This is the Publisher’s Log from the very first issue of Military magazine on 6 June 1984:

Welcome to the first issue of Military History Review.

This publication came about because I was angry. Just like you, I’m very interested in military history, but one has to go to several bookstores all over town to find but a small part of what is available. The book review sections of the newspapers seem to pay scant attention to the subject.

I had complained about that for many years. My friend, George Shulsky (a dealer in rare and out-of-print books), said, on 23 February, “Well, why don’t you start a publication that would let people know what there is in the field.” And he outlined what such a publication would be like.

He had a great idea. In other fields of my interests (short-wave radio and photography), there are several magazines that inform one about the equipment, and the advertisers make it possible to order everything you could want without ever leaving your home.

So now I’ve started another periodical about an interest field of mine. for the past 13 years I’ve been publisher of Worldradio and also for the past eight years have been publisher of International Travel News.

I gathered a group of my friends (all also deeply interested in the subject), we dug into our pockets and here you have what we call, for short MHR. And George Shulsky will serve as editor.

The people behind MHR have experiences in WWII, Korea and Viet-Nam.
Now I should tell you that this publishing venture does not come to you from some towering skyscraper overlooking Madison Avenue, and that is its great virtue. All of us involved do something else (for example, Bill Bennett is a travel agent, Bill Dunning is a high school teacher, etc.) We are not depending on MHR for the daily bread for our families. We are doing this because we want to.

Also, quite different than other magazines, we are not sending out those letters you get, describing in glowing terms a magazine and asking you to subscribe. Like you, I’ve seen that the magazines never live up to the description. So, we decided to instead send out the magazine itself and let you make your judgement that way. And, we’re. not going to insult your intelligence by making a “half-price” offer. When magazines offer everybody “half-price” that, indeed, is the actual price and what they need in order to produce the magazine.

We think that nine dollars a year is a fair and reasonable price, and, as we gain more subscribers and more advertisers we expect to increase the number of pages of reading matter you get each month.

Quickly I’d like to tell you what MHR is, and what it isn’t. None of us will sign articles with our former ranks in the military. This is not a publication for children (of all ages), armchair adventurers, vicarious thrill seekers and the like.

Different than some other publications with a military (semi-para-quasi or whatever) theme, we do not recommend that you fill your basement with 4,000 jars of peanut butter; we cannot help you find your old girlfriend who you think may still be somewhere near Pleiku; and while I am personally sympathetic to the cause, none of us here is running off to join the Free Armenia Army and we advise that you don’t either. And, we don’t pretend to be experts.

What we have created here is a “bulletin board” (a serious one, we hope) and have furnished the “thumb tacks.”

You are invited to contribute the information that is displayed.. We’re looking for accounts of your own military activities (serious and humorous) and your opinions of books you’ve read in the form of book reviews. You can guide others to the various military museums, or you may direct someone to a veterans’ group dedicated to a particular unit that they didn’t know about, bring long separated friends together at a reunion, give notices of events and projects and anything you may feel is related to the topic.

MHR will be exactly what you want it to be, no more and no less. You’re invited to come aboard.
— Armond M. Noble, Publisher

Postscript: The names have changed over the years but the basis for Military hasn’t. It’s still a magazine written by those who served our country and want to tell their story as only they can. We still invite you to submit your story. You can contact us at editor@milmag.com. Thank you.