McGonigle was a retired Irish police officer serving as a consultant with New Century, a private security firm based in London that advises Afghan forces. He and another unidentified British contractor are credited with opening fire on the escaped detainees after seeing one of them aiming the RPG launcher, forcing them to take cover and abandon targeting the Osprey.
“The initial actions of [name redacted] and Ken McGonigle diverted a potential disaster by engaging the armed individuals leaving the DETFAC,” the report said. “The individual carrying the RPG was in a launch posture aiming in the direction of the LZ.”
When this happened last year, there wasn’t a lot of details about the incident. I did a post about the death of McGonigle, and found a little information about New Century. But now that a FOIA was filed and these details are front and center, I think it is appropriate to recognize the heroic actions of these contractors whose actions ‘diverted a potential disaster’. –Matt
Edit: 06/09/2011 – I received an email from a reader that identified a mistake in this newspaper. Here it is:
Ken was a member of the Royal Ulster Constabularly (RUC), he was from a village outside of Londonderry. He was not an Irish police officer but a British one.
Ken McGonigle
3-star SEAL’s Osprey targeted in jailbreak
By Dan Lamothe
Monday Jun 6, 2011
Two detainees escaped from a detention facility on a Marine base in Afghanistan, then used a grenade launcher to target an MV-22 Osprey about to take off with a three-star Navy SEAL on board, Marine Corps Times has learned.
Vice Adm. Robert Hardward was in the Osprey on base Aug. 7 after visiting the headquarters of 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. He heads Joint Task Force 435, which oversees detainee operations in Afghanistan, and has been nominated to replace Marine Lt. Gen. John Allen as the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command. Allen is expected to become the top commander in Afghanistan this fall.
The details are outlined in an investigation report obtained by Marine Corps Times through the Freedom of Information Act. Marine officials in Afghanistan said last summer that two Marines and a contractor were shot to death by a detainee who escaped from an Afghan-run detention center. However, it was not disclosed that a detainee had taken aim at the landing zone with a grenade launcher, or that Harward was on base when the detainees escaped.