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Wes O’Donnell on Muck Rack

Wes O’Donnell

Michigan
As seen in: TED, LinkedIn, Medium, OneZero, Bleacher Report, The Walrus Magazine, RealClear Defense, War is Boring, AMU Edge, Soldier of Fortune Magazine, EDM Digest
Covers:  Military, Veterans, Defense, Addiction, Suicide, Mental health, PTSD, HR, Employment, TV, Film, Entertainment, Entrepreneurship
US Army & USAF Veteran | Juris Doctor | YouTuber | Also, I write about national security on Medium and Substack | Pro-Ukraine 🇺🇦🇺🇸
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The Army is About to Rename 9 Confederate Forts - Here Are the Names

The Army is About to Rename 9 Confederate Forts - Here Are the Names

Medium — As a soldier between 1997 and 2003 and an airman between 2003 and 2007, much of my time in the military was spent at what we might today call "rebel forts." They were US Army posts (only the Air Force and Navy call them bases), which were named after Confederate generals.
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Russia is Now Using Iranian Suicide Drones Against Ukraine

Russia is Now Using Iranian Suicide Drones Against Ukraine

Medium — Back in July, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Iran was preparing to provide Russia with hundreds of drones, some capable of being armed with weapons. By August, Russia has sent hundreds of Iranian drones to the front lines. Now, it looks like we have our first direct evidence of Russian implementation of Iranian-made...
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Putin Celebrates Ferris Wheel in Moscow While His Army Surrenders

Putin Celebrates Ferris Wheel in Moscow While His Army Surrenders

Medium — After the ribbon-cutting, he honked his red nose and rode off on a tiny bicycle. Try to imagine a U.S. president - any president: Obama, Trump, or hell, even Reagan, opening a new amusement park while the U.S. Army surrenders on a foreign battlefield.
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The U.S. Sent Ukraine Hundreds of These Death Traps - But It's the Russians Who Might Benefit

The U.S. Sent Ukraine Hundreds of These Death Traps - But It's the Russians Who Might Benefit

Medium — Known stateside simply as the "one-one-three" or "track", the M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier (APC) that was adopted by the U.S. military in 1960. Make fun of the Russians fielding Soviet-era equipment all you want, kids. Just remember, the M113 was first conceived the same year NASA was established and the U.S.
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Adding Up Russia's Industrial-Scale War Crimes

Adding Up Russia's Industrial-Scale War Crimes

Medium — In the early days of the conflict, when it became obvious how bad the Russian military was at warfighting, it was a favorite pastime of military analysts (myself included) to dissect the Russian military's tactics and lampoon their inability to perform basic battlefield tasks.
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Fact Check: Is North Korea Sending 100K Troops to fight in Eastern Ukraine?

Fact Check: Is North Korea Sending 100K Troops to fight in Eastern Ukraine?

Medium — In case you missed it, the internet was abuzz late last week with numerous media outlets reporting that Kim Jong Un offered to send 100,000 North Korean soldiers to fight against Ukrainians on behalf of Russia. North Korea is one of Russia's last remaining allies, so it's at least plausible that Kim Jong Un might want to help his BFF...
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Europe's Largest Nuclear Plant "Out of Control" as Russians Store Ammo On-site

Europe's Largest Nuclear Plant "Out of Control" as Russians Store Ammo On-site

Medium — As if this Russian shit-show couldn't get any worse, the Russian military is now occupying Europe's largest nuclear power plant - the Zaporizhzhia plant in the southern Ukraine steppe, on the Dnieper River. The plant is about 340 miles southeast of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.
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Prominent Russians Keep "Falling" Out of Windows

Prominent Russians Keep "Falling" Out of Windows

Medium — In case you missed it, the chairman of Russia's second largest oil producer, and vocal critic of Putin's war in Ukraine Ravil Maganov, died today after falling from a sixth-floor hospital window. In March, Maganov published a statement that read in part, "We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy," and called...
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The Marketing Failure Behind the U.S. Military's Troop Shortage

The Marketing Failure Behind the U.S. Military's Troop Shortage

Medium — The U.S. military is facing its worst recruiting challenge since the end of the Vietnam War. We're a mere month away from the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30 and the U.S. Army has only achieved about 65 percent of its recruiting goal of 60,000 soldiers.
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Putin's Winter Plan for Ukraine Could Bring Europe to its Knees

Putin's Winter Plan for Ukraine Could Bring Europe to its Knees

Medium — Let's perform a thought experiment - picture President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin waking up at 2:30 AM in a cold sweat. There's nobody around to hear his propaganda; he's alone with his thoughts about Ukraine. Does such a man lie to himself to convince his conscious that he's made the right decision to invade Ukraine?
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Russia Took Crimea in 2014 - Now Ukraine Wants it Back

Russia Took Crimea in 2014 - Now Ukraine Wants it Back

Medium — In 2014, Vice News published a peerless series of videos called 'Russian Roulette' that revealed to the world on-the-ground footage of Russia's slow-motion invasion of the Donbas and Crimea. I watched [former] Vice journalist Simon Ostrovsky in equal parts fascination and horror as he documented Russia's advance.
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Russia Offers Freedom to Convicts to Fight in Ukraine

