“Kill ’em all and let God sort them out” was a common mantra among Brown’s crowd.
SOF appealed to anyone with a swinging dick that got hard at the thought of action in foreign lands. He also often traveled to some of the worst locations, deepest jungles and most dangerous borderlands to meet soldiers and commanders on the front lines. This, however, was a stark contrast to today’s “Support Our Troops” branding on everything from car magnets to coffee cups. Ultimately succumbing to the constant pressure of digital distribution, SOF shut down print operations in 2016 but continues to this day online.īrown, known widely for his direct and abrasive communication skills (otherwise known as giving zero F’s) developed SOF in the mid 70s for his tribe: The Viet Nam vets returning from war to a society that labeled them as outcasts. Brown, Soldier of Fortune magazine was the nexus of the mercenary universe. The prose was colloquial, infantry-inspired and was anything but sugarcoated. The covers invariably displayed hard-looking men, foreign fighters and imagery that made you believe that this mag wasn’t fucking around. Skirting the line between responsible journalism and mercenary recruitment, SOF catered to the “I’m not done with war yet” crowd. Thinly disguised as the National Geographic of the war culture, SOF provided unfiltered, boots-on-the-ground views of world conflicts. To this day, Soldier of Fortune, is arguably the best-known publication of the bunch. Many of these stateside vets turned to the pages of underground military magazines - and readership skyrocketed. Continuing to stand out dictatorships and avoiding a society that didn’t understand them. These were guys that would continue the fight against the Red Tide of Communism. They found comfort in stories of roving mercenaries unleashed on the world after the end of that war. All you had to do was turn to any of their advertisements and order your weapon of choice.Īs the war in Vietnam swelled, there were thousands of guys that could only relate to each other. With real conflicts and real ways to turn yourself into a ninja-fied killing machine. With circulations in the hundreds of thousands, these publications gave boys and men thrilling stories of real war. The “A-Team” represented the 80s mercenary golden age fueled by military magazines like Solider of Fortune, Eagle and Gung-Ho. On the large and small screens alike, we were bombarded with the threat of nuclear annihilation, while the wounds of Viet Nam were still fresh in our minds. American men were cruising around in their muscle cars strapped with KA-BAR knives, wishing they were John Rambo. It was the heyday of commie-hating, Reagan-loving Cold War machismo.