An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July/August 2019 www.dfmagazine.ie 24 | "A Life Less Ordinary" BY COMDT KEVIN MCDONALD RET'D "A Life Less Ordinary" was a suc- cessful recruiting tag line used by the Irish Defence Forces some years ago, and is still used in conversations between Defence Forces Veterans. Saturday 26th November 2016 was a poignant day for me as it marked the day I retired from the Irish Defence Forces on age grounds. It marked the end of 40-years in uniform, seven-years with the 5 Cavalry Squadron in Castlebar and 33-years in various units both at home and abroad. My fledgling career with the 5 Cav Sqn nearly took a nose dive (literally) when a few of us dispatch riders (DRs) were asked to drive over to Westport in the late 1970s to lead the opening of the Summer Festival, no problem to that you might think but letting three 16-year-olds off on their own on 400cc motorbikes was probably not fully thought through. Naturally we had a race on the way over and then someone had forgotten to tell us that the An Garda Síochána would be waiting at the entrance to the town to escort us to the parade. Not expecting any 'Guards' I de- scended the hill into Westport at around 40mph standing on the saddle with my arms outstretched like the scene in the Titanic. As if that wasn't a sterling start to my military career, myself and my brother Brendan hold the dubious distinction of being the first and presumably only members of the Defence Forces to get locked up in a Communist jail in East Germany. We were touring Europe on motorbikes and detoured off the main transit route into a town only to be met by a rather irate policeman none too impressed with our navigation skills. After a good seven-years with the 5 Cav Sqn I decided that the army was the life for me and there being no recruitment in the West, I had to enlist in the Eastern Command, Monaghan to be precise. Before I was even interviewed, I had to agree to serve a minimum of three-years in the 29 Infantry Battalion. I was over- seas in Lebanon within a year and during that trip was the one and only time I ever had to give the order to open fire in combat. On return to Ireland I looked for more challenges and ended up passing Army Ranger Wing 'selection' course and spent five demanding but really enjoyable years in the Curragh. I left that unit in 1990 to return to Castlebar, but despite engaging in some serious rock climbing (some of it up the walls of the barracks) I still needed a greater challenge so I applied for the 7th Potential Officers Course. That opened up an entirely new career for me and I was com- missioned in 1992 and overseas again in 1993 and 1996. That deployment was great because I managed to persuade an official with a catering can of Maxwell House coffee to issue a visa for my then girlfriend Clare to come out and visit me, she was one of the first Western tourists in Lebanon after the civil war ended. Little did she know that she would be back there ten-years later living in Lebanon with a three- and five-year-old. I deployed to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO) in 2005 and we initially lived in Tiberias by the Sea of Galilee as I was working on the occupied Golan Heights, then in February 2006 I was transferred to Lebanon so we got an apartment in the Kevin in Blessington in his ARW days. Newly commission Lt McDonald in South Lebanon in 1993. Kevin on the motorbike during his early career.

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