About Us



CHARLIE AND JOHN began blogging under The Officers' Club --a blog dedicated towards expanding milblogging topics to include foreign policy, wargaming, grand strategy, and hippy bashing-- in October of 2005.

Launched in April of 2006, OPFOR --military jargon for opposing force-- is a continuation of the old Officers' Club blog. Any opinions expressed at OPFOR are the authors' alone, and do not -in any way, shape, or form- reflect official positions of the Department of Defense.

JOHN grew up in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. He attended Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia, where he was selected to the All-Conference Team for swimming and lettered in baseball. In 1999, John matriculated to the Virginia Military Institute as a member of the Class of 2003. While at VMI, John majored in History and International Studies and served as the managing editor of VMI's student newspaper, THE CADET. He studied counter-terrorism at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel and commissioned out of VMI's Air Force ROTC program. John has been published in The Washington Post, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and National Review, and was a contributor to the Encylopedia of World War I and World War II.

CHARLIE grew up in the great states of Kentucky and Georgia. In high school, he ran cross-country, track, and rowed crew. In 2000, he matriculated into the class of 2004 at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. While at VMI, Charlie majored in International Studies and minored in Arabic language. He wrote for VMI's student newspaper, THE CADET, for 4 years, serving two years at the helm of the paper as Editor-in-Chief. During his cadetship, he studied abroad at the Arabic Language Institute of Fez, Morocco and lived with an Arab family in the “Old City” medina of Fez for several months. Charlie was a distinguished graduate of VMI, and commissioned out of VMI’s Army ROTC program.

LTCOL P hails from the star city of the south, Roanoke, Virginia. A 1989 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, he is an artillery officer in the United States Marine Corps, with time in both the active and reserve sides. He served in Iraq in 2004. COL P came to OPFOR as a guest blogger, but has now joined the team full time. He also runs Rule 308, where he denounces gun control and other aspects of socialism, and proclaims the greatness of the United States.

LIGHTNING SLAB, aka Captain Charlie, is a Marine infantry officer and a 2001 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. He has been deployed four times, to include combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. When he's not blogging here at OPFOR, Lightning can be found at Lightning in the Sky.

BULLNAV is a 1989 graduate of the Virginia Military Insitute, OPFOR's resident swabbie, and Lt Col P's Brother Rat. He was commissioned in the Navy and served on two submarines and a Destroyer Squadron staff. During that time he completed 3 overseas deployments: the Med, the AG, and the North Atlantic, earning Submarine Warfare Officer, Nuclear Powered Warship Engineer Qualifications, and the Submarine Command qualifications. Bullnav left active duty for the sweet life of a civilian puke in 2000, but hasn't hung up the uniform quite yet, as he continues to serve in a variety of assignments with the US Naval Reserve.

Richard S. Lowry is the award winning author of the best selling book, “Marines in the Garden of Eden,” Berkley, New York, 2006 and OPFOR's official guest blogger. He is an internationally recognized military historian and author. Richard served in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service from 1967-1975 and spent the time from 1975 to 2002 designing sophisticated integrated circuits for everything from aircraft avionics to home computers. Richard turned to serious writing after 9/11 and published “The Gulf War Chronicles,” iUniverse, New York, in 2002. He is currently working on his next book project. “The Surge” will tell of General Petraeus’ attempt to win the peace in Iraq. For more information on Richard and his work, visit http://www.marinesinthegardenofeden.com