Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
A promising American chased a cause, crossed an ocean, put on a Russian uniform, and died in Ukraine. This is the stark, uncomfortable arc of Michael Gloss.
Hook: From Idealism To A Battlefield No One Expected
Ah, kids…
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
That’s in the Book, and I understand the gist. In general, irresponsible parents spawn irresponsible kids. Almost every serious smoker I ever met had at least one smoking parent. Kids model the behavior of their parents, even when they are rebellious, distant, or cruel. Oftentimes, it is because of those things. By contrast, put in the work as a parent and you will afford your offspring the best opportunity to succeed.
Regardless of how they are raised, kids are like little homemade boats. You carefully craft that vessel as best you can, but at some point, you have to push that thing out into the pond. Once that’s done, your kid is making his or her own decisions. There’s no turning back.
I’ve had to do that three times myself. Each iteration was comparably excruciating. Watching my kids make some of the same mistakes I did was particularly poignant. Thanks to the grace of God, my three turned out OK. Tragically, however, despite a parent’s best efforts, sometimes that is not the case.
Case Study: How Michael Gloss Slid From Idealism To War
We are about to discuss one family’s absolute nightmare. I’m not making light of it or in any way diminishing the gravitas of the events surrounding this young man’s life and untimely death. In the brief life of Michael Gloss, we see a man who was exploited by the most corrupt regime of the modern age. His death touches on politics, rebellion, and the scourge of mental illness.
As near as we can tell, Michael Gloss started out well. His father, Larry Gloss, was a US Navy Desert Storm veteran who currently works in cybersecurity. His mom, Juliane Gallina, is a US Naval Academy grad who was the first female to lead the brigade of midshipmen. After leaving the Navy, Juliane took a job at the CIA. She is currently the CIA’s deputy director for digital innovation.
I don’t know Larry or Juliane myself. Any deductions I have made come from reading news reports. However, it is a safe bet that Michael was likely raised fairly well. Both of his parents were Navy vets, and his mother is a spy. They are clearly smart, conscientious, patriotic Americans. However, sometimes even with the best of foundations, kids can go off the rails. That’s what happened with Michael Gloss.
Details: From Vienna, Virginia To A Russian Uniform
At some point, Michael became radicalized. No offense, but I can see that in this very space. I’ve been writing these weekly GunsAmerica columns for literally years now. I read every word of the comments. Most readers are insightful, respectful, and thought-provoking. Reading your opinions often makes me rethink my own, which is always a healthy thing. However, a small but statistically significant percentage of you dudes are flat-out nuts.
It is fascinating to ponder why that is. We live in the very earliest throes of the Information Age. Never before in history has the human animal been bombarded with so much raw data starting at such a young age. Personally, I think that’s where a lot of our ADHD comes from. We take newborns and subject them to flashing lights and frenetic sounds every waking minute because that’s the easy way to keep them occupied and quiet. Then they grow up unable to pay attention or manage a steady train of thought. We really should have seen that coming. One side effect of this constant barrage of information is that folks can get emotionally invested in some remarkably spurious causes. There are countless examples.
Case Studies: When Narratives Replace Reality
Charlie Kirk wasn’t a racist in any traditional sense. Any unbiased thinking person who bothers to invest an hour or two listening to the guy talk will draw that conclusion. However, a warped young man driven by sound bites and carefully sculpted narratives got sufficiently agitated as to climb up onto a rooftop with an antique bolt-action rifle and murder him in front of his little girl.
Leftists around the globe have been rioting in support of Palestine. This is despite the fact that Hamas murdered 1,200 men, women, and children in a single day and will flat-out execute you if they even think you might be gay. It’s pretty nonsensical if you think about it.
In the case of Michael Gloss, this poor kid got so agitated over contrived environmental issues and curated online propaganda that he abandoned his life in the United States and made his way to Russia. Once there, he was convinced that he was going to save the planet by enlisting in the Russian Army. In short order, he was sent to Ukraine and killed alongside countless thousands of actual Russians also duped into becoming the Bad Guys in Putin’s bloody war.
The Guy: School, Sports, And A Hard Turn
Michael Gloss graduated from Oakton High School in Vienna, Virginia. While there, he played both football and lacrosse. He subsequently attended the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he majored in human ecology. I wasn’t there, and I never met the kid myself. However, I’d be willing to bet that some of his human ecology professors were pretty politically out there.
Left-wing apologists often suffer from a most peculiar form of cognitive dissonance. Tyler Robinson, the young man who apparently shot Charlie Kirk, grew up in a conservative Mormon family. However, once he got to college, he began dating a man who identifies as a woman. His personal writings expressed outrage over LGBT causes. I’ve lost track of the times I have seen left-wing commentators allege that Robinson must have been some kind of closet MAGA operative. Really? Gee whiz, guys, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, that’s most likely a duck.
