Mercenaries ?

Delancey

If you look at movies like Wild Geese , Dogs of War , etc , they portray Mercenaries as highly professional , well paid and highly motivated soldiers.
By the same token I have read stories that call all the above into question - I have read that many mercenaries have drink problems and only a tiny handful have ' Special Forces ' backgrounds. I was interested that the infamous '' Major 'Mad' Mike Hoare '' never actually held an officers commission and he awarded himself the Major bit !
Are mercenaries well paid ? Do they exist at all the way they are portrayed or is the world of the mercenary a media invention ?

Mods - I trust this post does not infringe the forum rules regarding mercenaries , if it does please feel free to delete with my apologies.

stop

I read this book about the British Operation in Sierra Leone which IIRC detailed a bit about Mercs.

rednik

If you want to read a good book on mercenaries I would recommend Firepower by Chris Demster and Dave Tomkins. I read it a good few years ago but it is a compelling read by these two guys who served in Angola in the mid 70s. A great insight into the mercenary world at the time.

R.Dub.Fusilier

i have a book around the house that said Mike Hoare is Irish.

arybvtcw0eolkf

rednik wrote: »

If you want to read a good book on mercenaries I would recommend Firepower by Chris Demster and Dave Tomkins. I read it a good few years ago but it is a compelling read by these two guys who served in Angola in the mid 70s. A great insight into the mercenary world at the time.

Very good book, Demster is from Finglas.

R.Dub.Fusilier wrote: »

i have a book around the house that said Mike Hoare is Irish.

Clontarf so far as I know.

donaghs

Mercenary is a catch-all term so it can include anyone who is paid to fight in a conflict that doesn't involve their own country. From my own reading, most of the Congo mercenaries had military backgrounds. Generally British, French or Belgian. Modern military contractors like Blackwater are supposed to recruit lots of ex-special forces.

The Angola mercenaries in the 1970s were a much more "mixed bag". Some of them apparently had no military experience at all. Anyone got any info on the pay?

InTheTrees

I believe Blackwater have a training facility thats larger than many military bases.

BigDuffman

InTheTrees wrote: »

I believe Blackwater have a training facility thats larger than many military bases.

More than one in fact. And have military resources that far surpass our own!! Sure just have a look at "future weapons" half of it is shot in blackwater facilities!

To bad they havn't taken your man Mac out the back and shot him.

cushtac

donaghs wrote: »

Mercenary is a catch-all term so it can include anyone who is paid to fight in a conflict that doesn't involve their own country.

The UN defines a mercenary as a person who is specially recruited to fight in a conflict; who is motivated by the desire for private gain and is promised pay in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar rank and functions in the armed forces of whoever hires them and who is not a member of an armed force engaged in the conflict.

Anyone not fitting this bill is a foreign volunteer, for want of a better term.

Fratton Fred

Haven't we had this debate about the definition of a mercenary and decided that being "Foreign" did not come into it?