The sobriquet ‘arms dealer’ may sound sensational—perhaps, in certain quarters, even glamorous—but such descriptions, in my case anyway, would be so far from the truth as to be laughable. But for more than forty years living and working in Southeast Asia, I suppose, in the strictest sense of that label, that’s what I was: an arms dealer; a dealer in defence equipment; a broker expediting, at the behest of many of the foremost military equipment manufacturers in the Western world, a veritable smorgasbord of armaments, ordnance, communication systems, vehicles, and helicopters to military and paramilitary elite forces throughout the region.

I state this not out of any misplaced sense of aggrandisement, accomplishment, or ego—far from it—but simply to acknowledge and emphasise the knowledge and personal experiences that have enabled me to render for the reader tales that are, hopefully, not only intriguing and enjoyable, but also— in terms of the equipment, timelines, locations, and the military and paramilitary units described—accurate.

Much of the equipment described I have personally been involved in trialling, supplying, and supporting. Similarly, the military and paramilitary units portrayed are ones where I have made many friends and experienced first-hand the challenges these elite formations face in some of the most formidable environments on the planet.

Stories are only stories, but having been involved—having been there and seen it—perhaps the lines between fiction and reality are more blurred than we like to believe.

TC 2023