Michael’s obituary read, in part, “Michael grew to be physically strong and tall, thoughtful and principled, and from an early age he used these strengths to protect and guard against injustice of all forms — whether it was on the playground, on the field or in politics.”
Reading between the lines, I’m thinking he likely got radicalized in college before launching on his ill-advised voyage of discovery.
Darker Factors: Mental Health And Manipulation
As I researched this sordid tale, I found references to Michael’s unspecified mental illness. It is estimated that 23.4% of Americans suffer from some kind of diagnosable mental disorder. 5.6% of US adults experience some sort of serious mental illness event each year. At some point in their lives, nearly half of Americans would meet the criteria for mental illness of some sort. I deal with that constantly in my day job. Trust me, those numbers are real.
Anxiety disorders are the most common. Major depression affects around 8% of Americans. Part of that is certainly the result of increased surveillance. In eras past, ADHD was just little boys being little lunatics, while depression was often treated unsuccessfully with alcohol. Regardless of the particulars, in the case of Michael Gloss, this toxic combination of nature and nurture ultimately killed him.
Cannon Fodder: Front Lines, Donetsk, 2024
Gloss signed a contract to join the Russian armed forces in 2023 and was assigned to an airborne regiment. His status as an American citizen who was the son of a CIA officer inevitably earned him a certain degree of notoriety. Regardless, he was deployed to the front lines in Ukraine’s Donetsk region in short order.
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has ground on for either four or twelve years, depending upon where you establish the starting point. Both the government of Ukraine and the non-partisan UK Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) placed total Russian casualties in excess of one million troops as of mid-2025. Russian independent media has verified at least 135,000 Russian KIA. That number is the result of scrubbing social media, scant official records, and documenting physical tombstones. CSIS estimates of Russian KIAs float around 325k, which is tough to get your head around. Regardless of how you gauge it, the war in Ukraine has been a bloodbath for both sides. That doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
On 4 April 2024, Michael Gloss was caught in an artillery barrage during military operations near Donetsk. His father later reported that he was hit while trying to rescue an injured comrade. What scant information that made it back to the States indicates that he bled to death as a result of his wounds.
Key Timeline And Facts: Michael Gloss
| Name | Michael Gloss |
|---|---|
| Background | Oakton High School; College of the Atlantic, human ecology |
| Enlisted | Russian Armed Forces |
| Deployment | Front lines in the Donetsk region, Ukraine |
| Date of Death | 4 April 2024, artillery barrage near Donetsk |
| Aftermath | Public praise in Russia; award and naming reported later |
Hard Truths & Lessons
- Propaganda preys on purpose-seeking youth. It sells certainty, then cashes the check in blood.
- Information overload distorts judgment. Endless feeds can turn causes into obsessions.
- Mental health matters. Untreated issues make manipulation easier and outcomes worse.
- War devours the idealistic first. Once you step onto that field, reality rules.
Ruminations: What Michael Gloss’s Death Should Teach Us
Michael Gloss was known to have suffered from a diagnosable mental disorder, though particulars are vague. Vladimir Putin publicly lauded Gloss by name. Russia named a school in the occupied Donetsk region after him. In August of 2025, Gloss was awarded the Russian Order of Courage. His award was delivered to his grieving parents by US envoy Steve Witcoff. I’m not convinced that brought Michael’s folks a great deal of comfort.
Everything about the sordid story of Michael Gloss is simply tragic. Whipped into an ideological furor, a misguided, mentally ill young man fled to a dictatorship and apparently willingly volunteered to go to war on behalf of a monster. Modern war is horrible, bloody, and shockingly efficient. Michael was subsequently blown to pieces alongside literally hundreds of thousands of similarly misguided young soldiers, all because one dark, twisted man cannot bring himself to say, “Stop.” It still amazes me that, this deep into the 21st century, nations still go to war over the whims of a single deranged lunatic.
Related Reads from GunsAmerica Digest
- What Ukraine Teaches About Small Arms In Modern War
- AK Platform Deep Dive: From Cold War To Modern Fighting Rifles
- How Propaganda Targets Young Men In Wartime
Will is still trying to figure out what he really wants to be when he grows up. However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation.
Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o’clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times…always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains.
Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. Turn-ons include vintage German machineguns, flying his sexy-cool RV6A airplane, Count Chocula cereal and the movie “Aliens.”
www.word-monkey.com
Experience:
-Professional Writer-thousands of publishing credits for dozens of titles
-Mechanical Engineer/Practicing Physician
-Instrument-rated Commercial Pilot
-Sunday School Teacher
All I know about war is this: Beware of any politician, religious leader/ holyman,members of the media, academia, that wrap themselves in a nations flag and want to send you or yours off to faraway lands to kill people-that never did anything to you. You will end up with neither victory, glory, or gratitude and if you survive upon your return will be labeled a domestic terrorist, untrusted by the ruling class and your job,your neighborhood,and your women taken by foreigners that reap what you have sacrificed for. Xin Loi
damned if you aren’t 100% correct. let that be a red pill for our fellow people who worship government and politicians.
Right on cue, lot of nut jobs parachuting in to comment.
Good read doc.
A lot of these misanthropes just need to get laid.
Dr. Dabbs: Young Mr. Gloss seemed to really hate America. He hated Democrats and he hated Republicans. Some European reporting claims to have seen his Telegraph posts where he discussed his hatred for America. He appears to have been one of the rare America haters who actually leaves and heads for whatever Utopia they have created in their minds. The same European reporting claims Gloss was quite enamored with Russia. Not just Russia, but Putin’s Russia.
In the end it seems untreated mental illness had little to do with his poor decision making. He seemed to be a person who committed to a cause completely. In this case he chose both wrongly and unwisely. The only good to come of his choice was that he at least chose to fight for his beliefs as a soldier and not a terrorist.
I won’t criticize you for this article, Will. Sometimes, there’s not a whole lot of information to be had, on a given subject. You artfully put forth what you could find.
I’ve been wanting you to do a piece on the “Mississippi Rifles”, the very first of what became our Mississippi National Guard. As you well know, they acquitted themselves quite well fighting with “Old Hickory” against the Limeys, in the battle of New Orleans. Do you think you can dig up enough info on their organization, weapons and service? It would be nice for us home folk.
What in the hell is “Human Ecology”? And a college major none the less.
It’s a filthy hippie telling your girlfriend “ let’s screw for peace”. While your low crawling in the jungle.
Well said. In my life I’ve seen people manipulated into believing and doing things that are insane to me and I’m always surprised. I guess I always think that everyone has that inner voice to tell us right from wrong but I suppose not everyone does.
This young man seems lost right out of the gate. He seems to have been exposed to and indoctrinated into the liberal lie of socialism and communism being the only way to make everyone equal. Unfortunately they seemed to have left out the part where never in history has it worked out to the benefit of the people it’s supposed help. As they say, the biggest myth or lie of socialism and communism is that this time we can make it work the way it’s supposed to. Except it is a lie, it’s always been a lie and it always ends up with the people being oppressed, enslaved and forced to enrich the people in charge. I don’t know the politics of this young man’s parents but I suspect they shared similar beliefs. The fact that they treat his death like he lost it fighting for his country rather than our enemy’s and accepted a posthumous medal from the Russian government says a lot. Honestly I would be investing the parents as well.
“Vienna, Virginia” tells me everything I need to know about this tragedy. As a newborn, I was brought home from the hospital to Vienna, VA. It wasn’t a bad place back in 1959, but it is situated within now-notorious Fairfax County, Virginia wherein EVERYONE works for the Federal Misgovernment and bows to the Socialist (if not outright Communist) godheads who run the place like Hitler ran Germany. And yes, I know that Adolf Hitler was a Fascist . . but do you really think that there is much difference in how they treat their “subjects” . . ?
In the public schools, you are taught (manipulated) to choose your courses so that go to can eventually go to work for the Federal Government. BIG income! GREAT retirement plan! You’ll NEVER have to worry . . . unless you criticize their policies. How do I know this? I actually attended Oakton High School as did young Mr. Gloss, albeit many years prior.
I didn’t emerge unscathed, but at least I got out of there as soon as I could . . . and I “recovered”. I feel badly that this young man was so disillusioned by the propaganda that he imperiled and lost his life due to a very flawed ideology I’m just grateful that it does not happen more frequently.
Bollocks. I attended James Madison HS just miles down the road from you. Model UN Team, Senate Simulation, school newspaper. A semester of Bill of Rights and constitutional law. Great hands on Computer Science classes. Grew up with other kids whose folks were also Federal civil servants and a lot of them serving military or veterans, working for Federal contractors, or small business owners. We got a pretty good look at how the sausage was made from our folks. Oh, and Journalism 101: you left out the Why. Why did Gloss do what he did, what cause triggered him to fight against such an obvious underdog facing an obvious David vs Goliath situation? Oppositional defiance disorder, someone playing up Ukraine’s WW2 history?
Good piece Dr. Dabbs, but like others have mentioned it was a bit scanty on details. How did this fellow decide the Russian army was there to protect the environment for Pete’s sake?
In any case, that kid sure did have a mop of hair. Sad that wasn’t enough for him.
