 Originally from Las Vegas , Nevada , Martin Keamy was a First Sergeant of the United States Marine Corps , serving with distinction from 1996 to 2001 . In the three years before the events of Lost in 2004 , he worked with various mercenary organizations in Uganda . In fall 2004 , Keamy is hired by Widmore to lead a mercenary team to the island via freighter then helicopter and extract Ben for a large sum of money . Once he captures Ben , Keamy has orders to kill everyone on the island ( including the forty @-@ plus survivors of the September 22 , 2004 crash of <unk> Airlines Flight 815 : the protagonists of the series ) by <unk> it . 
