The Havok Journal | Military & Veteran News, Commentary, Culture

• We Probably Learned the Wrong Lessons from the GWOT October 26, 2026
  Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, the U.S. military is adapting from two decades dominated by Iraq and Afghanistan toward an environment described in joint doctrine as a competition continuum. That transition has produced several broad interpretations of the Global War on Terror: that counterinsurgency does not work, that building partner forces is inherently futile, […]
  Charles Faint
• Challenges After Service: Special Warfare Combat Crewmen October 26, 2026
  By Anthony Smith It was sometime around midnight; we were sitting in the dark, blacked out, with no lights and no movement. We were watching our objective. All of a sudden, we were compromised, and machine guns started ringing out. We pushed down the throttles, and a giant rooster tail kicked up behind us as the […]
  Special Guest
• Where Doubt Breaks October 26, 2026
  I was given a writing prompt of just one word—“Threshold”—recently in a veteran writing class. Instead of writing about the obvious threshold I crossed to become a soldier, I chose another route. I crossed the threshold written about below almost fifteen years ago. It was the result of a providential pairing of an atheist and […]
  Stan Lake
• Sinking Legality | The Hidden Dangers of Waging War on the High Seas October 25, 2026
  By Morgan Ellis Author’s Preface This article is based on publicly available information and accepted principles of international and military law. It does not constitute legal advice. The analysis reflects an interpretation of law and policy as of the date of publication. Because the operational facts of recent maritime interdictions remain classified or unknown, some […]
  Special Guest
• The Birth of Digital Close Air Support October 25, 2026
  By Ethan Brown The following is an excerpt from: “Visual Friendlies, Tally Target Volume I: Invasions (Chapter 20: The Birth of Digital Close Air Support)”; Ethan Brown, Casemate Publishers (November 2024) By the time aircraft had begun converging overhead, the front gate and a second spot on the compound wall of Camp Tillman had been […]
  Special Guest