Page 143 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Winter 2016

One Up
A Woman in Action With the S.A.S.

Ford, Sarah. One Up. A Woman in Action With the S.A.S. London, UK: Harper Collins Publishers; 1997.
ISBN-10: 000638837X and ISBN-13: 978-00063883711997. 288 pages.
Review by COL (Ret) Warner “Rocky” D. Farr, MD, MPH

hy would a woman attempt to join the most secre- SAS in Northern Ireland is a singular journey and a good
Wtive and dangerous unit of British Special Forces? read. She paints herself as tough graduate of the London
And what would keep her there? Sarah Ford dealt with mean streets who used the military to escape the despair
the rigorous physical and psycho- and poverty of the bottom of British class society. Not
logical training, including “simu- the first time we have seen that! It is a simple coming-of-
lated terrorist interrogations,” to age story until it veers away from the Royal Navy and
become qualified to serve. She then into the shadowy world of the SAS. She often risks her
participated in strenuous missions life in the deadly tenements of Northern Ireland. This
and many relentless pressures from a is a story on the Irish “Troubles” from a view you have
truly man’s world. not seen before.

The term “one up” is the British A parade of books about the SAS has come to press
military term for someone traveling lately. It all started with Storm Command by Sir Peter de
alone on a surveillance mission. This la Billiere, about the Gulf War; and then Andy McNab’s
book is the fast-paced, first-person account of a young Bravo Two Zero, about Iraq. The British Ministry of
woman’s exceptional experiences of Special Operations Defense has been busy banning authors from military
Forces action and adventure, and it is the first written by bases. A great side story to this book is that Sarah
a female member of a Special Air Service (SAS) unit. Her Ford’s collaborator, Adrian Weale, a former British
unit was the 14 Intelligence Company. Army Intelligence officer, was drummed out of the posh
London “Special Forces Club” for his actions. Highly
Sarah Ford’s battle from a poor London flat to the wom- recommended.
en’s Royal Navy and then to her undercover role in the

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