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Posted on 10/08/2001 2:21:23 AM PDT by Beep

SAS Hero: 'My Afghan Mission'

When winter comes in Afghanistan, it's cold like "you die" cold, then there are the brutal guerillas who think to die in battle is to "hold the keys to heaven", says ex-SAS trooper "Terry".

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.

We had to teach the Mujahideen guerrilla tactics, but it was not all one way, they were good at camouflage, living off nothing, digging for roots, finding water for you and living hand to foot. Afghans don't think of life in the same way as we do, they think to die in battle is to have the keys to heaven. Because they didn't care about dying, it makes it very hard to fight against.

What evidence of Afghan brutality did you see?

I saw people skinned alive and roasted alive and people with their tongues pulled out and split. I'd say pretty much all Afghan extremists are brutal, it's a brutal part of the world. It's very hard to understand sitting here, but children as young as eight or nine are trained to be human bombs. They just don't value life in the same way that we do. If a woman is accused of adultery, it's acceptable to throw acid in her face so she is scarred and branded a whore. A woman proved to have committed adultery is stoned to death.

What state were you in when you left Afghanistan?

We had a four-week debriefing. They're aware you've gone over the edge and need to be reintroduced to Western civilisation slowly. When we came back we were mistaken for Arabs, but to an Afghan we'd always look like a Westerner. We were offered counselling, but I didn't take it, after two or three days I was pretty much back to normal. You think about things but you just block it out. I use humour to deal with it.

How will any SAS troops in Afghanistan be feeling?

Scared. In normal regiments you have people looking out for you, but as soon as you do any ops you have no back up. When I was in Afghanistan we had no radios, no safety net and no communication in or out, it was what we call "black ops". We'd have an "Agent meet" once a month where we'd meet someone at a pre-brief point on a certain date. He'd usually give us a big bag of medicine and we'd report anything we needed to report.

How do you see the war being resolved?

It's not a job just for special troops. Most of Afghanistan is living in starvation; the only way to defeat the Taliban is to make safe havens in the north towards the Russian border where the Northern Alliance is strong. At the moment people have no future, children are dying and the whole population is being chipped away. All the food goes to the Taliban, so if you're not with the Taliban then you have no food and you die. If you provide safe havens for the people, to feed them, they would then turn against the Taliban. Most people are against them anyway but have not got the means to oppose them. Afghans are simple, likeable people who want to be left alone. You need to treat them right and keep Westerners out of it. My view is that you'll never beat them in a war because you'll never catch them, they'll just disappear. You can destroy towns, but that just means scattering the people more, you wouldn't control the people. Food is getting through but with two million refugees passing into one of the poorest countries in the world (Pakistan), it's vastly insufficient.

Where do you think bin Laden is?

I'd guess he's out there in Afghanistan somewhere, very well protected. I would say he's hiding out in boltholes at altitude. The problem in getting to him is that heavily laden helicopters find it hard to fly above 12-14,000 feet because the air is so thin and it means a lack of oxygen for the crew. Also, if you try to bomb the boltholes, you could never confirm you've hit the target and you open yourself to adverse publicity like that exploited by Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War.

How do you view him?

He's a figurehead, an intellect, but he's not the main planner. His planning will be on a bigger scale, not the nuts and bolts. He may come up with the concepts but there are probably 30 or 40 people as nutty as him in the Taliban.

What would killing him mean?

The worst thing you could do is kill him because he would become a massive martyr, then the Moslems would draw together and countries on the edge would be swayed by the tide of public opinion supporting bin Laden. You need to draw him out by creating safe havens for the people. Once they lose the support of the people, terrorists can't hide. You need the Afghan people to turn against the Taliban; you need to harass him out.

Do you miss life in the regiment?

I get tinges of jealousy that they're out there and I'm not. To put into practice what you've been taught is every soldier's dream and I will always miss that. It's still by far the best regiment in the world, without a doubt, and I'm not just saying that because I'm ex-regiment.

What is your job now?

I'm an overseas security consultant retained by leading security firm GRM UK Ltd. The company has dozens of ex-SAS soldiers on board, dealing with close protection, airline protection, high security transportation and consultancy. I went to GRM because it's the only firm I know that treats ex-regiment guys fairly. Other firms tend to exploit our experience and expect loyalty one way only. Our website is: www.globalrisk.uk.com

Last Updated: 07:57 UK, Sunday October 07, 2001

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