A former Royal Marine has revealed the terrifying moment a jihadi terrorist tried to kidnap him off the streets of Baghdad.
Lee West shared his memory of the intense scene which saw him and a colleague staring down the barrel of an AK47 as the soldier contemplated being kidnapped by Al-Qaeda and losing his life.
Lee recalled how he and colleague Marc Lewis were heading back from helping out at the Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad’s Green Zone - a fenced-off safe area held by coalition forces.
The pair, wearing plain clothes and driving an unmarked car, were returning to their base when Al-Qaeda terrorists struck.
A “commotion” on the road ahead alerted them to the trouble, WalesOnline reports, as the two royal marines noticed four armed men stationed on a roundabout in their path.
Intelligence fed through to the forces warned of a plan by Al-Qaeda to snatch a westerner from the Green Zone between September 16 and 18, 2006. This was September 17. What happened next was something which left the men stunned. A fifth man walked out from trees and straight in front of their vehicle.
Mr West, from Swansea, has relived the dramatic incident as part of his new autobiography Never Above, Never Below, which is full of tales of his unblemished 17-year career as an elite Royal Marines commando. It reads: "Through the dirty, dust-clogged windscreen of our battered car we paused at the sight before us. The man, dressed in black baggy clothing, then turned to face us and placed a palm out in front signalling us to halt. He then proceeded to put both hands on his AK47 assault rifle and raise it swiftly, pointing directly at our windscreen.
"Fight, flight, or freeze is the commonly-recognised natural response to this situation. Adrenaline was definitely now rapidly injecting itself into our bodies. It needed to be as a terrorist was now in spitting distance and aiming his rifle at us."
With mere moments to decide their course of action the pair were in disagreement on how to handle the situation with Mr Lewis believing they should fight and Mr West believing they should look as if they were complying with the demands before making a quick getaway. But luck was on the side of the duo that day with a coalition forces American convoy arriving at the scene causing the terrorists to flee the scene.
The Al-Qaeda incident is just one of many fascinating stories in Mr West's autobiography which chronicles how he rose from a "skinny naïve and excitable lad" swapping a job at the DVLA to sign up at the age of 23 back in 2003. He began his training in Lympstone in Devon days before the Iraq invasion. In the years that followed he went on to lead men on combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan on four separate six-month tours. It chronicles how he became a member of a secretive British unit before it was officially announced in Parliament and how he was in constant proximity to volatile situations including a murder investigation, walking through a minefield, an ambush by US forces, narrowly avoiding being on a helicopter which crashed and saw all its passengers die, and multiple close-quarter firefights.
Mr West, speaking of the Al-Qaeda incident, said: "Afterwards I dwelled on it a lot. What would have happened if the American convoy didn't turn up? What would have happened if we tried to shoot through the windscreen? At the time, it must be the way I am, my natural reaction was not to panic and I didn't appreciate it was that serious but of course as it dawned on us it was serious it ramped up a bit more inside me. I think about the 'what ifs' after the event and thinking back and going over it.
"I started writing the book years ago just as they were interesting stories, I knew they were, and I have always liked writing anyway. Something would happen and I thought: 'This would be a good one to write down.' Over the years slowly but surely I'd built up this collection of short stories and I knew that at one point it would be a book.
"I loved being in different places and experiencing that life. I have seen the very best and the very worst. I appreciate I have got all those things to shape my outlook going forward. There were some crippling lows, like everything in life, but you trade that off against the good times. I loved going away and going through the ranks and ending up leading and commanding."
Mr West was colour sergeant when he was medically discharged in 2020, after suffering hearing loss in his left ear, going out on a high after a career which included everything aside from promotion to sergeant major. He returned home to Swansea where he took over the running of Copr Bar in Castle Street, Swansea. He still helps out the military through his new occupation by running coffee mornings for veterans and also establishing the armed forced charity Sa1ute, which has raised more than £100,000 since its inception. In conjunction with Mr West and Copr Bar it also provided more than £20,000-worth of food for NHS workers on the frontline during the coronavirus pandemic.
He said: "It's an extension of still being part of the family. Rather than cutting loose and cutting ties entirely we have coffee mornings for veterans and building that camaraderie and family that we had within the Marines for veterans outside of it as well. It's a good compromise between leaving and being in. You've still got your hand in and still in those circles and having those conversations outside of service. It's always something I wanted to keep doing – that's why we founded the charity even whilst I was still serving.
"It's only now I'm getting into things at Copr because I was discharged and then we went into lockdown. Transition back into civilian life is difficult and different. I have gone from this life of discipline, structure, routine to if I don't leave the house nobody is ringing me asking: 'Why haven't you come to work?'. I've got no accountability to anyone, which led me to a few months struggling mentally. People wanted to say it was PTSD but it was just a rough patch of leaving the Marines, my business being closed, living on my own. That was an even bigger struggle that transition – it was exacerbated by Covid. Having gone through that I can help other people who may be suffering in the same way.
"I don't sit there longing and missing it – there's large parts of it which I do but I am also enjoying being back home and having a business and talking to people in the café every day. I hope people will be entertained by the book and have an insight into what it is like to have a career in the military. The final few chapters of the transition and the struggles I think will help a lot of people – not only military but a lot of people who have had a rough patch."
Never Above, Never Below: An Adventurous Pursuit of War, Escape and Darkness by Lee West can be purchased from Copr Bar at 38-39 Castle St, Swansea, or on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions by clicking here.
