HE was the toughest of the tough and became famous for leading an elite
SAS team in storming the Iranian Embassy 30 years ago. But the daughter of SAS
legend John “Mac” McAleese told yesterday how her dad died of a broken heart
after his hero son was killed in action in Afghanistan.John, 62, died suddenly
of a heart attack last week – and Hayley believes he never got over the death
of her brother Paul.
Tearful Hayley, 28, said: “Dad was so proud of Paul and was massively
affected by his death. He was a very hard man but losing Paul broke his heart.”
Paul, a sergeant in 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, was trying to help Private
Johnathon Young, 18, who had been injured by a roadside bomb in Helmand
province in August 2009. But a second blast killed them both. Hayley, of
Worcester, said John moved to Greece to try to cope with his grief.
She said: “It’s what he needed to do. He ended up setting up home and
was planning to retire in the sun. But dad seemed to age out there. He had a
broken heart and ultimately it was his heart that took him.” Hayley had spoken
to John via Skype on Thursday but on Friday she received the devastating news
that he had died. “I was informed that dad had a heart attack in his sleep at
4am on Friday morning and died. He had no heart problems, he wasn’t an
unhealthy man, there’s no explanation. He seemed to be enjoying life.”
John, from Laurieston, Stirlingshire, was married twice and had four
children – Hayley, Paul, Jessica, 22, and Kieran, 14. Paul, who left wife
Joanne and four-month-old son Charley when he died aged 29, had hoped to follow
in his dad’s footsteps by joining the SAS. John was visibly distraught at his
funeral. He later called for then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown to provide
British troops with better equipment or resign.
Hayley said: “I never saw him down, only after Paul died, that was the
one and only time I’ve seen him cry. Dad and my brother were heroes and we
believe father and son are reunited. We take some solace in that.” John spent
23 years in the Army, 16 of them in the SAS.
He led an elite team tasked with freeing 26 hostages held by six armed terrorists
at the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980 and was the first to storm inside. The
world watched in amazement as the astonishing drama unfolded live on television
as the crack troops brought the six-day crisis to an end with lethal
efficiency. “John was part of the four man team who entered the Embassy from
the first floor, the dramatic clip you saw on TV,” said best friend Rusty
Firmin, who was also part of the SAS raid team that day.
“He was the man who placed the charge to blow the windows out. “Half the
balcony collapsed, he went through the window and took part in the assault.”
A few hours after the assault, the troopers returned to find a jubilant
Margaret Thatcher and her husband, Denis, waiting for them at Chelsea barracks.
The then Prime Minister was in front of a television on which the BBC
was showing endless repeats of the moment John blew the windows, a picture that
would go round the world as the iconic image of the siege. Rusty, 62, recalls:
“John couldn't see the telly, so he said: "Get you’re a*** out of the way,
missus!" She did. That was typical John.” The war hero spent 23 years in
the British Army, 16 of them in 22 Special Air Service, regarded by many as the
world's best Special Forces. Rusty first met John in 1973 when the pair
started their commando training in Plymouth. He remembers a colourful,
hard-drinking, tough character respected across the military community.
John was Royal Engineers and I was Royal Artillery when we first met. “We
spent a month together doing some really tough commando training. “We teamed up
very early because we were both reasonable drinkers, we used to drink cider
until it went out of fashion. “We soon became really close friends.”
The pair became inseparable and stuck together as they served in
warzones around the world - The Falklands, Belize, Northern Ireland, the deserts
of Oman and the jungles of the Far East. “We’d train together, drink together
and sometimes fight together,” said Rusty. “We both had long hair and huge
side-burns. John always had a huge handle-bar moustache, which became his
trademark.
“John was Mr funny guy, the lads called him Baldrick after the character
in Blackadder. “Even when I saw him a few weeks ago he was the same, always
taking the mick. “In the SAS he was also known as one of the three Grouse
beaters – him and two other Scots, Stew and Gerry. “They were given the name
for their love of Famous Grouse whisky.”
Rusty recalls a training exercise they were part of in Canada when John
was in a motorbike accident. “We were riding around on these Can-Am motorbikes
dressed all in black gear, we looked like the Hell’s Angels,” he said. “John
was showing off and he hit a fox hole long side on and was sent flying. “He got
up and had injured his thumb, it was stuck pointing up like the Fonzie,
everyone was in stitches.”
On another occasion Rusty remembers saving John’s life “We were in four
man patrols in dense jungle in Brunei,” he said. “John became violently ill and
John was never ill. “Turns out he had amoebic dysentery, so we put him into a
hammock. At the time we couldn’t get a helicopter in to lift him out. “I stayed
up with him for 36 hours giving him fluids, he was in a bad way.
“I’ll never forget, he had really bad diarrhoea, it smelled to all hell.
“We turned him on his side to pull his gear off and his bum was showing, he had
two eyes tattooed on his arse. “As a joke one of the lads found a leech and put
it on his backside, he stank so bad that even the leech didn’t hang around. “We
told John about it afterwards, he’d have done the same to us.” Despite this
close encounter Rusty says John was hard as nails.
“He was built very wiry, very strong. He literally had veins outside his
body and was unbelievably fit,” he said. “I don’t know anybody who wouldn’t
want John Mac by their side if there was any trouble.
“For his size, pound for pound, he was as tough as nails, he was a tough
jock and didn’t care who he upset. “He was also very loyal, and if anything
happened to you he’d be the first on scene to help you out. “You could trust
him with your life and in our game that was number one.” John left the Regiment
in 1991 and co-presented the TV series SAS Survival Secrets in 2003.
For a while he ran a pub in Hereford, the SAS's home town, and also
worked as a private security consultant in Iraq and Afghanistan. His death has
shocked the entire military community. Rusty said: “I saw John Mac in the pub
before he left for Greece. He told me ‘I will never get over Paul’s death.’
That wasn’t John he was always Mr positive. “He was really proud of Paul and
what he achieved; he was absolutely devastated he had gone.”
But Rusty says John’s legacy will never be forgotten. “John Mac is a
legend,” he said proudly. “He never let himself down, he never let the squadron
down and he would never let anybody down knowingly. “People of five continents,
know who John Mac is and what he did, it was an honour to serve with him.”
Rusty added: “RIP John, from all of eight troop warriors that knew you.”
* John McAleese’s family has asked the Mirror to donate their fee for
this article to The Rifles Regimental Trust.
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