21/02/2025
Hello All,
This is nothing to do with us but we are sharing to help Tak. Would highly appreciate if you could share away to help a true legend out.
It is a rough time financially and any help is better than no help.
Here is a little back ground story of Tak and the issues he having. Any help would be highly appreciated. If your popping in an and have change left over all tips will be donated end of every day on the thanks giving page or can donate via the link below.
(Copy and pasted)
It has come to my attention that this SAS Legend Tak Takavesi has sadly succumbed to getting old. (This is something Tak refuses to accept and still at the tender age of...well older than me..still completes a 10K tab regularly) He is now in a remarkable care home in Hereford, surrounded by his friends, and he is happy and content.
Unfortunately, the bureaucracy behind military charities and regimental associations means that they will not support care home costs, so our small but flexible charity, The Pilgrim Bandits, has stepped in to help. We have pledged to help pay for the fees and are heading up this Just Giving page to ensure we can ensure Tak has a wonderful place to eventually grow old gracefully. Please read below:
Takavesi was born in Fiji in 1943. Brought up on the Pacific island, he enlisted in the British Army on November 13, 1961, joining the King’s Own Border Regiment. Two years later, he successfully sought selection to the SAS.
Takavesi had undertaken dangerous undercover surveillance in Aden during the mid-1960s. At one time, he and fellow Fijian, Trooper Talaiasi Labalaba, had confronted and shot dead two terrorist gunmen. However, it was in Oman in July 1972 that the same two men were given the opportunity to display their immense courage and determination.
On the morning of July 19, 1972, the Adoo (guerrillas) launched a carefully planned attack with the aim of using 250 of their most élite fighters to capture the small town of Mirbat on the Arabian Sea, where Takavesi suffered wounds so serious that most people would have died from them. Yet he not only survived but went on to serve with distinction in the SAS for 13 more years.
Takavesi survived the battle and had some other adventures as time went on, though nothing quite like single-handedly firing a WWII anti-tank cannon at a horde of Communists from point-blank range while dudes flung hand grenades in his face. He participated in the Iranian Embassy raid in 1980, when he and 20 other SAS men stormed a terrorist-controlled structure on national television, killed 6 terrorists, and saved 18 of the 19 hostages held inside. He was a member of B Sqn who were used for specialist missions in the Falklands Conflict.
He was also working as an advisor during the 2003 Iraq War, when the 58 year-old Fijian found himself in a blazing gunfight on a tarmac near Baghdad –outnumbered by a dozen guys who were shooting his jeep up with AK-47s, Tak put his hands up and pretended to surrender, and the second the enemy lowered their guards he pulled the MP5 off his lap, smoked them, and then leaped out the driver’s side door, tackled another guy, and clubbed him to death with the stock of his weapon. The bad guys managed to shoot Tak in the thigh, chest, and head during that particular encounter, but, as you can probably imagine, he still simply managed to dust himself off, get in the car, and drive himself to the hospital.
https://www.justgiving.com/page/sekonaiatakavesi?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL
