The Rigger

A British soldier recounts his experience maintaining surveillance towers in Northern Ireland during The Troubles in this candid military memoir.

Making unprecedented use of electronic surveillance, the Special Air Service and other British assault units were dependent on information provided by a network of towers and other devices. Construction and maintenance of the towers was the job of the British Army’s Royal Corps of Signals. The author and his fellow troopers of the R. Sigs had to climb and work on the electronic towers in full view of an often hostile population—and occasionally under fire.

This is the gripping insider story of the tension, fear, and comradeship of these specialists, who needed more than just a head for heights. Jack Williams’s account adds a previously little-known dimension to our understanding of the campaign in Northern Ireland and provides a first-hand account of previously unknown operations and techniques.