An Cosantóir

37 What made you decide on a career in the DF? As a young child, growing up in the garrison town of Athlone I had always been fascinated by the Army vehicles and troops as they passed through the main streets. I also had a family connection with all things military covering a time from Irelands struggle for independence to participation in both world wars. I left school early after completing my Inter Cert exams to take over the family run business. After a few short years the family business closed, I was gained employed with a civilian auto glazing company. I worked there for 6 years and during that time, I was proud to have established, set up and run two new branches in Galway and Limerick. However, I could not settle and in early 1994 on seeing a notification in the paper about the new DF recruitment, I decided that I was now ready to follow my childhood ambition. I was the second eldest in my platoon. At that time, there was over 2,000 applicants for 40 jobs. What was your proudest moment in the job? I can honestly say that I have had a few. The most recent is placing first in the DF OOM for promotion to Sergeant Major. Returning late in my career to education and obtaining third level qualifications in a variety of areas: Adult Guidance & Counselling (DCU), Strategic Workforce Management (IT Carlow), Mentoring (Kingston College). Another proud moment was when I lead the DF representative body internationally for the centenary of the battle of the Somme in July 2016 in Thiepval, France. I had a dual role on that occasion, i/c enlisted personnel and escort to An Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D Higgins. Overall, the proudest moment for me with the greatest overwhelming sense of achievement, was when I was promoted into my current appointment as the senior enlisted appointment within 1 Bde as the brigade sergeant major. I am finally in an appointment where I can cause influence and effect in others and where I can pass on the benefits of my learned experiences to a much wider audience. What was your hardest/toughest moment in the job? As a young soldier on my first trip overseas to UNIFIL south Lebanon in the winter of '95 until the spring of '96, I served in the 78 Inf Bn, Battalion Mobile Reserve (BMR) with the Cavalry Troops, manning AML 90's and SISU APC's. For a first trip at the start, it was operationally quite enough, as I had expected from all the endless briefs that we got prior to our deployment. Coupled with that and thanks to the experience and guidance of the senior soldiers within the BMR unit, many who had multiple tours completed at this stage, I quickly became acquainted with the day-to-day operational tempo and routine. This would also include the near daily 0600hr skirmishes between the local militias (IMAL, Hezbollah, et. al) against the South Lebanon Army, also known as De Facto Forces (DFF) who were backed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). At the outset, it was quite unnerving but my confidence grew as the tour passed. In the final 6 weeks of the tour, things turned from one extreme into quite a different situation. Hostilities erupted between the two groups and escalated very quickly. The Israeli's mounted a large offensive operation which was given the code name "Grapes of Wrath", this code name still makes the hairs on my neck sit up to this day. I would say that this was a defining moment in my career development both as a soldier and as a human being. The level of destruction and large-scale loss of life (mainly civilians, women and children) was extremely overpowering. It is with the help of my training and the experience of those senior soldiers of the BMR that surrounded me, that allowed me to focus on my job and carry it out to the highest standard. It was in that space that I matured as a professional soldier, I now understood why I was there and most importantly, what my job was! To this day, it still has a profound effect on me and I am still trying to decide whether it was positive or negative. In 2003 on the 90th Inf Bn, Mark served with 4th Cav Sqn in Recce Troop in Liberia, seen here relaxing on his safari bed making out a set of orders for a patrol Mark poses for a photo in a An Cosantóir 10km Road Race T-shirt in tChad 2008 on the 97th Inf Bn PEOPLE OF THE DEFENCE FORCES

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