Hey!
Why didn't I think of that! 2 times six is 12! I missed that toppest education, I guess. (Jeez, I hope those goddam helicopter pilots didn't use up my bar card, like the last time I came back after my Final Farewell Party Number 6 or 7.)
You know when I was airing my thoughts re: security I was asked what I wanted, armoured vehicles, when I said that would be a good start, yes!
It turns out that the American Embassy, for one, sells off their vehicles after a couple of years and that some of them DO have Kevlar armour, not just Kevlar curtains. They have to take out the armoured glass but it's too much trouble to also remove the Kevlar sheets in the body panels.
The thing is that the situation always favours the attackers with their ability to concentrate deadly force at one point, when the way to work usually has to go past certain points. The whole thing just got very, very depressing to me with a focus on making the bucks but not on playing the game of trying to stay one jump ahead of the bad guys. Instead it was just, "Well, nothing else bad has happened here." So no need to spend any money, I guess.
North Africa is no picnic but at least you have very few people around out in the desert. When you do get them they are loaded for bear; they had a recent shoot-out involving a couple of Mi-14 ground attack helos being fired upon, for instance. Cojones the size of watermelons, or what? The military did the damn-damn on them but didn't get most of them.
The bad guys can't just melt into a crowd when they are out in the middle of nowhere but they still do manage to kill the odd guy off on his own and make off with his 4X4 to sell just across the border.
I can walk to the air strip without too much risk here but we do have camps where an escort is required for everything but a trip to the toilet. You live behind the wire.
In any case we are not allowed to land unless we can see that vehicles are present, assuming that those are the good guys! I think I can see a flaw in this plan ...