A Nautilus tribute
Mike West
· mentor & friend
Born into hardship in the mining towns. Rejected by the SADF. Found by the Rhodesians — Grey Scouts, RLI Fire Force, SAS C Squadron, then the Recces — combat across air, land and sea, against Russian, Cuban, Angolan and SWAPO forces. A dear friend and mentor to this firm. This page is dedicated to him.
His story below
01
Origins
From the mining towns to the bush
Mike was not born into anything. The mining towns of southern Africa in the years he came up did not produce documents and they did not produce options. The early years included an orphanage, a reformatory, and — improbably — a stint as a death-row warden. A long way from any conventional path. Most boys with that file go missing into one quiet end or another.
Mike did not. He carried something that did not fit the systems he was placed in. Anti-dogma. Rebellious within ranks. He was rejected by the South African Defence Force on those grounds — too unorthodox to fit a doctrine.
So he went north and joined a different war.
02
The Rhodesians
The forces that took him in
The Grey Scouts — Rhodesia's mounted infantry — were the first. A unit built to move and fight across terrain that broke vehicles. The horse was not a curiosity. It was the only thing that worked at depth and at speed in that bush.
From there, the Rhodesian Light Infantry — Fire Force: helicopter-borne quick-reaction operations, vertical envelopment, where the contact happens before you're done landing.
And then: C Squadron, Rhodesian SAS. Who dares, wins. A small, surgical outfit that worked behind lines as a matter of routine. By May 1980 he was a Sergeant — the engraved tankard from the WOs' & Sergeants' Mess that year is on this page.
His mentor in this period was Captain Darrell Watt — described on Mike's own page as "God of War". One of the most decorated Rhodesian bush-war operators of the era. Like Watt, Mike was denied the recognition his service deserved.
Mid 1970s
Grey Scouts
Rhodesian mounted infantry · tracker-trained · bush-deep
Late 1970s
RLI Fire Force
Helicopter-borne quick reaction · vertical envelopment
c. 1980
SAS C Squadron
"Who Dares, Wins" · Sergeant · behind enemy lines
1980s
The Recces
South African Special Forces · 5 Reconnaissance Regiment · SWAPO operations
03
In his possession
The marks that record a life
Insignia, plaques and a single engraved tankard — what's left in a box, in a drawer, on a shelf. Each one a unit, a posting, a year spent somewhere most documents don't cover.
Rhodesian SAS
Beret & cap badge. The winged dagger. Who dares, wins.
C Squadron
1 (Rhodesia) Special Air Service Regiment crest
Insignia & nameplate
Service marks across postings. The WEST nameplate, parachute wings, regimental pips.
Sgt's Mess tankard
Engraved Sgt Mike West, from WOs & Sgts Mess, 1 (Rhodesian) SAS — May 1980.
Published photograph · circa late 1970s Commando Mike West prepares to be dropped behind enemy lines — helmet, oxygen mask, drop kit. The exact operation has not been publicly named.
04
The Recces
South Africa finally took the man it had once turned away
When the war ended in Rhodesia, a number of the SAS men crossed south and were absorbed into South African Special Forces — the Recces.
He served across 5 Reconnaissance Regiment and into broader special-forces operations. SWAPO ops — counter-insurgency at the edge of South West Africa, combat against Cuban and Angolan regulars across air, land and sea.
Those who served alongside him consistently describe him as a man who led from the front — present at the point of greatest risk, throughout two decades of active operations across Southern Africa.
Mike is a legendary member of the South African Special Forces — also known as the Recces. These were men of exceptional skill and discipline, highly trained operators who functioned under a code of their own. We respect and salute these men among men.
"
Pamberi né hondo. Forward into battle.
Operation Firewood · 31 October 1987
A tribute, in oils
A portrait, painted
The man it was painted of
A painted tribute portrait of Mike — AK-47, fighting knife, weathered features. The smile is not a marketing smile — it's the one he carried through conditions most of us could not imagine being awake in.
We do not know who painted it or when. It is one of the images Mike has kept. That alone tells you something.
Somewhere in the chain of decisions that goes back to why this firm works the way it does, there is a thread that runs back to him.
05
What he gave us
Why his name is on these pages
Mike is a dear friend and mentor to this firm. He did not register the company. He is not on the masthead. He does not answer the phone. What he gave Nautilus is something harder to put in a corporate org chart: an example.
An example of how to read ground that other people overlook. How to read people the same way. How to be seldom far from the thick of the action — present, not at a desk. How to walk in, look, listen, and not pretend to know what you don't yet know.
The methods Nautilus uses every day — site visits, driver interviews, process audits, plain-English reports — are not borrowed from a textbook. They are how Mike learned to work, in conditions where being wrong had immediate and unforgiving consequences. The firm tries to operate the same way, on quieter ground.
He won't tell you any of this himself. He never has. We can at least write it down.
06
From the personal archive
Frames you don't get if you ask
Regimental
In country
Air mobility
Land mobility
A small set, only what Mike kept. There are no published archives for most of the work referenced on this page.