I Am Soldier of Fortune: Dancing with Devils by Robert K. Brown.
When I was a younger fella and living in the USA for the first time back then in the 80s, I had the luck of picking up a weird magazine that had guns and people shooting things and even other people. But that was just the gift wrapping because I realized that it was indeed done by people who not only knew what they were talking about, they were going to places and finding out the real story behind what the exalted media was trying to portray. That magazine was Soldier of Fortune, much maligned by the MSM mostly because they were envious of the testicular nature of what it is defined as “looking for the story.”
I Am Soldier of Fortune is not a per se biography of SOFs founder Robert K. Brown but it is him telling you stories as if you were sitting across him in a house of spirits savoring your particular poison. To me it was a reminder of days in the 80s that pretty much were the last ones of the daredevils when you can actually hop in a plane, fly to a war zone and join an army of your choice. Historians pretty much cover the 80s under the hateful view given to Reagan and his fight against the Soviets, but they ignore that shit was happening all over the globe. It was the time that you could have joined a three-letter federal agency just because you spoke the proper language and were crazy enough to seek action and not because you had a parchment issued by a recognized House Of Lefty Education and knew how to kiss ass. It was the time when Merc was a bad word and they wore it proudly because they were there and the others were hiding. Dan Rather went to Afghanistan ONCE and he was pretty much demanding the Medal of Honor for his reporting well away from danger; SOF staffers kept going and going to the thick of it just to have fun, shoot shit and write articles for the readers.
And trust me, RKB did not touch but 1% of all the crap they pulled or the book would be over a thousand pages long.
Reading this book will give you 5 extra points for your Man Card… go get it.
Great book and a good read. I enjoyed it and have been reading SOF Magazine for over 30 years. It seems that the Col. might be thinking of a follow up book.
He needs to…. we know he has more material in his brain pan 🙂
I’ll definitely have to pick this one up. SOF was a staple for me growing up and RKB was one of my heroes.
Thanks much for the review! Keep your powder dry and pray for the Republic.RKB
Thank you Mr. Brown.. We will do so!