Soldier of Fortune (magazine)

Soldier of Fortune

September 1995 cover
Editor/Publisher	Robert K. Brown
Categories	paramilitary
Frequency	Yearly
Year founded	1975
Final issue	April 2016
Company	Omega Group Ltd.
Country	United States
Based in	Boulder, Colorado
Language	English, many others
Website	www.sofmag.com

Soldier of Fortune (SOF), The Journal of Professional Adventurers, is a periodical monthly mercenary magazine devoted to worldwide 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.

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”, magazine type publication with few pages, which contained 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, full 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.