Despite word that he’s ceased to teach, rumors of David Scott-Donelan’s retirement are grossly exaggerated. He has stopped neither teaching nor consulting. He is, in fact, busier than ever.
For some time there’s been scuttlebutt Scott-Donelan had called it quits. Such rumors may have sprung from his abrupt resignation from the long-lived company he founded and ran previously for decades. They may have come from the well-meaning but uninformed, who might’ve assumed a brief, successful battle with skin cancer would convince him to take a well-deserved rest. It’s also possible, as some have alleged, certain unscrupulous competitors deliberately spread such rumors to win training contracts of their own—a disheartening thought, but stranger things have happened when there’s money involved.
If he is out of business, it will certainly come as a surprise to the people he’s been instructing over the last few months—among them the Australian Federal Police, 2/4 Scout Snipers, Queensland Police Special Operations, members of the New Zealand Army Tracking School instructor cadre, USMC Combat Hunters, Army scouts at the Ft. Bliss Border Hunter program, National Park Service personnel, NPS SWAT officers and several other U.S law enforcement agencies.
That’s staying pretty busy for someone who has retired or is too ill to leave his home.
Donelan is a veteran special operations officer with nearly fifty years experience either conducting counter-insurgency warfare or teaching others to do so. He served in the Rhodesian Army (Rhodesian Light Infantry, Tracker Combat Unit, Rhodesian SAS, the Bush Warfare & Tracking School at Lake Kariba and Selous Scouts) and later the SADF (5 Reconnaissance Regiment) and South-West Africa Territorial Force before emigrating to the US. He currently serves on the Committee of the Selous Scouts Association and is a member of the SAS Association of Southern African, the RLI Association (all open only to vetted veterans of those organizations) and the Rhodesian Forces Association. He has instructed US military and LE personnel from every branch and all types of agency. He still (despite recently celebrating his 70th birthday) routinely goes to the field with his students.
Donelan has been consulting for the Dept of Homeland Security and continues to visit Ft Leavenworth between tracking classes. There he works as a visiting practitioner for the US Army Counter-Insurgency Course. He is also apparently working on “T4â€, network of tracking groups and trainers from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Israel and other allied countries.
If you’re interested in tracking—tactical, search and rescue or civilian—contact Mr. Scott-Donelan via the Scott Donelan Tracking School (www.trackingoperations.com) website or FaceBook. He asks that you give them a few days to respond to e-mails, but stresses that busy as they are they will get back with you.
