'Tommy Gun' on the road to Kupyansk

Mark “Gino” Jannetta

SGT Mark Jannetta is originally from Buckinghamshire, England. He moved to the States in 1999 and has lived in New York, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky. He now calls Austin, Texas home. He gained American citizenship in 2011 and joined the US Army as an Infantryman at the age of 33, with the prestigious First Infantry Division. He served for three years, in which time he deployed once to Afghanistan. 1-26 Infantry was broken down into squad size elements and attached to different Special Forces teams to perform Village Stabilization Operations (VSO).

Mark left the military in 2015 and was mostly focused on real estate and remodels until 2022 when he responded to the call from Ukraine for Veterans to join the International Legion. He went four times for a total of roughly ten months. He was part of Rogue Team under GUR using “Gino” as his callsign.

The mission focus at first involved inflatable boats crossing the Dnipro River to take back the nuclear power plant. These missions were unsuccessful.

On his third tour In October 2023, Gino was involved in the defense of Ukrainian positions east of Kupyansk where the Russians had been pushing hard to break through the front. His leg, back and arm were injured by a hand grenade during an all-day Russian assault of Rogue Team’s trench. This ended his ability to perform a combat role. Thomas ‘Tommy Gun’ Harris administered first aid saving his life and leg, before succumbing to a bullet wound himself the same day. Rogue Team fought all-day to repel the Russians. 5050 Team came 12-hours later under cover of darkness to help drag Gino to safety.

After recovering from his wounds Gino returned a fourth time to film the documentary: ‘Tommy Gun’ on the road to Kupyansk.