Pilgrim Days by Alastair MacKenzie

Author:Alastair MacKenzie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Counterterrorism Role

One of the main attractions of the SAS for me was the diversity of tasks that we carried out. When we came back from Northern Ireland, I took over command of one of the two UK counterterrorism (CT) teams. The teams were called Alpha Team and Bravo Team. This was a four-month task and we were on 15 minutes’ standby throughout that period. We had to be able to send an advance team to any part of the UK in the shortest possible time, by vehicles, aircraft, boats, parachutes, or a combination of these.

We spent a great deal of time training and shooting in the ‘killing house’ throughout the duration of our CT role, continuously practising our drills. The ‘killing house’ itself was a purpose-built shooting range inside a building in which various situations and scenarios could be prepared. We only used full-bore ammunition in this building so accuracy and safety were absolutely essential.

But before 8 Troop and I even took over responsibility for the UK CT response we were mentored by the team in post from another squadron. This was serious stuff because if they did not give us the ‘tick’ of approval we would not be able to take over the role. During the lead-up training we were in the ‘killing house’ about to make an aggressive entry into one of the rooms where there was a hostage and terrorists (in this instance wooden targets only). I was the assault team commander and number two in the line-up while number one had the shotgun to blow off the locks on the door. On our radios I counted down, ‘Standby; standby – go!’ At this command number one shot the locks off the door, moved aside, and I rushed forward, pumped full of adrenalin, and attacked the door pushing it with my full might. It would not open! I thought this was a ‘special’ – introduced by our trainers specifically to test me and so I attacked the door with even greater aggression. But it would not move. The rest of the team with their MP5s and stun grenades was closed right up behind me ready to enter and clear the room. Then … one of the trainers leant over and whispered in the ear of my gas mask … ‘Boss, it’s a “pull” door!’ I took a while to live that one down. But otherwise training progressed smoothly, and we successfully rotated onto CT duty.

As the team commander I also had to spend a lot of time giving lectures to all sorts of dignitaries and VIPs, including members of the Royal Family, who came to visit Hereford. Often, we would take them into the killing house and they would play the role of a ‘hostage’ in a terrorist situation. They would be with an SAS chaperone and would sit on chairs with three or four ‘terrorist’ wooden targets around them. At a given signal the lights would fail, and the CT team would burst into the room preceded by several ‘flash bang’ grenades with their deafening bangs and blinding flashes.

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