One of Australia’s most highly decorated war heroes will sell his medals to help his family in a heartbreaking illustration of the cost-of-living crisis gripping the country.
Daniel Keighran plans to sell his 12 medals including his Victoria Cross – which is the highest military honour a soldier can receive.
Mr Keighran was awarded the VC in 2012 for his actions in Afghanistan and his collection of medals will go to auction in November where they are expected to fetch $1.25million.
Mr Keighran told the Sydney Morning Herald the hefty sum would be used to help his family.
‘It hasn’t been a decision made lightly, my partner and I had a discussion,’ he said.
‘There’s a few family members whose health wasn’t amazing.
‘My mum is 80 this year. I am fortunate in that I earn a pretty good wage, but things are pretty tough out there.
‘I managed to buy her a place. The reason for getting rid of the medal is to look after my own family.
One of Australia’s most highly decorated war heroes will sell his medals to help his family in a heartbreaking illustration of the cost-of-living crisis gripping the country
‘It would afford the opportunity for schooling and for a place for us to live as a family as well. Times are tough, things are hard, especially for a family-of-five, as others out there could relate to as well.’
Mr Keighran lives in Brisbane with his partner and five children, one son aged seven from his previous marriage, while his partner has a 13-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son from a previous relationship.
The life he is giving his children is a world away from the dirt floors he grew up on in regional Queensland with no mains electricity and no money.
Mr Keighran, who works as an executive in the defence industry, said being awarded the VC ‘upended his life’.
He said it took him out of the work he was doing in mines to be able to do a Master’s of Business.
His VC for Australia, the first awarded to non-special forces Australian soldier and one of only three ever handed out, was presented to Mr Keighran by former governor-general Quentin Bryce for actions in Afghanistan in August, 2010.
At the time, Mr Keighran was 27 and deployed to Afghanistan with the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.
An army veteran of 10 years having served in East Timor, Iraq, and Afghanistan, Mr Keighran was taking part in ‘Operation Slipper’.
The young corporal had been on patrol when he and his Afghan patrol were overrun with Taliban fighters.
Mr Keighran lives in Brisbane with his partner and five children, one son aged seven from his previous marriage, while his partner has a 13-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son from a previous relationship
Mr Keighran’s Victoria Cross for Australia is the first awarded to non-special forces soldier and one of only three ever handed out
For nearly four hours the battle raged in which time Mr Keighran repeatedly exposed himself to heavy enemy fire to help identify targets and clear the wounded.
He lost close mate Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney in the battle.
‘I don’t think what I did was really brave. It was what was required at the time,’ he would say of his actions that day.
The citation for the VC says: ‘For the most conspicuous acts of gallantry and extreme devotion to duty in action in circumstances of great peril at Derapet, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, as part of the Mentoring Task Force One on Operation SLIPPER.’
In the auction catalogue it states that Mr Keighran’s ‘acts of exceptional courage in circumstances of great peril were instrumental in permitting the withdrawal of the combined Australian and Afghan patrol with no further casualties’.
Auctioneer Noble Numismatics representative Jim Noble told Nine newspapers that the sale ‘was a great opportunity for someone to own something very special’ especially as it was VC awarded to someone still living.
Asked if he would still do the same acts of heroism today Mr Keighran admitted that having a son made his weigh risk differently but he was still the same person.
‘I saw my team in need and I acted appropriately. I thought I’d do everything I possibly could to save their lives and I think I’d probably do the same to this day,’ he told Nine newspapers.
Mr Keighran last wore his VC at a Remembrance Service in Canberra but only because he forgot his other medals and had to ask the Australian War Memorial for it because he had lent it to them for permanent display.
He hopes whoever buys the medal will loan it back to them for permanent display, however, the medal won’t have that stricture on it, but won’t be sold to anyone intending to take it out of Australia.
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