Victoria Cross recipient Daniel Keighran doesn’t know how he stood on an Afghanistan hilltop and faced a hail of gunfire without getting hit.
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He was one of 20 Australian soldiers involved in the 2010 Battle of Derapet, which claimed the life of Lance-Corporal Jared 'Crash' MacKinney.
Lance Corporal MacKinney took a round in his shoulder early on in the fighting. A helicopter was brought in to evacuate him, its blades coming within about a metre of the boundaries of a makeshift courtyard landing pad.
From his elevated position, then-Corporal Keighran could see pillows of dust whipping up from the ground near the other soldiers’ feet as they went to the aid of their injured.
“I remember seeing my mates getting shot at and bullets striking the ground around them as they tried to drag my friend off the hill to try to get some cover,” he told the Mercury.
“Those whole five or six guys that were there were all about to get killed.”
In an act of “conspicuous bravery” that would earn him the military’s highest decoration, Mr Keighran repeatedly broke cover to draw enemy fire towards himself and away from the helicopter.
He heard the bullets pass by his head, breathtakingly close.
“It’s like a whip cracking,” he said, of the noise.
“It’s a very distinctive sound as a bullet travels past your head, and the closer and closer it gets, it changes in sound … so you can tell when they’re getting super close.
“I’m surprised I didn’t have holes in my pants as I was running … I remember bullets striking the ground – some in front of me some behind me – and somehow I didn’t get hit.”
Mr Keighran was in Wollongong on Monday at the invitation of the Illawarra Centenary of Anzac Committee.
He carried a message about the importance of planning and teamwork in influencing an outcome and gave support to the committee’s scholarship program, which benefits the descendants of members of the Australian or New Zealand Defence Force.
Tayla Hogno, 19, was one of the first scholarship recipients in 2015. Ms Hogno struggled with her final years of high school following the death of her ex-serviceman father four years ago.
“He knew I wanted to be a nurse but I didn’t think I’d get there,” she said. “When he passed away I struggled with study. It was just extremely difficult to try and get through my HSC but I did it with help from most of the school.
“I think [my father] would be very proud.”
