As we approach our 15th year of daily publication, I’d like to remind everyone that before there was an SSD, there was The Gear Guru which was founded in October 1997 on Geocities of all places. Eventually it received a proper URL.
The Way Back Machine has some archived versions of the site. Check them out if you want to know the secret origins of SSD, back when you had to create pages via HTML.
It was a lot of fun when I did it and I learned a lot.
Eric Graves
Editor
I once said that “It’s Not Testing If You Aren’t Wearing A Lab Coat” which was a tongue-in-cheek jab at online “testers” attempts to defame products based on half-assed efforts. While I was on active duty I conducted numerous tests without the lab coat. The reality is that if you don’t have a test plan, it’s not testing.
Taking a product out to the backyard or to a local range and putting a magazine through it isn’t testing. Neither is coming up with some one-off scenario like shooting a helmet with a threat it wasn’t designed for. Or, another fun one is watching some guy claim an item of FR clothing sucks because it caught fire when he held his flambé blowtorch to it.
Such demonstrations are often entertaining, but testing must be repeatable. What’s more, there are established test protocols for every single lifesaving item you’ll use and those tests must be conducted under very strict conditions.
Machine developed at the National Bureau of Standards to test the endurance of women’s shoes, Washington DC, 1945.
NGSW Rifle gets new name
PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. – The Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) Rifle has been given a new designation, the Army’s Project Manager Soldier Lethality here has announced.
The Army originally chose the designation XM5 as the name of the new rifle in March.
Since then, the service learned that the M5 name is used by Colt Industries for one of its 5.56mm carbines.
As a result, the NGSW Rifle will now be called the XM/M7.
The NGSW Automatic Rifle will continue to be known as the XM250/M250, PM SL said in a short press statement.
PAO, PEO Soldier
U.S. Tactical Supply will be Showcasing G9 Defense Barrier Blind Performance Ammunition @ Booth # 40329. See why More and More Top Tier Agencies are leaving the failing “Mushroom” behind in the Woods where it Belongs and carry G9 Defense Ammunition. Real World Performance where & when it matters most.
Find out about our Law Enforcement Specials for your department or agency at our booth or shoot us an inquiry @ sales@ustacticalsupply.com
The new DAKA Waterproof Window Pouches are available in three sizes. One hundred percent waterproof, they feature carabiner pass-throughs (or lash points) and durable and easy-to-grip zipper pulls and strong RF welded seams.
As many of you know, I write a regular column for Tactical Retailer magazine. One of the articles I submitted last year was titled, “Consider The CREATE Method When Developing Online Content” and based on the process I have developed over the years to write content.
I spent 21 years in the service and one thing the military loves is acronyms so I created “CREATE” to codify my process.
Consistent: The key factor is consistency of messaging
Relevant: To your brand and customer
Engage: Followers come back if their questions are answered
Accuracy: Being wrong affects credibility
Timely: Consider what is going on and use it to increase interest in your brand
Evaluate: Check the effectiveness of your messaging
Check out the full article at www.tacretailer.com/business/consider-the-create-method-when-developing-online-content as well as others I’ve written over the years.
You’ll need to register but it’s painless.
Eric Graves
Editor
A lot of new faces have set up accounts on Twitter and we just want you to know that we’ve been there since 2009, posting links to our content.
Feel free to give us a follow.
After 47 adventure-filled years of publishing Soldier of Fortune Magazine, I decided it was time to move on to other long awaited projects, including writing books of the SOF adventures. After having given it considerable thought, I am passing the torch to reporter Susan Katz Keating, who has contributed to SOF and has been a friend to the magazine since the early 1980s.
Susan first connected with SOF years ago, when she took out an ad in the magazine, looking for mercenaries. She can tell the story about how that went. Later, SKK facilitated PEOPLE Magazine to support retired Col. Jack Bailey USAF (Ret.) on a waterborne rescue mission. His was a twofold effort to help the boat people escape from Vietnam, where they were being persecuted, as well as to find out more information about Americans MIA from the Vietnam War. Bailey used a refurbished smuggling ship, the Akuna III. Other SOFers and I went on one of his rescue missions.
Since then, SKK accompanied our team at the Washington, D.C. waterfront involving encounters with foreign rebel leaders, and at gatherings with some of the most fascinating military figures of our day. She can tell those stories herself, about Nick Rowe, Charlie Beckwith, and others. She also can tell stories of intrigue in pre-war Dubrovnik and Sarajevo, and of action in Belfast and South Armagh during the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Over the years, Susan has written for Soldier of Fortune Magazine, as well as for other military and mainstream publications. In our pages, she wrote about war and warriors. Her article on the Battle of OP Nevada in Afghanistan was one of the last cover stories for the print magazine, and remains one of the most popular stories in the online magazine. Over the years, SKK wrote for SOF about American POWs in Korea, and the rise of China’s Peoples Liberation Army. She also wrote “How to Stage a Soviet Coup,” which was published shortly before Mikhail Gorbachev was pushed out of power in the USSR.
Here is a little more about the person I am passing the torch to.
Susan Katz Keating is an award winning writer and investigative journalist specializing in war, terrorism, and international security. She is Chief National Security Correspondent and assistant managing editor for Just the News, and previously was Senior Editor for national security and foreign affairs at the Washington Examiner. As a longtime military correspondent for PEOPLE magazine, she has broken stories there and in TIME on the U.S. military and domestic terrorism.
A former Washington Times security reporter, she is the author of Prisoners of Hope: Exploiting the POW/MIA Myth in America (Random House), and books about Saudi Arabia, Native American warfare, and other topics for young readers. Her work has appeared in Readers Digest, the New York Times, Air & Space, American Legion, VFW, RealClear Investigations, and other publications. She has been cited in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, Salon, and other publications. She was a founding trustee for the National Museum of Americans in Wartime, and is secretary of the board of Military Reporters & Editors. She briefly was in the U.S. Army, where she earned her Expert rating on the M-16 rifle. She was editor of the Dixon Tribune newspaper in California. She was a director of the Travis AFB Museum, and served as restoration crew chief on a B-52.
I am convinced that Susan has the passion and is well prepared to carry on the legacy of the last 47 years of SOF Magazine, now online.
She is a strong supporter of the military and a patriotic American. She now is the publisher/owner of Soldier of Fortune Magazine.
By Robert K. Brown
Founder, Soldier of Fortune Magazine
Editor’s Note: I grew up reading Soldier of Fortune magazine and truth be told probably wouldn’t be running SSD had it not been for Robert K Brown’s pathing the way. This is republished from the Special Forces Association Chapter LXXVIII website and was first published on 4 June 2022.
