VC hero Dan Keighran helping mates with PTSD

VICTORIA Cross hero Corporal Dan Keighran says although defence bosses are taking mental illness more seriously, much more needs to be done.

Exclusive club ... Victoria Cross recipients Keith Payne and Daniel Keighran.

MODEST war hero Corporal Dan Keighran VC says he has a number of army mates who suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and they were treated much better than previous generations of veterans.

In an exclusive interview with News Corp, Corporal Keighran, who was awarded the nation’s highest honour for valour — the Victoria Cross for Australia — under heavy enemy fire during the Battle of Derapet in Afghanistan in August 2010, said both Defence and Veterans Affairs were taking mental illness more seriously than in the past but much more needed to be done.

Pride of nation ... Corporal Daniel Keighran was the third of four Australian soldiers to be awarded the Victoria Cross in Afghanistan.

He said he had experienced a lot of trauma during his army career and he put his lack of ill-effects down to a very tough childhood in Central Queensland, where he lived on dirt floors with only candles and lamps.

“I don’t know why some people are affected and others are not, but experiences when you are younger may have an impact,” Corporal Keighran said.

He said the stigma associated with mental disorders was definitely breaking down and today’s soldiers were more willing to talk about it.

Exclusive club ... Victoria Cross recipients Keith Payne and Daniel Keighran.

“Older generations of veterans are reluctant to talk and I know Vietnam vets who still won’t discuss it (PTSD),” he said.

“If you get onto it early then it doesn’t become an issue.”

The third of four Australian soldiers to be awarded the VC in Afghanistan was in Melbourne yesterday meeting with sixth graders from St Patrick’s Primary in Murrumbeena at the Shrine of Remembrance to promote the Australian Defence Force Assistance Trust and its campaign with Coles supermarkets to raise $5 million.

Corporal Keighran is a Trust ambassador and he wants Australians to support the huge grocer, which is selling $2 cards for kids to write or draw a message on. They are then displayed in the stores and all the proceeds go to the Trust.

St Patrick’s Primary student Finn Shortt looks in amazement at Dan Keighran’s Victoria Cross. Picture: David Caird.

The Trust was established by WA Vietnam veteran, former Federal MP and double amputee Graham Edwards to fill a gap between government services and family support for vulnerable veterans.

Its patron is Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and the Service Patrons are retired defence chiefs Admiral Chris Barrie, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston and NSW Governor General David Hurley.

Special-forces troops and their families have the SAS Trust and the Commando Trust and the ADF Assistance Trust is for everybody else.

Corporal Keighran said several of his comrades who had fallen on tough times had already benefited from the Trust with both food stamps and education assistance for their children.

It provides relief from financial hardship for current or former members of the ADF who become permanently incapacitated, or otherwise permanently injured, in or as a result of their service with the ADF and their dependants.

Corporal Keighran, who has left the gold mining industry in Kalgoorlie and moved to Brisbane with his wife Katherine and is about to embark on a new career, said the Anzac Centenary next week was an important day for the nation.

“It is great to see that 100 years on people are still talking about it [Gallipoli] and commemorating the sacrifice,” he said.

“World War 1 is the most significant event in our history.”

He will attend the National Dawn Service in Canberra before travelling to Melbourne where he will be special guest at the Anzac footy match between Collingwood and Essendon and the final torch bearer for Camp Gallipoli.

Originally published as VC hero Dan Keighran helping mates with PTSD