Russia Offers Freedom to Convicts to Fight in Ukraine

Medium — A month-long investigation by CNN has revealed that Russian authorities are offering convicts freedom after six months, a monthly salary of 200,000 rubles, and compensation to families of up to five million rubles ($82,000) if the convict dies in combat. "Join the Army or go to jail."
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Our Entire Fleet of F-35s Just Got Grounded Due to Faulty Ejection Seats

Our Entire Fleet of F-35s Just Got Grounded Due to Faulty Ejection Seats

Medium — If there's one plane that the media loves to hate, it's the F-35 Lightning II. Maybe it's because the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program remains the DOD's most expensive weapon system program to date, with a program price tag of $1.7 trillion.
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Why Taiwan is China's 'Red Line'

Why Taiwan is China's 'Red Line'

Medium — U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi kicked off her Asian tour today which, according to her itinerary, includes stops in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan. Pelosi's team is also making logistical arrangements for a possible stop in Taiwan, enraging the Chinese Communist Party. Reacting to the news of the №3 U.S.
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Why China Can't Challenge the US Military Any Time Soon

Why China Can't Challenge the US Military Any Time Soon

Medium — There's been a lot of fearmongering about the Chinese military recently. Alarmist headlines meant to drive clicks are common: " Only a matter of time: Warnings of China-U.S. military miscalculation grow" from The Japan Times. " Pentagon calls out China's military threats as Taiwan tensions worsen" from The Washington Post.
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Russia is Pulling Out of the International Space Station

Russia is Pulling Out of the International Space Station

Medium — Russia has announced today that they plan to end their 28-year partnership with NASA, bringing a close to a decades-long collaboration between former enemies. Newly appointed Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov told Russian President Vladimir Putin that "the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made."
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Russia Just Shot Down One of Their Own Best Fighter Bombers

Russia Just Shot Down One of Their Own Best Fighter Bombers

Medium — The Russians have a problem. Their surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems are good. Maybe too good. Or, at least too good to let them be operated by lightly-trained boneheads in the Luhansk People's Republic. Remember, these are the same separatists who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 killing all 298 civilians.
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Infantry Will be Key to Russia's Success or Failure in Ukraine

Infantry Will be Key to Russia's Success or Failure in Ukraine

Medium — In today's high-tech world of information warfare, drones, and fifth-gen stealth fighters, there is still one unit absolutely essential to battlefield success: the humble infantryman. Although there's nothing humble about the infantry. Graduating from infantry school at Ft. Benning, Georgia and shipping off to serve in the 101st...
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How Dangerous is Russia's Nuclear Torpedo - Poseidon?

How Dangerous is Russia's Nuclear Torpedo - Poseidon?

Medium — In March of 2018, Putin announced his newest doomsday weapon - the Poseidon nuclear-tipped torpedo. But after watching Russia's military fumble around Ukraine for the past three months, perhaps this too is a paper tiger; that is, an overhyped "political" weapon meant to cause fear more than damage - just like Russia's conventional military.
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Why is This "Fringe" Found All Over Western Wear?

Why is This "Fringe" Found All Over Western Wear?

Medium — When I write, I tend to focus on topics that I have at least some level of expertise in - global security lately, but also intermittent fasting from time to time. However, occasionally I'll be struck with a burning question that sends me down the internet rabbit hole.
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Russia Says They Are Losing Because of Secret Ukrainian Mutant Soldiers - Seriously

Russia Says They Are Losing Because of Secret Ukrainian Mutant Soldiers - Seriously

Medium — It's a headline that sounds like it was ripped straight from a satire article on The Onion. Unfortunately, it's real. According to reporting by Kommersant, one of Russia's leading liberal business newspapers, on Monday the Russian Federation Council held a meeting to investigate the activities of American biological labs in...
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5 Reasons Why Putin Thought He Could Successfully Invade Ukraine

5 Reasons Why Putin Thought He Could Successfully Invade Ukraine

Medium — As the Russo-Ukraine War drags on, I keep coming back to what was happening inside Putin's mind that convinced him he could be successful at regime change in Kyiv. How could the [self-proclaimed] chess master and "brilliant" architect of the new Russian empire make such a massive geopolitical blunder?
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Moscow Threatens to "Claim Back" Alaska Over U.S. Sanctions

Moscow Threatens to "Claim Back" Alaska Over U.S. Sanctions

Medium — Between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's anti-Semitic outbursts, and numerous other high-ranking Russian leaders calling for nuclear war with the west, it's probably high time we stop listening to Russian propaganda. Still, when a close Putin ally and chairman of the State Duma, (the lower house of the country's legislature) issues a warning that Putin could "claim back" Alaska, I can't help but pay attention.
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Behold! First Images from James Webb Have Landed - Edge

Behold! First Images from James Webb Have Landed - Edge

amuedge.com — After months of calibrations, the space-loving citizens of the world held their breath for this moment; the first science images from the James Webb Space Telescope have been released by NASA. The Carina Nebula, one of the brightest and largest nebulas in the sky, is 7,600 light-years away from Earth.
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