EX-MARINE BECOMES AN ELITE WRITING FORCE
AUTHOR ON IRAQ KIDNAP THREAT AND NEW CAREER Former commando uses frontline experience to pen thrilling books
An ex- commando has used his brave exploits on the frontline to help launch a career as a thriller writer.
Former Royal Marine James E Mack fought alongside crack special operations units in Iraq, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan and was nearly kidnapped on the deadly streets of Baghdad by al- Qaeda.
Now he is getting rave reviews for his realistic novels which draw on his counter-terrorism experience battling fanatics in the most dangerous places in the world.
He revealed his brush with death when he worked alongside the SAS’s legendary Task Force Black – an elite countert er ror i s t u n it dubbed the “Jihadi Hunting Club”.
Hamilton- born James, 52, said: “I enjoyed my military career but I had some hairy moments.
“I liked being on the sharp end of operations and I volunteered for special duties in 1999.
“Probably the scar iest moment came in Baghdad. We’d been working with Task Force Black and myself and three others were grabbed. We were hemmed in by vehicles and in front they had what is called a “technical” – a (Toyota) Hilux pickup with a large heavy machine gun on the back.
“We were armed but in civvy clothes and vehicles and they were clearly after Europeanlooking people to take hostage, get in an orange jumpsuit and parade us in front of a camera for al-Qaeda before the inevitable end.
“We could never have outrun the rounds from the massive machine gun so we decided to blag it by talking to them, trying to build a rapport.
“Lucki ly, the Americans arrived and the insurgent f ighters bailed out but that was a close-run thing. It could have ended unbelievably bad.”
James was 19 when he joined the Royal Marines, reaching the rank of Warrant Off icer Second Class serving with 45 Commando.
He also completed the selection course for a special operations unit and spent much of his military career in counter terrorism.
After leaving the forces, James worked in the international commercial security circuit.
He said: “I was recently working in Mozambique and we were near a place that was overrun with rebels.
“My transition from the military to civilian world wasn’t as extreme as many veterans’ because I was carrying out a very similar role as a civilian.
“I did miss the intensity of operational deployments, the clear sense of purpose, the camaraderie and close- knit family structure of my unit. I needed something in addition to the work I was conducting to keep me actively engaged, to expend that excess energy that military operations had previously built into me.
“I’ve always been a keen reader and had occasionally picked up a book and thought, ‘I could do better than this.’
“So one day that’s what I did. I started typing the words and treated it like a job, putting in the hours and working hard.
“I decided to focus on writing what I knew about in order to lend the stories authenticity and realism and this seems to strike a chord with my readers.”
James’s latest book is Sins of the Fathers, a novel about Northern Ireland and the IRA.
He added: “Spies, agents, torture, surveillance, blackmail, arms smuggling – it sounds like the plot of an episode of Spooks but this was the reality during the Northern Ireland conflict.”