I’m making popcorn to eat while I read the silly comments stirred by you calling out the 5.6% who reside here. Great article as always.
All things considered, some things are best unsaid…
Dr Dabbs, I always enjoy your articles! Well thought out, details presented as though I were there!
This article, though, leaves a lot of gaps. And we all know, propaganda is not one sided! I’m no fan of Putin, but with Trump’s war on Iran, I see the pot calling the kettle black! Ex: one Tomahawk cruise missile killing nearly 200 Iranian school kids. Followed by another to kill the parents. Then a third to kill the rescuers! Truth or propaganda! War, or murder?
You bring up the killing of Charlie Kirk. What is the truth? The official story is sort of like you outlined. But is that truth, or propaganda! Dr. Dabbs, I do believe you know the story does not make sense, being thoroughly round in small arms, like the so-called 30-06 round that allegedly entered Kirk’s neck but did not exit. Hum! As a young 13 yr old, my dad told me a .308 will go through a 12” tree and could kill a deer on the other side. Sure enough, my second deer was standing broad side behind a 10” tree. I could only see the small rack (3 point) of a white tail. Guessed where chest cavity would be, (teenagers do stupid things) and touched the trigger of my dad’s Win model 88 .308, and did not see the deer, nor see it run, but walking the 110 yds, I found the deer dead about 30yards further out. Not only did the round go through the tree, it went through the deer’s ribs, clipped the spine, and out the other sign. And thst was with some type of hollow point my dad hand loaded. So I am pretty sure, if Kirk was shot with a 30-06, there would be an exit wound. That’s just one point of the whole story that makes me question! How did Tyler carry a long gun up the roof? And he surely did not have a long rifle when jumping off the 16ft roof! And after local police with dogs could not find the rifle in a patch of trees, FBI then told LEO to look again, and they found a old Mauser. Then why did the official photo show a modern rifle that was not a Mauser? Truth, or a storyline? Just the tip of questions.
Keep writing your articles! And I appreciate your perspective!!
From the first news reports, the case against Tyler Robinson required detailed explanations to fill in huge gaps that spanned the void between logic and emotion. Did that happen with Crooks? No. Did that happen with Oswald? No. Did that happen with Sirhan Sirhan? No. Did that happen with James Earl Ray? No. Will that happen with Robinson? No.
My father once told me that whenever a huge story breaks, pay close attention to the first news reports. The earliest information will soon disappear as the official story gets clean up and dummed down. I saw an extreme example of that with 9/11.
I did a GAD archive system with a “Charlie Kirk” search term to see what myself and other wrote several months ago and found about three relavant articles. Like you, I have problems with the details involving terminal ballistics. I have problems with unremarkable Robinson finding a secure final firing position while defeating Campus and Kirk’s own private security, what luck. I saw the photos of Robinson walking up a stairway unencumbered by a large, concealed rifle. Where was the rifle when the suspect was filmed in the campus building? I saw someone jump of a campus rooftop where it was claimed the suspect had a large rifle, I could NOT see that vital detail.
Many will agree, Robinson is revolting and perhaps very guilty of something. Those sorts of details are based on emotion, unfortunately logic will be less of an issue as the case proceeds to some sort of conclusion. The small percentage of people who have legitimate questions will have to live with those incongruities.
Thank you once again for a excellent article. If it had not been for you writing about this I would have never heard about it. Needless to say I don’t watch or pay attention to the traditional news media. War for a young man sounds like a great adventure untill you are in in the midst of it.
“It still amazes me that, this deep into the 21st century, nations still go to war over the whims of a single deranged lunatic.” Hmm Can you think of anyone else that might apply to?
What a sad story. Joe McCarthy warned us that our education system and media (not to mention government) was being infiltrated by Marxists and now are kids are taught by folks programmed by leftists and constantly receive messages from same thanks to the internet. What could possibly go wrong?
Pretty weak stuff – the bulk of the propaganda kids are being exposed to is simplistic anti-Russian propaganda (like this article).
Maybe the kid was simply rebelling against Mom’s CIA war?
Once posted on a marquee – “In a war of ideals, it’s people who get killed”.
The problem is that this article is VERY light on details.
What was it that caused him to go to Russia and join the Red Army?
He was “radicalized”. In what way? We’ve seen nutjobs of all political stripes make these kind of stupid decisions.
Anyway, I have zero sympathy for those who decide to fight for Putin and the Zwastika, and I hope it was American made artillery that got him. Because the irony of an American traitor getting smoked by an American M777 or HIMARS rocket is pretty sweet.
Thanks again Doc for a interesting story. Reminds me of a saying I once heard: “The problem with ideology, is it often becomes idolatry”.