About+The+Author

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** CHRIS RYAN **

Chris Ryan was born in Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear, North East England in 1961. He enrolled into the army as a boy soldier at 16. His Cousin, Billy, was in the 23rd SAS Reserves, and he invited Ryan to come up and //"see what it's like to be in the army"//. Ryan ended up doing this nearly every weekend, almost passing selection several times, but he was too young to continue selection and do 'test week'. Eventually he became old enough and passed selection into the 23rd SAS. Shortly afterwards he began selection for the Regular 22 Regiment, and after passing he joined 'B' squadron and trained as a medic. Needing a parent regiment, he, along with another soldier who had joined the SAS from the Royal Navy, spent eight weeks with the Parachute Regiment before returning to 'B' Squadron. He then spent seven years carrying out both covert and overt operations with the SAS in various theatres of the world. Ryan's travels included southeast Asia, training Khmer Rouge troops to attack Vietnamese forces that had pushed them out of Cambodia. As journalist John Pilger wrote, "Incredibly, the Thatcher government had continued to support the defunct Pol Pot regime in the United Nations and even sent the SAS to train his exiled troops in camps in Thailand and Malaysia. In March, the former SAS soldier Chris Ryan, now a best-selling author, lamented in a newspaper interview 'when John Pilger, the foreign correspondent, discovered we were training the Khmer Rouge in the Far east [we] were sent home and I had to return the £10,000 we’d been given for food and accommodation.'"


 * ~ Place of birth || Rowlands Gill, England ||
 * ~ Allegiance || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg/22px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg.png width="22" height="11"]] United Kingdom ||
 * ~ Service/branch || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Flag_of_the_British_Army.svg/22px-Flag_of_the_British_Army.svg.png width="22" height="15" caption="Flag of the British Army.svg" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_British_Army.svg"]]﻿﻿British Army﻿﻿ ||
 * ~ Years of service || 1978 - 1994 ||
 * ~ Rank || ﻿Sergeant﻿ ||
 * ~ Unit || Special Air Service ||
 * ~ <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Battles/wars || <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">﻿Gulf War﻿ ||
 * ~ <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Awards || <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Military Medal ||
 * ~ <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Other work || <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Author, Security consultant ||