Entry 20
By: Scarecrow

Name: Anthony W. McCabe
DOB: Feb. 27, 1956; Johannesburg, South Africa
Military Specialties: Small-unit tactics, Hand-to-hand combat instructor

Expert in: all NATO and Warsaw pact small arms, demolitions, and unarmed combat (attained black belts in Shorin-ryu karate and Hapkido as a teenager) Tony was born and raised in South Africa where he witnessed Apartheid firsthand. From his parents Tony learned that all people were created equally, and therefore he was disturbed by the segregation that he saw on a daily basis. In 1974, at the age of 18, he joined the South African Defense Force and fought side-by-side with both blacks and whites. Well liked by most of his fellow soldiers, he excelled in all aspects of bush warfare, and it wasn't long before he was making a name for himself. Six years later, in 1980, a colonel with the 32 Battalion, a South African special forces unit, noticed Tony and invited him to join the battalion for an evaluation period. During this time, Tony impressed his superiors and was soon with the unit on a full-time basis. He eventually attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. In the early 1990s, Tony learned that the 32 Battalion would soon be disbanded. While weighing his options for the future he was recruited by Executive Outcomes, a private military company founded by a former member of the 32. After considerable thought, Tony signed on with E.O. He saw action with the company in Angola, Zaire, and Sierra Leone. In 1995 the Sierra Leone government hired E.O. in an attempt to end a 9-year civil war against the rebel R.U.F. (Revolutionary United Front). The R.U.F. had been trying to control the country's vast supply of diamonds, which they were using to buy weapons. In less than a month, the rebels were forced out of the Kono diamond area by E.O. The company cleared the area with only 56 mercenaries (one of whom was Tony), and maintained control with a force of 110 men. In 1997 the R.U.F. signed a peace agreement on the condition that E.O would leave the country. Once E.O. was out of the picture, civil war broke out once again. Executive Outcomes was dissolved in 1999. While many of its former employees went on to work for other private military companies, it is believed Tony returned to Sierra Leone and took an unofficial position training soldiers of the RSLA, the Republic of Sierra Leone Army . His friends remember Tony as being optimistic about the future of Sierra Leone, and they can imagine Tony trying to do his part by training others to take back the country from the R.U.F.