In 1984 he joined the South-African Defence Force and during this time he qualified himself as an Officer and Paratrooper. He was part of this Elite Group and Special Forces for thirteen years. During his Defence Force career he was awarded many medals and commendations. In 1996 he resigned to pursue a career in the private sector.His career in the Defence Force as an Officer prepared him well as a competent manager in basically all the components of management. Douw joined a large diamond mining company in Angola as a Security Manager. He was involved in all the aspects of Diamond Security and gained extensive experience in this field. He later joined an Angolan Security Company called Alfa 5 Security Services in Angola as a Security Consultant. He was also involved in training Angolan managers in customer care, industrial security aspects and many more. He is also a qualified Security Manager by obtaining a tertiary 3-year qualification from UNISA (University of South Africa) in Security Management. During his career in the Paratroopers, he started out as a Platoon Commander and progressed through the ranks to a Unit second-in- command. He was also the Commander of the Airborne Wing at 1 Reconnaissance Regiment in Durban for 4 years. During his career, he completed the following courses:

• Basic Parachute Static Line Course
• Static Line Parachute Jump Masters
• Static Line Parachute Instructors
• Free Fall
• Free Fall Jump Master
• HALO / HAHO
• Rappelling and Fast Roping from Helicopters
• 81mm Mortars
• Anti-Tank
• Heavy Machine Guns
• Airborne Battle Handling
• Company 2IC & Company Commanders Course