In the 90s there was a civil war raging in Sierra Leone between several parties. The most prominent were the government of Sierra Leone which was backed by international forces and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) which was essentially considered a terrorist organization. The Sierra Leone government hired mercenaries to bolster their defences and that is when they contracted a man named Neall Ellis.
Neall Ellis is a South African military man and mercenary. He was raised in South Africa and first served in the Rhodesian Army before joining the South African Air Force. There he became a helicopter pilot, serving in various combat roles and being awarded the Honoris Crux decoration in 1983. He ended up attaining field rank before retiring from the South African Air Force.
Unfortunately for Neall, retirement became quite boring and with all the conflicts raging in the 90s he realized there was a market for his unique skill set. Neall decided to recruit a team and then purchased his own Mi-24 Hind helicopter. He started working on contracts in places like Bosnia and Angola before reaching Sierra Leone. Like I said, the government of Sierra Leone needed to bolster their forces and what better way than a trained helicopter pilot flying a Mi-24 Hind helicopter to strike fear into the RUF?
This is important because up until Neall was contracted, the RUF was making ground quickly in Sierra Leone and the capital, Freetown, was on the verge of collapsing to the RUF. The situation was so dire that international forces such as the British evacuated out of the city. Neall realized the RUF were attacking at night to avoid detection by the helicopters which was a problem as he did not have night vision devices. None the less, Neall volunteered to go in with his crew and try to push the RUF back. Unfortunately for Neall, his crew though the plan was a suicide mission so they backed out.
Of course, this did not stop a man of Neall’s character and in the dead of night he decided to go out and fight. The RUF began advancing and Neall go out and fought off an RUF advance without night vision or a crew. The RUF regrouped and again reattacked Freetown, but Neall again got his bird in the air alone and began fighting off the advance. Through all the combat, Neall’s helicopter broke down and with no air support the rebels took the capital. The government of Sierra Leone started to collapse with the fall of Freetown and was no longer financially support Neall who essentially at this point had no contractual obligation to them.
However, this did not stop Neall who decided he wanted to continue on the fight for free. The RUF had even tried putting out a hit on him with negative results. Neall had his Mi-24 Hind repaired and rejoined the fight. He routinely harassed and attacked RUF positions on his own. His will to fight began to attract the attention of the international community with specifically the British offering to support and work alongside him. This all came to a point in September of 2000 when Neall flew his Mi-24 Hind in support of Operation Barras which was a rescue mission of several soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment who were captured by the RUF.
As of 2020, he was believed to be fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria although not sure if he’s still down there.
Ben