The derring-do was balanced by a truthful look at the horrors of PTSD. ( )

Remarkable.

I had Immediate Action on my wishlist for a while (of which I have an abridged audiobook version), but when browsing around the bookshop at Heathrow airport, I came across this one, and after reading the first few pages (Eurovision Song Contest?!), bought it.

In this book, McNab chronicles the years from 1984 (when he joined the SAS) to 2007, with the main focus on the 1980s and 1990s. There are detailed description of actions in Northern Ireland, a bit less detailed descriptions about actions elsewhere. The cameraderie, the adrenaline-rush, it's all there. But then there's also something else.

While McNab's earlier biographical works seemed to shirk the actual repercussions of what war, what being a special forces soldier, does to a man, he takes the issue head-on here.
There is still enough of that adrenalin-fuelled, jumping-out-of-planes, fighting-the-bad-guys-stuff there that makes many people buy his books, but you cannot escape the conclusion McNab has drawn: It is harmful to many if not most people's psyche. Of his original troop in the SAS, a substantial number of men suffered mental disorders and/or committed suicide in the years after they left the service. I couldn't help wondering if the prestige of being a member of this elite unit is really worth going through this. But then again, a soldier could not be a soldier if he did not keep a few facts about the job out of the equation (not least the the chance that you could be killed).

McNab expresses his own helplessness in the face of yet another friend ending his life by his own hand, and in his postscript states that counselling should be made available to all soldiers who might want it, and that institutional and cultural barriers need to be removed.

While doing a bit of research for this review, I found that many newer biographical accounts by soldiers are mentioning these issues, so there is a change in general opinions.
Hopefully, beside providing care for soldiers that were wounded, militaries will create an equivalent and adequate mental health care system and encourage servicemen and -women to take counselling, if needed. After watching a report about the state of psychological care in the German Bundeswehr, I see improvement is sorely needed not only in the UK, where a study recently discovered a growing number of servicemen with psychological problems in the criminal justice system (almost 10% of prison inmates). ( )