Australia: VC for modest hero of Afghan war

By ROD MCGUIRK
Published on 02/11/2012 00:00

Taleban bullets tearing up the earth around his boots and zipping past his ears left Corporal Daniel Keighran in no doubt about the risks he was taking each time he broke cover to ­deliberately draw enemy fire.

His actions on 24 August, 2010, near the village of Derapet in central Uruzgan province helped his 40-man joint Australian-Afghan army patrol escape an ambush by 100 insurgents with a single casualty and yesterday earned him the Commonwealth’s highest military award, the Victoria Cross.

The 29-year-old gold miner from the Outback town of Kalgoorlie, who remains a reservist, is the third Australian to earn the ultimate accolade for valour in the 11-year-old Afghan war.

Cpl Keighran’s citation said he broke cover on several occasions to draw “intense and ­accurate fire” in a bid to find where enemy guns were positioned and to direct return fire from an exposed ridge.

He also broke cover to draw fire away from a wounded friend, Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney, so their comrades could treat him. Cpl Keighran also helped clear insurgents from a landing area and enabled L-Cpl Mackinney, 28, to be evacuated by helicopter. However, he did not survive.

“I think training took over. There was a situation and that’s the way I reacted,” Cpl Keighran said after receiving the medal at Government House in Canberra.

“But… I won’t talk about that today. I’ll leave that for another day,” he said, refusing to give ­details of the battle.

Cpl Keighran revealed he only explained to his wife Kathryn the circumstances behind the medal two weeks before the presentation. “It’s not that I couldn’t talk about it … I suppose that’s just the way I am. I’m quite private in that regard and what we did overseas,” he said.

“I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the boys with me that day. You know, the support that they provided me was excellent. As I said, it’s as much theirs as it is mine and I thank them for turning up today.”

Prime minister Julia Gillard revealed that Cpl Keighran told her that he could tell how far bullets were from his head by the different sounds they made.

“They were spectacular acts of bravery,” she said.

Australian defence force Chief Lieutenant General David Hurley said Cpl Keighran’s actions “turned the fight in our favour” during some of the most intense combat Australians had experienced in Afghanistan.

“He acted with exceptional clarity and composure that spread to those around him, giving them confidence to operate effectively in an extremely dangerous situation,” he said.

Five Australians were decorated for their actions in the battle, which later stirred controversy. A military inquiry in February rejected allegations by a soldier that L-Cpl Mackinney had died because the US-led coalition provided inadequate air support. The allegations, made in an e-mail and in several Australian newspapers, fed fears America was more concerned about avoiding Afghan civilian casualties than protecting the lives of coalition partners.

Australia has 1,550 troops in Afghanistan and is the largest military contributor outside Nato. A total of 39 have died.

The medal itself, made from the metal of captured Crimean War-era Russian cannons, only arrived from London two hours before the ceremony began.