Soldiers of Fortune Meet to Share Arms, Tactics

Eager to fight communism--with guns, not with words?

Or perhaps you’re in the market for a dart blowgun, a knife that can be fired from a holster or a variety of other exotic, and deadly, weapons.

If so, you should have attended the sixth annual Soldier of Fortune Convention and Combat Weapons Expo ’85 recently at the Sahara Hotel.

Las Vegas has become the convention capital of the United States. But this one was definitely not for the faint of heart.

Gathering of Mercenaries

As do most conventions, the six-day event offered a wide range of seminars, which attracted about 600 people from the United States and abroad, most of them service veterans, arms dealers and mercenaries, or, if you will, soldiers of fortune.

But the seminars differed radically from the type normally held in hotels along the Las Vegas Strip. Some, for instance, dealt with hand-to-hand knife fighting, parachute jumping and rappelling, the art of scaling the outside of buildings.

Putting into practice what they had learned at the seminars, the conventioneers also gathered at various sites for mock knife-fighting, pugil-stick competition, rappelling up and down one side of the hotel building and parachute jumping at the North Las Vegas Airport.

The convention is sponsored by Soldier of Fortune magazine, now in its 10th year, which describes itself as “The Journal of Professional Adventurers.” Founded and published by Bob Brown, a one-time Army Green Beret officer in Vietnam, the monthly magazine focuses on “news and adventure based on firsthand reports” from hot spots throughout the world.

Article Titles

Recent issues of the magazine, which has a circulation of 165,000 worldwide, included articles entitled “Irritating Iran,” “South Africa’s New Range Rifles” “Under Fire in El Salvador” and “Coping with Counterinsurgency.”

Not surprisingly, it is replete with weapons advertisements (e.g., “the Devil’s Dart, an all-steel sleeve knife”) and also includes classified ads from mercenaries looking for work.

Among the mercenaries attending the convention was Harry Claflin, a one-time Marine who served in Vietnam.

“I’d prefer to be known as a soldier of fortune, even though there isn’t much fortune in what I do,” said Claflin, 42.

Wearing a camouflage uniform bedecked with medals and Spanish-language insignia, Claflin looked like he belonged in a Central American war zone, and not in the lobby of a posh Las Vegas hotel.

Alternates Service

And that is where he said he usually can be found, alternating between serving with Salvadoran forces against rebel insurgents and rightist Contras trying to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Claflin, an American citizen, has spent several years in Central America, “fighting communism,” and, he said, being paid by Brown, the publisher of Soldier of Fortune.

Describing himself as a specialist in “unconventional warfare,” he said his basic position is that of an adviser and trainer. But he conceded that he does more than that.

“Sometimes we’re attacked, and when we are, we defend ourselves,” said Claflin, a self-professed professional soldier. “If I wasn’t in accord with the philosophies of the people I’m helping, I wouldn’t be doing it.”

“I’m ready to fight communist tyranny anywhere in the world,” Claflin said. He declined to say how many other American “soldiers of fortune” are aiding the Salvadoran government or the Nicaraguan rebels.

Like many of those who attended the convention, Claflin enjoyed the movie “Rambo: First Blood II,” which depicts the efforts of a U.S. veteran of Vietnam who single-handedly tries to free Americans held prisoner by the Hanoi government.

“It was a fun film,” he said. “I loved the action, and I think it has helped create a new surge of patriotism in the United States.”

If there was a common thread among the participants at the convention it was fervent sentiment against communism.

Among the T-shirts on sale at the convention were some carrying the slogans: “I’d rather be killing a communist in Central America,” “Eat lead, you lousy reds,” and “Kill a commie for mommy.”

While sales of the T-shirts appeared to be slow, dealers selling guns, knives and other weapons were doing a brisk business.