Dan Keighran highlights plight of soldiers still suffering

HE’S the modern face of the Digger spirit: a country boy who grew up poor and went on to receive our highest military honour while saving his mates.

ANZAC Story

HE’S the modern face of the Digger spirit: a country boy who grew up poor and went on to receive our highest military honour while saving his mates.

But for Victoria Cross holder Corporal Dan Keighran, it’s time for today’s brave young soldiers to take the lead as we pay our respects to the Anzac heroes.

“The originals are important, but there are so many younger guys coming through,” he said on Wednesday.

“It is time they took a lead in the marches. It is good to see the younger guys out front.”

Australia’s most recent and reclusive living VC holder, Cpl Keighran made a rare public appearance on Wednesday at an Afghan memorial unveiling at the RSL Anzac Village in Narrabeen, northern Sydney, where he urged his countrymen to get behind his colleagues who are suffering from mental illnesses.

Having grown up in poverty in central Queensland living on dirt floors with candles and lamplight, he said conditions for him Afghanistan when he arrived with the 6th Battalion in 2010 weren’t such a shock.

“I had an interesting upbringing,” the reluctant hero said.

“I had no power and dirt floors when I was a kid. Going to places like Afghanistan and Iraq wasn’t such a shock.

“I was living in shearing sheds for many years. I remember doing homework by candle light and lamps and stuff. We had no electricity for many years.”

Cpl Keighran joined the Army at 17 in the year 2000 and was awarded the VC in November 2012.

While 40 Australians died and more than 260 suffered serious wounds in Afghanistan, it is estimated that some 2000 of the 25,000 who served will suffer from post traumatic stress disorder or other psychological injuries.

“I have been involved in a lot of action and I deal with it OK,” Cpl Keighran said.

“You still have that period when you come back where you adjust but I have never had any issues.”

That action included the battle of Derapet in August 2010, when he exposed himself numerous times to enemy fire to protect his mates who were treating a fatally wounded comrade.

He said more needed to be done to help guys in need and he supported initiatives like Soldier On and RSL Life Care to care for veterans and their families.

Victoria Cross holder Corporal Dan Keighran.

“I am of their generation and I get out and talk to the guys. It is a hard thing to ask for help.”

The modest soldier said he decided to leave the army after marrying his sweetheart Katherine before he departed on his final tour of Afghanistan.

He has been working in the gold mines at Kalgoorlie, WA since his return and is an active member of the Army Reserve.

Fellow VC winner Mark Donaldson on Wednesday said the Anzac spirit meant never giving up — no doubt a message he reiterated to Collingwood players in his pre-match address.

The nuggety Cpl Donaldson, in Melbourne to address Pies players before Friday’s Anzac Day clash against Essendon, earned the country’s highest military honour for his selfless bravery in one of the most violent clashes involving Diggers in Afghanistan.

Cpl Donaldson saved the lives of a number of colleagues when their patrol was ambushed by a numerically-superior and entrenched enemy force in 2008.

Hit with sustained machine gun fire and RPGs, the Australian-US patrol suffered immediate casualties and was under intense fire for two-hours with Cpl Donaldson moving to regain the initiative, firing anti-armour weapons and his M14 rifle while drawing fire away from wounded comrades.

The engagement saw nine Diggers, five Americans and three Afghan personnel wounded and one American special forces soldier killed.

The Coalition patrol was fired on for 4km and the high number of wounded meant there was no room inside the vehicles, requiring those able, including Cpl Donaldson, to run beside the convoy.

But it was realised a wounded Afghan interpreter was left behind at the initial contact and Cpl Donaldson, of his own volition, raced back on foot across 80ms under heavy fire to rescue the man and carry him to safety.

Numerous times Cpl Donaldson administered medical treatment to wounded colleagues as he continued to fire at the enemy.

Meeting on Wednesday with former Bombers coach Kevin Sheedy and Collingwood 2006 Anzac medal winner Ben Johnson, Cpl Donaldson said Anzac Day was a solemn occasion but a lesson in the value of standing against the odds and a symbol of Australian individualism.

“It’s great Australians have a growing awareness of that patriotism,” Cpl Donaldson, 35, said.

“It’s not just about the one day, it’s about that natural spirit and that spirit of the individual to not give up.

“That rolls in to what those guys did in World War I and in that first campaign in Gallipoli, that’s the lead we can draw from.

“You might find yourself in tough times but it’s a great thing that those guys have been able to leave a legacy. That is to live a good life and in a good country.”

Anzac reunion notices:

2/29 BN AIF ASSN: reunion today, (April 24) 12.30pm, Rendezvous Hotel, 328 Flinders St, Melbourne. Contact: Joy Derham 0429 850 575.

HMAS Quickmatch/Quiberon and all Q class ships. Meet after Anzac march (April 25) Bull and Bear, Flinders Lane. Contact: Brian Burdett 9877 4443.