Nick Vaux recalls his regimental sergeant major warning that Max Hastings was trying to board one of the scarce helicopters assigned to the Mount Kent operation. Hastings claimed the brigade had allocated him a place with SAS reinforcements. Vaux later learned that neither the SAS nor the brigade commander had authorized it. He accepted the journalist's initiative because Hastings had displaced nobody and was now able to report an important operation. On the later movement toward K Company, Vaux assigned him one of the cumbersome Blowpipe missiles to carry.
Chapter · 44:32-47:21
Max Hastings talked his way onto the Mount Kent lift
In Nick Vaux's account, Max Hastings secured a helicopter place without the authorization he claimed and later carried a Blowpipe missile toward K Company.