Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Soldier honoured with Victoria Cross medal - Sydney Morning Herald




Video settings


Please Log in to update your video settings




Video will begin in 5 seconds.




Video settings


Please Log in to update your video settings




LIVE: Victoria Cross announced


Governor-General Quentin Bryce is expected to award the highest medal for courage to a member of the Australian Defence Force at a ceremony in Canberra.





Corporal Daniel Keighran has received Australia's highest military honour today.


Governor-General Quentin Bryce presented Corporal Keighran with the Victoria Cross medal at a ceremony at Government House in Canberra.


The audience was told how Corporal Keighran, in "deliberate acts of exceptional courage" repeatedly exposed himself to intense enemy fire during action in Oruzgan.


Corporal Daniel Keighran has been presented the Victoria Cross medal.

Corporal Daniel Keighran has been presented the Victoria Cross medal. Photo: Andrew Meares



In presenting the award, Ms Bryce told the soldier "I've been thinking about you a lot".


After it presentation, she told Corporal Keighran: "Be assured, if your heart is skipping a beat right now, mine is too."


Corporal Keighran enlisted in the Australian Army in 2000 and was posted to the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment in 2001, where he served as a rifleman. He moved to the Active Reserve last year.


He is the third Australian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross for service in Afghanistan. Corporal Mark Donaldson was awarded the honour in 2009, followed by Corporal Benjamin Roberts-Smith in 2011.


Four soldiers were awarded the honour in the Vietnam War.


The award was presented in front of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Defence Minister Stephen Smith as well as senior military personnel, including Chief of the Defence Force David Hurley.


Official Secretary to the Governor-General Stephen Brady was impressed that the soldier's name had not been leaked.


"It's not often in this town that a secret holds," he said.


Only 99 Australians have ever been awarded the Victoria Cross.


According to the Department of Defence, the Victoria Cross is ''awarded to persons who, in the presence of the enemy, display the most conspicuous gallantry; a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice; or extreme devotion to duty'".


Queen Victoria created the Victoria Cross in 1856, which was made retrospective to 1854 to cover the period of the Crimean War.


Australia came under the British system until 1991, when the Victoria Cross for Australia was created.


More to come



No comments:

Post a Comment