Latest Episodes
Marine Platoon in Baghdad
In the previous episode of The Spear, Karl Blanke shared a story that featured the actions of one of his former Marines, Lance Corporal...
A Machine Gunner on the March Up
In 2003, after completing the march up to Baghdad in dramatic fashion, and after an all-night gunfight to seize one of Saddam’s palaces, the...
Platoon Leader in Vietnam
Few books have had the impact on generations of young soldiers as Jim McDonough’s Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat. First published...
Spectre in the Air
In August 2007, a US Army Special Forces team came under fire while passing through a valley in Afghanistan. The call for support went...
Attack at Hiep Hoa
A newly minted Special Forces officer in the spring of 1966, Mike Eiland landed in Vietnam and joined 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). A...
Leaving Afghanistan
In the late summer of 2021, after years of service to his country—including four years at the United States Military Academy—Major Naqib Mirzada, an...