My 15 minutes

[Gman]

http://www.stealart.com/portrait_of_mercenary.wmv


Our company is running a Close Protection Specialist course right now, and a british reporter (as well as the CBC and local/national news agencies) have been covering it.  The brit is doing a 2 hour documentary on private military companies and mercanaries for the BBC as well as the Discovery Channel, which should air later this year.

I normally hate the press, but this brit is a very switched on and well spoken individual, and after running him through some basic pistol courses, he decided to go all in on the training, and has interviewed myself and some of the other instructors at length for the documentary.

I saw the rough cut of what he's using of me, aw shucks, I'm still ugly, but whoopee can I still rock the show with small arms.  I should get a good ten minutes of face time I hope...mom will be so proud...sniff.

Gman

[Nilsen]

record it when it airs and post it here.

[ra]

Don't be surprised when they depict you as a mentally instable gun nut.

[Octavius]

How does one become a mercenary?  Obviously, ex-military, most likely ex-special forces... but do private companies post in the classfied ads looking for mercs?

[Gman]

If you have the appropriate background, and take the right courses at the right time, typically the companies will find you, but Blackwater (very public loses in the media a while back remember), Triple Canopy, and some of the other biggies all have an open application on their websites, my partner at work got hooked up with the above companies and pulls in 200$ us a day waiting for deployment here in Canada, and 1000$ us per day working.  

He is a non-Tier1 x soldier (Canadian Airborne), and of the 55 guys on his selection course, 20 were SEALS, and all failed, including the x-training officer for Seal Team 6.  Most guys fail out of selections during the close protection and particularly the pistol drills phase.  My pal is exception to the rule, the top 10 companies generally ONLY take x SF/Tier 1 people.

[Coolridr]

OHH gee...make sure their faces are covered. I always thought that was silly. Who are they afraid of? If they are so good it shouldn't matter who see's their face right? They could beat anyone.

[Furball]

you should offer to introduce him to your friend lazs 'the gun nut'

maybe lazs will get his own documentary.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Gman
If you have the appropriate background, and take the right courses at the right time, typically the companies will find you, but Blackwater (very public loses in the media a while back remember), Triple Canopy, and some of the other biggies all have an open application on their websites, my partner at work got hooked up with the above companies and pulls in 200$ us a day waiting for deployment here in Canada, and 1000$ us per day working.  

He is a non-Tier1 x soldier (Canadian Airborne), and of the 55 guys on his selection course, 20 were SEALS, and all failed, including the x-training officer for Seal Team 6.  Most guys fail out of selections during the close protection and particularly the pistol drills phase.  My pal is exception to the rule, the top 10 companies generally ONLY take x SF/Tier 1 people.

was he screening for psd at blackwater? if so how long ago?

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Octavius
How does one become a mercenary?  Obviously, ex-military, most likely ex-special forces... but do private companies post in the classfied ads looking for mercs?

mercenary is wrong term. these guys are not mercenary. as for this line of work if you did the job for a military then you know about opportunities like this.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Gman
http://www.stealart.com/portrait_of_mercenary.wmv


Our company is running a Close Protection Specialist course right now, and a british reporter (as well as the CBC and local/national news agencies) have been covering it.  The brit is doing a 2 hour documentary on private military companies and mercanaries for the BBC as well as the Discovery Channel, which should air later this year.

I normally hate the press, but this brit is a very switched on and well spoken individual, and after running him through some basic pistol courses, he decided to go all in on the training, and has interviewed myself and some of the other instructors at length for the documentary.

I saw the rough cut of what he's using of me, aw shucks, I'm still ugly, but whoopee can I still rock the show with small arms.  I should get a good ten minutes of face time I hope...mom will be so proud...sniff.

Gman

dont trust the press guys a bit. not one single bit. they will turn 180 and screw you cold. zero honor.

[Gman]

Triple Canopy annon, and he was one of 22 out of 56 that passed, and he's currently on contract with them.

Roger that on the press thing, I've been thinking a lot about that today in fact....oh well, too late now I suppose.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by GScholz
They are mercs, but that is not necessarily a negative description. Depends on what jobs they take.

they are not mercenary. the companies that these guys work for only contract out for us govt or close allies of us govt. there are no "free of govt oversight" jobs. think of it like this. state dept can take three years and train a whole bunch of psd guys and add them to federal payroll and this becomes permanent budget increase. or they can hire special operations personnel with comat experience as "temporary" for a couple of years. no govt retirement or employment minimum to burden taxpayer. but these guys are still under the control and oversight of us govt. company can screen them for job but if state dept shooter doesnt write off on them they are not getting job. mercenary fights for anyone if he likes job and pay. these guys are working for the us govt.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Gman
Triple Canopy annon, and he was one of 22 out of 56 that passed, and he's currently on contract with them.

Roger that on the press thing, I've been thinking a lot about that today in fact....oh well, too late now I suppose.

i was working as cadre at bw for a couple of the psd workups. i dont know about training o for six or dev not passing workup? i know most of the training o from there for past ten years personally the teamguys usually go bw because its teamguyland. also lest any american start getting worried if some SEAL or army Marine air force operator not pass a psd workup theres a couple of things to remember. first is that if theyve been out of the business for several years and show up for some high speed screening with no time to get the rust of tactical shooting they are going to be out of practice. also until several years ago psd training was not part of skillset for most of special operations community. only in past few years have mainstream team or group been getting this training as part of base skillset. gman tell your buddy good luck and stay sharp those psd gigs are going to get really hairy during the next couple of years.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Coolridr
OHH gee...make sure their faces are covered. I always thought that was silly. Who are they afraid of? If they are so good it shouldn't matter who see's their face right? They could beat anyone.

no really necessary coolridr. these guys are going to be psd for state dept and iraqi govt officials. when they not working you dont want some insurgent dirtbag id'ing them when they hit an internet cafe on their time off. also if they doing route recon or advance screen on foot "undercover" trying to look like some western commo tech you dont want the enemy knowing their face. these guys are wanted men by the enemy in a big way.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Gman
Triple Canopy annon, and he was one of 22 out of 56 that passed, and he's currently on contract with them.

Roger that on the press thing, I've been thinking a lot about that today in fact....oh well, too late now I suppose.

there were reporters crawling all over the place after our guys from bw got killed and strung up. a couple of guys tried to explain "how it is" to them but when they kept coming back to "commandos chasing big bucks" and they kept ignoring or understanding what a warrior is everyone pretty much stopped trying to talk to them. "mercenary" every third word. no hope for the clueless i guess.