Soldiers For Hire

The History Channel ^ | July 18, 2004

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Once called mercenaries, highly trained killers have offered their deadly services for a price--from ancient Rome to the War on Terror. Today, they've marched from the back pages of "Soldier of Fortune" to form vast corporations with the power of the most advanced militaries. The payday for these private soldiers has reached $100-billion annually! Unregulated by governing forces, they wage war for those who can afford it. Find out if they are the future of conflict resolution in our 2-hour special.

[cavtrooper21]

I believe he is, but after a stint in prison and the fact that he is, after all, a class A1 self promoter I would think that even the most desperate talking head would think long and hard before looking to him for any views on mercenary work.
I have 3 bros from the Army who work private sector so I hear about some stuff that doesn't make news.
It's creepy, some of the contracts these guys take, but the pay is good and all three agree that the job satisfaction is better than the Army ever was. No definite amounts, specific dates or locations are EVER mentioned publicly but they have worked in places that surprised me and for people that I would never have expected to hire mercs.
One of them was back from Iraq last month and when I asked him just how bad it is over there he replied with the comment:
"Keep your head on a swivel, trust nobody but the guys from your company and keep your kit strait and you'll be OK."
"Get sloppy and you can bet your a-- somebody with bomb or a RPG will let you know about it."
Gee, sounded like a fun way earn a living....

[cavtrooper21]

I didn't catch the whole thing but I'd swear he had a Afrikaner accent. I got the feeling when I interviewed that there were a number of SA, old Rhodesian and Namibian troopers working for them.
...and not many Americans.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Mike Hoare

[JackelopeBreeder]

Can't find any obituaries on Mike Hoare or Bob Denard. Hoare would be 84 now, Denard a few years younger I think.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I believe the vast majority of white EO people came from 32 Battalion

[cavtrooper21]

Wow.
They were quite a bunch.
I'll have to do some reading up on wars in Africa in this century. I sort of lost interest after the Boer War....

[Cannoneer No. 4]

[JackelopeBreeder]

One crazy bunch. I'd love to sit in on one of of their drinking sessions just to here the "No shit, there I was..."

[Cannoneer No. 4]

The Selous Scouts

Rhodesian Light Infantry

Grey's Scouts

[Cannoneer No. 4]

17,000 Blue Berets couldn't do what a hundred EO operators did to the RUF.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the ping. Caught part of the show. Interesting work if you're cut out for it.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Ties in to our privateer discussion.

[edchambers]

I just got done watching this it's probably the best documentary I've seen on the subject.And it's pretty fair although some of the commentators may have a liberal slant it was quite obvious that the UN and the Clinton administration were largely responsible for the current mess that is Africa.

[struwwelpeter]

The reportage was very good, and left me with the impression that EO could - with it's under-the-radar profile - could accomplish a lot more than a national army.

Thanks to the networks' body-counting, agencies and governments will probably be relying more and more on these "contractors".

[Air Assault]

Bump to read later.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Saving the Sum of Things for Pay: Executive Outcomes in Sierra Leone

[SAMWolf]

Private enterprise is always good. ;-)

[SAMWolf]

Has the UN ever not made a mess of things?

[Cannoneer No. 4]

EPITAPH ON AN ARMY OF MERCENARIES

by A. E. Houseman, 1914

.

These, in the day when heaven was falling,

The hour when earth's foundations fled,

Followed their mercenary calling

And took their wages and are dead.

.

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;

They stood, and earth's foundations stay;

What God abandoned, these defended,

And saved the sum of things for pay.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
by Warren Zevon

Roand was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun
With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done
The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day
So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray

Through sixty-six and seven they fought the Congo war
Fingers on their triggers, knee-deep in gore
For days and nights they battled the Bantu to their knees
They killed to earn their living and to help out the Congolese

Roland the Thompson gunner...
Roland the Thompson gunner...

His comrades fought beside him - Van Owen and the rest
But of all the Thompson gunners Roland was the best
So the CIA decided they wanted Roland dead
That son-of-a-bitch Van Owen blew off Roland's head


Chorus:

Roland the headless Thompson gunner
Roland the headless Thompson gunner
(Time, time, time
For another peaceful war
Norway's bravest son
But time stands still for Roland
'Til he evens up the score)

They can still see his headless body stalking through the night
In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun
In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun

Roland searched the continent for the man who'd done him in
He found him in Mombassa in a barroom drinking gin
Roland aimed his Thompson gun - he didn't say a word
But he blew Van Owen's body from there to Johannesburg

Roland the headless Thompson gunner...
Roland the headless Thompson gunner...
Roland the headless Thompson gunner...
The eternal Thompson gunner, still wandering through the night

Now it's ten years later but he still keeps up the fight
In Ireland, in Lebanon, in Palestine and Berkeley
Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland's Thompson gun
And bought it