The book the MoD tried to ban... Scots SAS hero Colin MacLachlan's book is published after decade-long battle

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Heroic rescues of hostages from terrorists and undercover operations in some of the world's most dangerous war zones are usually the stuff of action movies and video games.
But these real life-or-death experiences can be found in a former SAS soldier's riveting autobiography – a book the MoD tried to ban.
Colin MacLachlan, known for his appearances on shows such as Channel 4 's SAS: Who Dares Wins and Channel 5 's Secrets of the SAS, has spent the last 10 years trying to get his memoir, The Pilgrim, past the Ministry of Defence, who feared he would reveal too much about the elite British military force.
When he joined the SAS in 1998 after nine years in the Royal Scots, Colin had to sign a non-disclosure agreement designed to prevent former members from disclosing anything about their activities without official permission.
The secrecy contract was introduced in 1997 after a flood of books about SAS operations in the Gulf war.
'It means that anything you write has to be sent to the MoD and cleared, which is generally a 'no' if you're writing about what they call TTP – tactics, techniques and procedures,' Colin told the Mail on Sunday.
He first handed the MoD the manuscript for his book in 2016, 10 years after he'd written it during his last tour in the SAS in Iraq.
'Channel 4's SAS: Who Dares Wins had just come out and the profile of the SAS had been raised and I thought there would be an appetite for my book.
When I ran it past them, they thought it looked fine and gave me the green light to look for a publisher,' said Colin, 51, from Queensferry, near Edinburgh.
But when a major publisher picked up the book it entered into a dispute with the MoD, which wanted certain sections taken out.
'They just bumped heads and the publishers tried to call the MoD's bluff and said they were going to publish anyway. The MoD put an injunction on the book and the publishing deal fell through,' added Colin.
He refused to give up and, employing all the qualities that had stood him in good stead during his career as a soldier – resilience, courage and conflict resolution – Colin spent the next decade negotiating with the MoD.
Now, his autobiography will finally be published by Pen & Sword, who specialise in military history.
'It's been a lengthy battle because I wanted to keep in as much as I could. I've had to go back and forth with the MoD, looking at different books to find precedents.
I'm happy because in the end I've managed to keep quite a lot about special forces and operational detail. That's why it is now the book the MoD tried to ban.'
Colin's autobiography starts with his troubled childhood and escape to the military where, as a fifteen-year-old boy, he had to get special written permission from his mother to join the Royal Scots.
With the help of the Children's Panels, the NSPCC and some caring schoolteachers, Colin escaped to the Army from a childhood marked by physical and sexual abuse.
'I wasn't convinced I wanted to be in the Army as I wasn't enthused by fighting and guns, but it was the last resort.
I was in with a lot of guys who were older than me, and bigger and stronger than me. I made the best of it and grew up quickly,' he said.
'There were a lot of positives for me in terms of discipline and confidence.
While I don't believe in compulsory national service, the military offers kids a lot of benefits, whether they become cadets or do a year, learning basic skills and being surrounded by positive role models and peers who want the best for you,' added Colin, who at 23 volunteered for the SAS.
'When I was in Northern Ireland, I was hiding in in the bushes doing surveillance, when these guys came out of the smoke and shadows clad in stray (non-standard military uniform often used by the SAS for covert operations). Everybody talked about them and how they did a really important job.
I decided to throw myself into the deep end and give it a go,' said Colin, who embarked on a gruelling six-month SAS course that saw only 12 out of 196 candidates pass.
His training included yomping with heavy backpacks on the Brecon Beacons, six weeks in the jungle, being chased by hunter forces made up of Gurkhas or Paras, being held for 36 hours as interrogators repeatedly tried to break him down, and being trained for close quarters battle.
Colin drew on this training when he was taken hostage in Basra in Iraq in 2006. His captors stripped him naked, beat him, frequently rammed a gun into the back of his head and pulled the trigger in mock executions.
He only survived long enough to be rescued by British troops because the terrorists holding him wanted to film his suffering.
Despite facing almost certain beheading, Colin remained calm, not only because his SAS training meant he was 'ready for any opportunity to escape', but also because of his abusive childhood.
'As a child I'd been locked up and beaten so I was comfortable in that environment. If you've already been in a situation, it's easy to get into the right mindset to survive,' said Colin, a father-of-two.
Only six months after joining the SAS, he was the first person on the scene at Stansted Airport in 2000 when an airliner with 180 passengers was hijacked by nine Afghans fleeing the Taliban.
Colin also took part in the notorious 2000 SAS mission Operation Barras – known as Operation Certain Death – in Sierra Leone. It is now regarded as one of the elite unit's most dangerous expeditions with the rescue of 12 captured British servicemen held by 400 drug-fuelled guerrilla fighters.
After leaving the SAS, Colin headed up a bodyguard team looking after CNN and BBC news in the Middle East and carried out security for MTV pop stars and the Saudi Royal Family, before returning to the UK where he gained a First-Class Honours degree after repeated rejections from universities and colleges.
After a disheartening period of unemployment where he applied for more than 1,000 jobs, he worked in conflict resolution in schools before being approached by Channel 4 to take part in SAS: Who Dares Wins.
For the last 18 years he has been involved in motion capture for the video games industry and has played characters and battled stuntmen from Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series, LA Noire, Sumo's Hood: Outlaw and Thieves, and played the lead character Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption.
As well as his video work, Colin travels all over the world as a motivational speaker and runs a special forces events company, Stoic Events, in the Highlands where people can test themselves and build confidence through outdoor team building events using live weapons and real explosives.
'I try to pass on what I have learned – that resilience and strength come from facing adversity and rejection, and that nobody is born brave.
I'm just a normal person who found a path. Anybody can be brave.'