Hero: Cpl. Daniel Keighran is the third Australian to earn
the Victoria Cross - the ultimate accolade for valor - in the 11-year-old
Afghan campaign
Taliban bullets tearing up the earth around his boots and
zipping past his ears left Australian Cpl. Daniel Keighran in no doubt about
the risks he was taking each time he broke cover to deliberately draw enemy
fire.
His actions on Aug.
24, 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 on Thursday earned him the British
Commonwealth's highest military award, the Victoria Cross.
The 29-year-old gold miner from the Outback town of Kalgoorlie,
who remains an army reservist, is the third Australian to earn the ultimate
accolade for valor in the 11-year-old Afghan campaign.
A New Zealand
commando also won the Victoria Cross in 2007 and a British paratrooper was
given a posthumous award the same year.
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.
Keighran also broke cover to draw fire away from a wounded
Australian, his friend Lance Cpl. Jared MacKinney, so that their comrades could
treat him. Keighran also helped clear insurgents from a landing area and
enabled Mackinney to be evacuated by helicopter. Mackinney, 28, did not
survive.
'I think training took over. There was a situation and
that's the way I reacted,' Keighran told reporters after receiving the medal at
a ceremony at Australia's
Government House.
'But ... I won't talk about that today. I'll leave that for
another day,' he said, refusing to give details of the battle.
Incredible: Daniel Keighran's actions on Aug. 24, 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.
He is seen here with his wife
Kathryn
Keighran revealed he only explained to his wife Kathryn
Keighran 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.
'Spectacular bravery': Keighran said he could tell how far
bullets were from his head by the different sounds that they made
Prime Minister Julia Gillard revealed that Keighran told her
in a conversation on Wednesday that he could tell how far bullets were from his
head by the different sounds that they made.
'They were spectacular acts of bravery,' she said.
Australian Defense Force Chief Lt. Gen. David Hurley said
Keighran's actions 'turned the fight in our favor' during some of the most
intense combat Australians had experienced in Afghanistan.
'Cpl. Keighran acted with exceptional clarity and composure
that spread to those around him, giving them confidence to operate effectively
in an extremely stressful and dangerous situation,' Hurley said.
A total of five Australians were decorated for their actions
in the battle, which later became controversial.
An Australian military inquiry in February rejected
allegations by a soldier who fought in the battle that Mackinney had died
unnecessarily because the U.S.-led coalition provided inadequate air support.
The allegations, made in an email and published in several
Australian newspaper, fueled fears that the United
States 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 to the campaign outside NATO. A total of
39 have died.
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