Special Forces vet behind WeaponsMan blog passes

Kevin O’Brien, a former Special Forces weapons man who maintained a popular blog of the same name, passed away this week suddenly.

In a post on Weaponsman.com, O’Brien’s brother signed on to update his legions of faithful readers with the tragic news on Tuesday.  After suffering a massive heart attack Saturday, O’Brien was left on life support at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“As of last night, it was obvious to everyone that he had almost no chance of survival; and that if he did by some chance survive, he would have no quality of life,” noted his brother. “Kevin’s heart was damaged beyond repair, his kidneys were not functioning, he had not regained consciousness, and he had internal bleeding that could not be stopped. We made the decision this morning to terminate life support.”

As detailed by his brother, O’Brien spent eight years on active duty and progressed through Ranger school and then joined Special Forces, holding a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant MOS (18B) which is as much resume cred as anyone interested in firearms can get. After leaving active duty, he continued to serve in the reserves, deploying to Afghanistan in 2003.

“He told me after that that Afghan tour was when he felt he had made his strongest contribution to the world,” said his brother.

O’Brien started the WM blog in 2011 and had over 3,000 posts, many going into great technical detail on modern military small arms technology based on both scholarly investigation and first-hand knowledge.

Here at Guns.com, we have cited WeaponsMan a number of times and have always respected the blog’s work and skill at covering the minutiae of the firearms and military sphere that often get overlooked. His contributions will be missed.

As for the blog, it will likely be shuttered.

“No one other than Kevin could do it justice.”