Andy McNab's Tour of Duty

Andy McNab: Biography

Published: Monday, 2 June 2008, 4:20PM

Andy McNab joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier.

In 1984 he was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment. He served in B Squadron 22 SAS for nine years and worked on both covert and over special operations worldwide, including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland.

Trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, prime target elimination, demolitions, weapons and tactics, covert surveillance and information gathering in hostile environments and VIP protection, McNab worked on co-operative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and Western-backed guerrilla movements, as well as on conventional special operations. In Northern Ireland he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14th Intelligence Group, going on to become an instructor.

McNab also worked as an instructor on the SAS selection and training team and instructed foreign Special Forces in counter terrorism, hostage rescue and survival training.

In the Gulf War, McNab commanded the famous Bravo Two Zero patrol, an eight man patrol tasked with destroying underground communication links between Baghdad and north-west Iraq in January 1991, but were soon compromised. A fierce fire fight with Iraqi troops ensued and the patrol was forced to escape and evade on foot to Syria. Three of the eight men were killed; four were captured after three days on the run; one escaped.

One of the four taken prisoner, McNab was held for six weeks and was relentlessly and savagely tortured. By the time he was released he was suffering from nerve damage to both hands, a dislocated shoulder, kidney and liver damage and had contracted hepatitis. After six months of medical treatment he was back on active service.

The truly heroic exploits of the Bravo Two Zero patrol have been recognised the world over and, in the word of the patrol’s commanding officer, “will remain in Regimental history forever.”

Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab was the British Army’s most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993.

POST-SAS

Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in two best selling books Bravo Two Zero (1993) and Immediate Action (1995). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold 1.5 million copies in the UK alone. To date it has been published in seventeen countries and translated into sixteen languages.

He’s since written a series of acclaimed and hugely successful novels, most recently Crossfire, which is out in paperback on 2nd June.

Outside of his writing career, McNab was technical weapons adviser and trainer on the hit Michael Mann film Heat and spent five months in Hollywood.

Also a director of a Hereford-based security company, McNab developed and runs a specialist training course for news crews, journalists and members of non-government organisations working in hostile environments (including war zones). The course is currently the only one of its kind in the world.