Home after a shot at life in Iraq

Steve Hunter looking forward to life back in New Zealand

Steve Hunter felt his luck was running out - it was time to leave his personal security job in war-torn Iraq and return home to peaceful Kakanui.

After being shot at, ambushed, bombed and seeing other civilian security contract staff killed during almost 10 months in Iraq, he now wants to fulfil his dream of being a policeman - in Oamaru.

He feels the situation in Iraq is getting worse - another reason he has resigned from his job over there.

Apart from the money, it was a personal test of skills he learned as a territorial, regular soldier and with the New Zealand Navy.

Mr Hunter has proved to himself that all the armed forces training he went through was worthwhile. Now, he wants a quieter life.

As a 15-year-old, Mr Hunter went out with the Oamaru Territorials. He joined the regular Army and served in Singapore, then with the 4th Otago and Southland Territorials in East Timor. There was also a stint as a gunner on a frigate.

He finished with the military in 2001, applied to join the police but never completed the process.

Then, at the end of 2004, in emails from friends he heard of a contracting company looking for security staff to serve in Iraq.

He applied and last year got a phone call to ask if he was interested. He was given 36 minutes to make up his mind.

That was about 9pm on a Thursday - the following Wednesday he was in Baghdad working as a civilian contractor.

His job, nine weeks on and three weeks off, was guarding an ammunition dump near Tikrit - heart of Saddam Hussein country.

But his major role was providing personal transport security for the American demolition experts who were blowing up ammunition, artillery shells, armaments and missiles left behind by the Iraqi military.

That meant venturing out into one of the most volatile regions in Iraq.

In the later stages, the camp, with a population of about 300, was also the staging point for ammunition and arms brought in from other areas to be destroyed.

The problem was, Iraqi insurgents wanted that ammunition and arms.

The other problem was the ongoing attacks on personnel and convoys travelling to and from the camp.

Personnel were transported in factory-armoured American sports utility vehicles, with lightly armoured American utility trucks used by armed security personnel.

The attacks ranged from snipers and small arms attacks to roadside bombs using artillery shells and suicide bombers.

Nine convoys he was providing security to were attacked during his 10 months there.

He would do up to three transport securities a day - very rarely would there be none.

He estimated he went on as many as 300 transport missions.

He also has videos and photographs of vehicles attacked, including one completely obliterated by a suicide bomber in a car loaded with explosives.

On Christmas Eve, three of eight roadside bombs - 155mm artillery shells planted along the road and detonated remotely in sequence - peppered his armoured Ford F250 utility with shrapnel.

"I was told by Americans who defused the other five that, if they had gone off, we would have been killed."

It came to a head in early January when he travelled in the lead vehicle, instead of his usual place in the second.

The second was attacked and severely damaged. Two men in the front seat suffered major wounds to their legs and were flown to Germany for emergency treatment.

"It was the luck of the draw - it could have been me," he said.

"It was then I felt my luck was running out."

He resigned at the end of January.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES