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And if anyone knows, he knows. He spent nine harrowing months in covert operations in Afghanistan fighting Soviet forces alongside the Mujahideen fighters he trained. The 44-year-old former top-ranking soldier speaks for the first time about surviving behind enemy lines in this exclusive interview with Sky News Online's Peter Jackson. What service have you seen with the SAS? I joined the army as a 20-year-old and served for 24 years, 18 of those in the SAS. I served in the Falklands for eight weeks, in Northern Ireland for seven years, in the Gulf War for four weeks (mainly in Kuwait) and in Afghanistan for nine months. How did you cope with the overwhelming risk element? You cope by not believing you're going to die, you convince yourself you're the best soldier out there and that it's not going to be you, but death comes quick! If you doubt your ability you don't deserve to be there. When it comes to your family, your wife and children, you try to shut your mind off, but you have days when you question it, like on your kid's birthday. You think, "nobody even knows I'm out here" and you feel expendable because you don't know what the politicians are planning. What was your brief in Afghanistan? It was 1984; the Russians had invaded Afghanistan some time ago and were about to pull out. We were sent in as a disruptive force, not on an intelligence mission. Our aim was to disrupt enemy lines, communications and supplies and to lower morale. I was also involved in the final phases of training the Islamic guerrillas of the Mujahideen against the Russians. It was a time when the Cold War was still very much in people's minds. What was the terrain like? It was a very hard terrain. The first notable thing was the lack of vegetation and the barrenness of it all. The desert had a silent beauty that gave you a surreal feeling because it was so empty. There are no visible animals or people and it appears massive because there's nothing to break the landscape. The area is steeped in history; you can see signs of life, of central positions - brick and rock structures - some probably built by British troops years ago.
The Russians were starving the whole country, basically practicing genocide. I saw whole villages wiped out with bodies strewn around and they dropped "fuel air" bombs from planes into caves and valleys. How easy was it to blend in? To mix in with the locals is impossible, you must have guides. You turn to smugglers for route finding because they know where the watchtowers are and they know their positions. But you couldn't trust them. If there were four of you, two would stay awake all the time. They'd kill you for your tee-shirt or boots. A watch is food for a year for them and if they found weapons on you they'd try to kill you for it. If they had a chance of getting a weapon like, say an M203 - an M16 gun with a grenade launcher on it - they'd try to kill six or seven people for that. What did you live on? We carried our own food supplies for up to six weeks then survived on what we could find - rodents, rats, grasshoppers and other insects. Insects are the biggest supply of protein, but you'll eat what you can. What was the climate like? It was bitterly cold. We wore arcticwear at night with maybe four or five layers of clothing but we were still freezing, and we couldn't light fires at night because it risked us being compromised. As the winter comes it's cold, not just a bit cold, but cold like "you die" cold. What physical condition were you in? Afghanistan was extremely harsh, you fight to survive there everyday, then you've got to do your job. My eyesight started to go because of a lack of vitamins. We would go up to altitude and become sick but we couldn't go back down because we were up there to escape. Any cut will fester. I had blisters for nine months that never healed; you just bind your feet up with this white tape we used to carry.
I didn't wash for seven months, I was covered in lice and my fingernails and toenails dropped off. You find it hard even to hold things, but as soon as something happens you block it out. It's amazing how you learn to put up with things. Toothache was a major problem, three of my teeth were rotten and had to be taken out and my hearing was damaged from firing RPG7's (rocket propelled grenade launchers).
You're in a very high state of alert at all times but you have to battle with yourself in terms of keeping things positive and keeping your mind on the job. You seem to revert back to animal instincts and your sense of smell, hearing and awareness increases 10-fold. Did the Mujahideen make good fighters? They were like sponges and responded very well, but they didn't understand small tactics. They were going for the cavalry charge, but what you really want to do is take out their hospitals or do a hit on their canteens and supplies or poison their water supply. You need to upset the enemy, not rush in. |
