some 256 kits to be sure on the chem from the Free Burma Ranger report. Some incendiary compounds can fail to ignite and look like a black oily mess with fumes on occasion. Given that various groups in that region typically modify ordnance I would not put it past them to improvise an incendiary.
I'm not sure either way and would have to defer to the blood test from the hospital on those who were exposed as well as a 256 kit or other detection to see, but black and oil could also be an incendiary as well as chemical. Just another potential.
http://luxfermagtech.com/m256a1-chemical-agent-detector-kit/
13 Feburary 2016
Just in from Iraq: Victim interview after yesterday's possible Chemical Weapons attack in Northern Iraq
From Free Burma Rangers in Iraq. FBR told me just now that NYT likely will publish on it.
Please scroll down for two previous entries from my FB with far more details on who, what, when, where, how.
Read more: Possible Chemical Weapons attack in Northern Iraq
3 Comments
慰安婦問題など米国にとって重要ではない、と思うかもしれない。しかしこの本質は、日米韓などの同盟関係をターゲットにして我々の関係を分断するために捏造されたものなのだ。私はこれまでに９カ国でこの件を調査してきた。
問題の本質をズバリ書くジャーナリストは１％ほどだろう。ほとんどの記事は「他の情報源」からの受け売りにすぎないが、その「他の情報源」というものも実は情報源ではなく、そのまた元の情報源をもとに作った物語に過ぎない。
だが、実際何が起こっているのか、その意味に気づき始めた読者がいる。
24 Comments
07 January 2016
This unit is getting hit hard by suicide. Nobody seems to know what to do. I have a humble idea...
Read more: Suicide Claims 14th Marine From a Unit Battered by Loss
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