An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 17 There was a lot of administration. I had to fill out a new Will & Testament, my Single Administrative Document, full Medicals had to be conducted, dental checks, hearing tests, vaccinations and fitness testing. During this I would conduct my training at the UN Training School at the Curragh Camp. Training included medical refreshers, signals, combat training and battle inocula- tions. I'll never forget the amount of injections that we had to have. Cholera, Rabies, Typhoid, Combined Hepatitis, Meningitis, Polio, Tetanus. I was like a human pin cushion. We were also required to take a weekly dose of the anti-malaria drug Lariam throughout the mission. Intense. United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Ireland had been tasked with being the QRF (Quick Reaction Force) for this mission, meaning that we would be the first call to into action and line of defence as part of the United Nations mission in Liberia. A company of Swedish soldiers will join us mid-trip and they too would be part of the QRF and based at the Irish Headquarters at Camp Clara, Monrovia. It's somewhere between late afternoon and the Angelus bells of a Tuesday evening, the date, December 16th, 2003. Only eight days to Christ- mas. My blue beret was out again and ready to be donned in exchange for the black beret that I wore while serving at home. It's absolute water- works leaving the house, a feeling that every soldier going overseas on a tour of duty will have experienced. I am twenty-one and with over four years' service to date, this is my second tour of duty since enlistment. Prior to this tour I had served in Lebanon when I was 18 years young, between November 2000 and May 2001 with a specialised weapons platoon in C Company of the 88th Infantry Battalion. "The safety of my soldiers is of para- mount importance." Lieutenant Colonel P. Moran, OC 90th Infantry Battalion, Liberia. The media were sharing stories of this deployment more than any of the current missions in Kosovo and in Eritrea, plainly due to the number of troops that the Irish government had agreed to offer for this deployment as part of the United Nations mission in Liberia, not to mention the instability and unpredictability of Liberia as a whole was currently going through. Warlord and ousted President, Charles Taylor was in exile and less than a fortnight previous to our deployment, Interpol issued a red notice regard- ing Taylor, suggesting that countries had a duty to arrest him. We knew that this mission would be a tough one, quite demanding and one that would require both physical and mental strength to get us through the six months ahead. This was the first time in over 40 years that the Irish Army had deployed a battalion of soldiers to Africa as part of a UN mission. The Congo mission (ONUC) in the early 1960s was the last time. A mission which my grandfather Larry served in twice. And like myself, my brother Derek would also serve on this mission in Liberia on two occasions. On November 27th, 2003, 33-year-old, Sergeant Derek Mooney (Army Ranger Wing) from Dublin was fatally killed in a road traffic accident whilst on patrol 40 kilometres south east of the Irish base at Camp Clara in Monrovia. His colleague Ser- geant Seán Baldwin (Army Ranger Wing) was also badly injured in this collision. A platoon of Rangers where deployed to Liberia in mid-November as part of the advance, security and recon- naissance party so that the main body of troops, ourselves, would have security, a bed, a cookhouse, a medical aid post and a safe camp with safe roads in and out of our area of opera- tions. That party included special forces alongside members of the engineer, ordnance, communications, intelligence, medical and transport corps. Our Battalion Commander was a big unit, oozed charisma and had the look of a tough nut. A man from Clara in County Offaly known as 'Puck Moran' would lead the battalion. To look at him you can wonder, but not for very long, how he gained the name 'Puck'. He was being interviewed frequently by newspapers at national and at local level. He spoke mostly on how well trained and equipped we were for this mission, and we were. He spoke about how the troop morale had been attacked before the last soldier from his battalion had laid their boots on west African soil. He touched on the unfortunate death of Sergeant Mooney and the life- changing injuries of Sergeant Seán Baldwin and the impact it may have on the battalion in terms of morale. This made sense, because as a sol- dier, wether you knew a soldier who may have died or was injured or not, you didn't want any harm to come to your comrades. He also focused on how he had a duty of care to all of the men and women of the 90th Infantry Battalion and he made that known. We were all his concerns. "The safety of my soldiers is of paramount importance", he declared in an interview with the Westmeath Independent and Examiner prior to our departure. As a young man about to head to a place that I'd only ever seen on a map or on a globe in the back of a classroom, that comment gave me some solace, a sense of belonging. I was still excited for the challenge ahead. As our plane touched down, a quick look out the aircraft win- dow and you quickly realised how bad things really were here. The airport was not busy, had two or three hangars, the odd small aircraft and a terminal building that had little or no glass in the windows. The sun was bulging out of a clear blue sky. It was time to step off the plane and move towards the terminal build- ing. As I walked towards the aircraft exit door, Christ, I'll never forget that blast of searing heat and humidity as I stepped down the steps from the air-conditioned aircraft after a nine-hour flight and on to the scorching hot tarmac at Roberts Interna- Aerial view of Camp Clara A Mowag Patrol through one of the many jungle regions of Liberia

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