On 7 August, Ken McGonigle, aged 50, a former member of the RUC, saved the life of one of the most senior US officers in Afghanistan when he was killed. He was working in Musa Qal'eh, Helmand province with private security company New Century, when he exchanged fire with two escaped Taliban prisoners who were taking aim with a grenade launcher at a US special forces helicopter leaving a base. The 50-year-old Co Londonderry father of four was shot dead and two US Marines were subsequently killed in the fight. But the MV-22B Osprey aircraft, which can operate as both a helicopter and a turbo-prop aeroplane, escaped. It later emerged that vice admiral Robert Harward, a three-star US Navy SEAL who has been nominated to take over as deputy commander of US forces in Afghanistan, was in the aircraft. His actions later merited the award of the Queens Gallantry Medal.