AI Summary
5 min readPhil Campion was adopted at birth into a violent home. His adoptive father would sit on his chest and beat him. Campion learned early that if he thrashed and fought back, the beating got worse. If he went limp and stayed calm, his father lost interest and stopped. That lesson—stay calm under pressure, find a tiny win in a terrible situation—became a survival mechanism he carried through his entire career. “It was a tiny win,” he says, “because it was like I was controlling the situation against this great big man.”
He ended up in a children’s home at 12, where he was groomed by predatory paedophiles. He joined the army as soon as he could at 18. “It was the first time in my life I actually felt safe,” he says. “When I went through that camp gate, I realised that nobody… they couldn’t come on that camp.” The army gave him structure, purpose, and an escape from a path that would have led to prison.
The path to selection
Campion served in the Royal Hampshire Regiment, spending years rotating through Northern Ireland during the Troubles. He did close observation platoon work—hiding in bushes for weeks, photographing doors, tracking suspects without knowing why. It was intelligence-gathering farmed out to conventional infantry because the SAS didn’t have enough bodies. That work gave him a taste of what special operations looked like.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:34) **Traumatic Childhood & Early Coping Mechanism** - Phil describes being adopted into a violent home and the lesson he learned about staying calm to survive.
- 2 (04:31) **Children's Home & Path to the Military** - Phil recounts being placed in a children's home, where he was exposed to predatory adults, and how the military became his only escape.
- 3 (07:02) **Joining the Army and Basic Training** - Phil details how a chance conversation with an ex-admiral led him to the army and why he immediately loved basic training.
- 4 (11:36) **First Operation & Northern Ireland** - Phil shares the absurd story of his first operation (firefighting) and his subsequent deployment to Northern Ireland in 1989.
- 5 (21:52) **The Decision for Special Forces Selection** - Phil explains why he bypassed his chain of command to try and join the Parachute Regiment, leading to his path to SAS selection.
- 6 (37:57) **SAS Selection: The Hills and the Jungle** - Phil describes the physical and psychological brutality of the selection course, focusing on the "hills phase" and the jungle.
- 7 (45:41) **SERE Training and the "Not Real" Mindset** - Phil discusses the SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Extraction) phase and his psychological strategy for enduring the interrogation.
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Show Notes
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Phil Campion takes us from a brutal childhood and conventional infantry service in Northern Ireland through SAS selection, counterterrorism work, operations in the Balkans, and the Sierra Leone hostage rescue. We also discuss his post-military years in private security, the personal cost of that lifestyle, his transition into media, and the launch of Forces Radio.
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00:00 – Start
01:18 – Phil Campion’s Childhood & Early Life
03:32 – Growing Up in a Children’s Home
04:20 – Joining the Army & Finally Feeling Safe
06:05 – How Phil Ended Up in the Infantry
08:35 – Joining the Royal Hampshire Regiment
10:16 – British Army Basic Training
14:33 – Arriving at His First Unit
16:01 – Phil’s First “Operation” as a Soldier
17:27 – Meeting Princess Diana
19:12 – Deploying to Northern Ireland
19:46 – Understanding the Troubles From Both Sides
22:29 – Counterinsurgency & Patrolling Northern Ireland
25:19 – Fighting, Military Jail & a Troubled Young Soldier
27:43 – Why Phil Wanted Special Forces
29:36 – What the British Army Was Actually Doing in Northern Ireland
31:11 – Deciding to Attempt SAS Selection
32:06 – Going Around His Chain of Command
34:18 – “You Should Try Special Forces Selection”
36:40 – The SAS Hills Phase
37:51 – Jungle Selection in Brunei
42:14 – SERE, Escape & Interrogation Training
44:07 – Parachute Training & Nearly Killing Himself
48:00 – SAS Counterterrorism Training
48:15 – Passing Selection
50:16 – Joining D Squadron
52:17 – Life as the New Guy in the SAS
56:08 – Hunting War Criminals in the Balkans
57:35 – The Stansted Hijacking
59:19 – Preparing to Storm the Aircraft
1:02:25 – More Stories From the Hijacking
1:05:27 – The Sierra Leone Hostage Crisis Begins
1:07:12 – Two SAS Soldiers Killed Before the Mission
1:08:49 – D Squadron Gets the Call
1:09:52 – Deploying Into Sierra Leone
1:11:02 – How the Royal Irish Soldiers Were Taken Hostage
1:14:25 – When the Rescue Mission Became Necessary
1:16:02 – Intelligence & Planning the Assault
1:17:05 – Three Plans to Rescue the Hostages
1:18:01 – The Crazy Helicopter Assault Plan
1:20:33 – Launching the Mission
1:21:12 – The SAS Hits the Village
1:22:06 – Surprise, Firepower & Securing the Hostages
1:28:50 – Weapons, Mortars & SAS Firepower
1:30:31 – Why Phil Left the SAS
1:31:02 – Losing a Close Friend
1:32:46 – Leaving the Army Days Before 9/11
1:34:45 – Entering the Private Military Contracting World
1:35:34 – The E
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