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MODERN MERCENARIES


509thPIB
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Like most Internet forums, this forum primarily deals with the militaria of conventional military forces. What about Mercenary forces. Rhodesia, Angolia, Congo, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan are just a few instances where mercenary forces were used.Yes, there is a thread on Mike Hoare's No. 5 Commando, but there is more.

 

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https://aryanskynet.wordpress.com/2018/07/08/rhodesias-crippled-eagles-americas-soldiers-of-fortune/

 

 

Rhodesias Crippled Eagles: Americas Soldiers of Fortune

 

As highlighted previously at Skynet, many Americans during the 1970s took more than a casual interest in the plight of embattled Rhodesians, seeing in them brother defenders of a free and white way of life against the encroachments of communist terrorism and black militancy. The story of the Rhodesian Bush War, moreover, contains an American chapter, and one of its protagonists is Robert K. Brown, a retired Special Operations soldier and mercenary and the publisher of the infamous Solider of Fortune magazine. In 1975, while visiting an American friend who had joined the Rhodesian police, Brown had a life-changing revelation, writes Kyle Burke.

 

Rhodesia, like many other countries, needed American volunteers to fight, yet few in the United States knew this. Realizing the potential of an untapped market, he created Soldier of Fortune a journal for professional adventurers that sold the mercenary life through in-depth, first-person reporting about a host of armed conflicts spanning the globe. [] But it also appealed to those armchair warriors who wished only to read about exciting wars in exotic places in Browns words, the Walter Mitty market. A hit at newsstands, Brown was selling more than 125,000 copies per issue by 1976.

 

Under Browns guidance, Soldier of Fortune became an ad-hoc labor market for aspiring soldiers-for-hire. The magazines back pages were filled with job-seeking ads from anonymous men hoping to find adventure and fortune in Africa. Beyond classified ads, Soldier of Fortune offered practical advice for veterans and thrill-seekers. Rhodesia was the main attraction. A passionate supporter of Ian Smiths regime, Brown hoped his magazine could take up the slack for the U.S. government while liberals equivocated in Congress. To that end, he interviewed the recruiting officer for the Rhodesian Army, Major Nick Lamprecht, who advised Soldier of Fortunes American readers on how they could join his forces. It was not an easy job, Lamprecht explained, nor a particularly well-paying one. But it did offer disillusioned young men the chance to remake their life in a new land. Rhodesia has many things to offer, Lamprecht noted. Good Rhodesian beer, a friendly populace, and what I would describe as a free and easy, unhurried way of life, lots of wide open spaces.

 

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  • 3 years later...

For now, I would suggest posting any articles on mercenaries in a section related to the country that they served.  Technically they were an extension of either the country's armed forces or in some cases part of the units rebelling against that country.

 

I am sure that someone will raise the issue that for Africa and the Middle East we only have broad sections at this time, not broken down into individual countries.  In building this Forum, we have taken the approach to see if we accumulate a significant number of posts before we create a new section for an individual country.

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On 3/5/2019 at 1:32 PM, 509thPIB said:

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I actually know a person included in that book, although it has been years since we have talked.

 

And I met another in a training situation.  It was not pleasant.

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