Review by Larry S. Sterett Contributing Editor
DANCING WITH DEVILS: I AM SOLDIER OF FORTUNE, by Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown, USAR (Ret.), with Vann Spencer. ©2013. Published by Casemate Publishers, 908 Darby Road, Dept. TGM, Havertown, PA 19083. Price: $29.95, plus shipping. Available at most bookstores, on online at: casematepublishing.com Anyone familiar with books on firearms and knives, and related subjects, should recognize the name of Robert K. Brown, as the founder of Soldier of Fortune magazine and Panther Publications/Paladin Press. (Paladin Press publishes a wild range of material on firearms, knives, martial arts, etc.) A former Green Beret, Brown is a dedicated “soldier of fortune,” having participated in global events for some 40 plus years, from Castro’s journey to the mountains through the Gulf War. This 408-page hardbound volume, complete with two sections of photographs, is his story.
Following a Prologue and a 13-page Introduction this book features 32 chapters, plus a Conclusion, two appendices, acknowledgements, and an index.
(The Introduction by the co-author, a lawyer, is almost as interesting to read as the material in the 32 chapters.) With the exception of 20 black and white photos, the majority of the more than five dozen photographs are in color.
Each of the chapters is complete, and interesting, from college in 1950, though the beginning of Soldier of Fortune magazine, Vietnam, Grenada, A-Team adventures, the Contras, and much more.
It’s like reading adventure stories in True, the men’s magazine of yesteryear, only more modern and better. (The chapter on the Contras reveals more than appeared back at the time it was making headlines in the newspapers. The Reagan administration had ordered the CIA to support the anti-communist Contras, but then-Sen. John Kerry had met with the Sandinista Commandante Daniel Ortega and, back in the US, convinced his party to cut funding to the Contras. The day after the House voted down a $14 million aid package to the anticommunists, Sandinista Ortega flew to Moscow and got a $200 million aid package from the Soviets.) It would appear the Contras had received no weapons training from the CIA, as their weapons, M-60s, Russian RPGs, FN/FALs, Spanish CETMEs, M-14s, and AK-47s of all types were rusty pieces of junk, with frozen gas pistons, etc. They had never been taught to clean, or take care of them. It’s a wonder the Contras did as well as they did against the communist Sandinistas.
This volume gives you an insider’s look at recent history.
Brown lived an adventurous life, in many respects similar to some famous fictional heroes. Those tales are here, and some of the stories are humorous, after the fact, but no doubt not at the time the events happened. Humorous or not, each chapter is an interesting story, and this book is worth having for serious reading material.
