Mortar bombs and flying feathers

Gavin provided security for contractors working in Iraq

The kidnap of a group which included four British bodyguards in Iraq has again thrown the spotlight on those who are paid to provide security in one of the world's most dangerous places.

Gavin, a 34-year-old who lives in south-west England, spent almost two months in 2006 providing security to a group of contractors.

The former infantryman said his time in Iraq was spent dodging rocket and mortar fire, which resulted in a few near-misses - until he was eventually blown up just minutes from being airlifted out on his final day.

"I worked in northern Iraq, providing security for a group of contractors who were fixing a pipeline which had been damaged by an attack 10km west of Kirkuk," he says.

"I took the job because I'd learned how to be a pilot, had debts, and thought this would be a good way to pay them off.

"You can earn £8,000 a month in Iraq providing security. In Saudi Arabia, where I have worked at British embassies and consular buildings, you earn £4,000.

You would walk around camp flinching if you heard a noise like a rocket, and that would set someone else off who was watching you Gavin

"The conditions weren't that comfortable. You weren't coming out of a nice easy base or anything, you were living in tents.

"We were working alongside American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. They provided external security, and we provided the internal.

"The first week was fine, but then we must have attracted someone's attention because we started getting attacked by mortar bombs and Katyusha rockets."

Gavin explains that the nature of the rocket attacks meant there was not a great deal the security forces could do apart from ensure the men they were being paid to protect took the appropriate cover.

Flying shrapnel

"When the rockets started falling we had to drag the guys into the crude cover shelters that were dug, with one of our men stood at either end in case there was a foot assault coming," he explains.

"The attacks came every few days, but you were always expecting it. You would walk camp around flinching if you heard a noise like a rocket and that would set someone else off who was watching you. It was tense."

The frequent bombardments led to several dangerous incidents within the camp.

The American soldiers and security professionals formed a close bond

"On one occasion I was sat in a tent talking to someone when there was an explosion outside where a rocket had landed.

"Shrapnel flew into my tent, past my head, and out the other side. It flew into the next tent, into a pillow, through a cot and into the floor. There were feathers everywhere.

"The guy whose pillow it was had just got up, so recently that it was still warm. He was quite upset."

But despite all the attacks, casualties had been avoided right up until the very last day of Gavin's time in Iraq.

The contractors and their security had moved down the pipeline to carry out further work, and were waiting for American Black Hawk helicopters to pick them up.

Direct hit

"It was the final day and there were 18 of us, contractors and security, waiting. We were told that there was a controlled explosion taking place on a mortar or something nearby.

"We then heard a loud bang and thought the explosion had just happened early. But in fact a live mortar had landed right in the middle of our position.

"Fifteen of us were injured. I got shrapnel in my leg, arm and buttock.

"I was trying to administer first aid to the guy next to me, who had his leg broken by shrapnel.

"I couldn't get any pressure and couldn't work out why not, until it was pointed out that there was something wrong with my arm."

A piece of shrapnel had got straight through Gavin's arm, and there was "muscle and fat hanging out". Luckily there was no long term damage and thanks to a "miracle" no-one in the group was killed.

Gavin is quick to praise the role of the Americans he dealt with, who he says were "excellent" throughout his time in Iraq and who swiftly transported the wounded via Humvee vehicles to a hospital at a base in Kirkuk.

Back in the UK, he is now an active member of the National Association of Security Professionals (NASP), an organisation that helps security professionals find work.

But there was a time when Gavin was at the sharp end of security work, so how did his wife cope with her husband being out in what is probably the world's most dangerous country?

"She didn't know I'd gone to Iraq," he said. "I told her I was in Kazakhstan the whole time."