Soldier of Fortune (magazine)

Soldier of Fortune (SOF), The Journal of Professional Adventurers, is a periodical monthly magazine devoted to world-wide reporting of wars, including conventional warfare, low-intensity warfare, counter insurgency, and counter-terrorism. SOF magazine is published by the Omega Group Ltd., in Boulder, Colorado.

History
Soldier of Fortune magazine was founded in 1975, by Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve, (Ret.) Robert K. Brown, a Green Beret who served with Special Forces in Vietnam. After retiring from active duty, Brown began publishing a “circular” few-page-magazine with information on mercenary employment in Oman, where the Sultan Qaboos had recently deposed his father, and was battling a communist insurgency. Brown's small circular soon evolved into a glossy, large-format, four color magazine. Significant to the early development of SOF magazine was its unprecedented, successful recruitment of foreign nationals to serve in the Rhodesian Security Forces, during the Rhodesian Bush War (1964–79). During the late 1970s and the 1980s, the success and popularity of a military magazine such as SOF led to the proliferation of like magazines such as Survive, Gung Ho!, New Breed, Eagle, Combat Illustrated, Special Weapons and Tactics, and Combat Ready.

Grievous injury
During the late 1980s, Soldier of Fortune was sued in civil court several times, for having published classified advertisements of services by (private) mercenaries. In 1987, Norman Norwood, of Arkansas, sued SOF magazine, because of injuries he suffered during a murder attempt, by two men hired via a "Gun for Hire" advert in the magazine. The US District Court denied the magazine's motion for summary judgment, based upon the Constitutional right of free speech, under the First Amendment. The Court said, "reasonable jurors could find that the advertisement posed a substantial risk of harm" and that "gun for hire" ads were not the type of speech intended for protection under the First Amendment. In the end, Mr Norwood and Soldier of Fortune magazine settled his lawsuit out of court.

Wrongful death
The mercenary John Hearn shot and killed Sandra Black, for a $10,000 payment from her husband, Robert Black. He communicated with the gun-for-hire Hearn through a classified advertisement published in Soldier of Fortune, wherein Hearn solicited "high-risk assignments. U.S. or overseas". In 1989, Sandra Black's son, Gary, and her mother, Marjorie Eimann, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against SOF magazine, and its parent publishing company, Omega Group Ltd., seeking $21 million in redress of their grievance. The jury found Soldier of Fortune grossly negligent in publishing Hearn's classified ad for implicit illegal activity (murder) and awarded the plaintiffs $9.5 million in damages. However, in 1990, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the verdict, saying that the standard of conduct imposed upon the magazine was too high, because the advertisement was ambiguously worded.

Contract killing
In 1989, four men were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, in the 1985 contract killing of Richard Braun, of Atlanta, Georgia. The mercenary killers were hired through a classified services advertisement published in Soldier of Fortune magazine, that read: "GUN FOR HIRE". Braun's sons filed a civil lawsuit against the magazine, and a jury found in their favor, and awarded them $12.37 million in damages, which the judge later reduced to $4.37 million. Nonetheless, in 1992, the United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judgement of the jury, saying "the publisher could recognize the offer of criminal activity as readily as its readers, obviously, did". The Brauns and SOF magazine settled the wrongful-death lawsuit for $200,000. One consequence of the lost lawsuits, was the magazine's suspension of publication of classified advertisements for mercenary work, either in the U.S. or overseas.

Notable contributors

 * Col. David "Hack" Hackworth, US Army, (ret/deceased)
 * Wayne Laugesen
 * Ltc. Robert C. MacKenzie, US Army, (ret/deceased)
 * Ltc. Oliver North, US Marine Corps, (ret.)
 * James Patrick Mackley, US Army
 * Dale Dye, US Marine Corps, (ret.)
 * Bill Bagwell
 * Peter Kokalis
 * Al J Venter
 * Michael Echanis (ret/deceased)
 * John Plaster, US Army, (ret.)
 * Rob Krott, author/adventurer