Mercenaries and bodyguards

Alan McMenemy's body recovered five years after Iraq kidnap

The British Embassy in Baghdad has confirmed that a body handed over to them is that of Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2007.

Mr McMenemy, a security guard from Glasgow, was snatched along with three other guards and an IT expert.

The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan were returned in 2009. Peter Moore was released alive in 2009.

Mr McMenemy's widow said his family would be comforted by having him home.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16660750
.................................................. ......

I have been reading a lot of feedback from the public about this guy and his associates. They seem to be blaming everyone for every reason for their deaths except the obvious ones.

The British Government for letting the four of them go out there, and the uneducated idiots themselves. Don’t get me wrong I regret hearing about their deaths that was a foregone conclusion on the day they were captured. I have sympathy for the families that are now grieving, and none of it should have happened.

Mr McMenemy, was a security guard and by the look of him a big fellow, but big doesn’t count against fanatics, it just makes you a bigger target. I don’t know much about his background or his attitude to life, but he obviously thought very little of his own life to place himself in the precarious position he was in. Whatever possessed this man to give up a safe job and go as a body guard we will never know? I would hazard a guess that it was most probably the offer of mega bucks from someone he dealt with as a security guard.

I doubt that this guy had any military training what so ever, and if he had it was wasted on him. Okay he was well out numbered the day of his capture, and I doubt that he realised what kind of hell he had flown into. I have never been a body guard but it is not about throwing yourself in front of the bullet in a country like Iraq. Its tactics, keeping a low profile of you and the person you are protecting, and without a shit load of experience a person will never pull it off. It might have been the green area of Baghdad but it was still a war zone. There is no pride, honour or gratitude when being a mercenary, you just have the hope that you will not end up like 80% of the mercenaries and bodyguards before you, “Dead.”

I had 14 years of extensive military training when in the UKSF. I returned to civilian life in 1999-80. I remember a mate ringing me some years later telling me about Angola and a mercenary battalion going out there to fight. He only mentioned one name and I told him if he had any sense he would give it a wide birth, he never and he is now dead.

The name he gave me was that of a Captain Sam Copeland. I knew this guy and he must have visions of grandeur because he was a ration corporal in my battalion. At best he was an idiot and at worst a dangerous person to be around, the reason being he could not hold his composure in a stressed situation. The mercenaries were wiped out by Cuban fighters and MPLA, it was then I saw the end result for being part of that mercenary band.

There was a trial and a young man was on a show trial to the rest of the world for his life. He was sitting in a wheelchair unable to walk because of a broken back. There were I think two others with him I think, but the guy in the wheel chair was a very good friend that at times had watched my back. His name was Tommy Thompson [the spelling might be wrong]; he lost the case and was placed before a firing squad and shot while in a wheel chair. Tommy went out there because of the lure of mega bucks, and like the 80% of mercenaries before him he was stupid, brave but “Dead.” It emerged that nearly all of the mercenaries that died in Angola were civilians that had never seen the inside of a military camp before. No training in weaponry, tactics or camouflage.

I am in no doubt the UK special Branch must have known about this Mercenary Battalion being formed in the UK. As the UK and the USA had valid interests in Angola, why did they allow all these civilians to waste their lives following a ration truck driver? There are some stupid moments in our lives that we would like to forget, but life is not that kind.

Be well IAN 2411