An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 9 A Military Life by CPL LEE COyLE H arry O'beirne was born in Irishtown, Dublin and like most young boys, looked up to and idolised his brother. Unsurprisingly then, when his brother joined the FCÁ harry followed in his footsteps, enlisting in 42 Fd Arty Regt in Collins bks, Dublin, in 1957, where he soon developed a taste for military life. Shortly after, however, he decided to head to America, making the long journey to New york in 1958. After spending a year working in a life insurance company Harry got the chance to sign up with the military, enlisting in the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1959. Although Harry wanted to serve with Special Forces, non-US citizens were restricted in what they could do, so he was trained as a medic. A couple of years later Harry heard about Pararescuers, troops whose role was to rescue downed airmen and injured soldiers, and recover crashed or stricken aircraft. Their motto is 'These Things We Do That Others May Live'. (Pararescuers were used during the 1960s Apollo space missions to secure the command service module after splashdown and to retrieve the astronauts and transport them back to base.) Harry applied and was posted to 38th Air Rescue/Para, as an airman 1st class. Since 1955 America had been involved in South Vietnam, providing training and equipment, and this had escalated by 1960 to the deployment of troops. Within two years there were 9,000 US troops on the ground. In December 1963 Harry was deployed to South Vietnam with Pararescue, travelling between Vietnam and Japan, with three-week stints in Vietnam interspersed with two- to three-week spells in Japan. With the escalation of the war Harry volunteered for an extended tour of 15 months, despite the dangers and the difficulty of operating in the region, where jungle, muddy waters and very low visibility, made finding safe land- ing zones a difficult task. Harry and his crew faced constant danger while operat- ing during many battles and often coming under fire while trying to help injured soldiers. During his tour of just over two years, Harry carried out approximately 300 combat mis- sions and witnessed at first hand the devastating effects of war on the local population. Due to his medical background, after he was discharged in 1967 Harry decided to go back to college to study to become an anaesthetist. However, he still felt the call of the military and enlisted in the reserve as a staff sergeant in 1968. In 1972 he qualified as an anaesthetist and 18 years later, in 1990, he brought his medical skills to Iraq when he was called up to serve with a field medical hospital during Operation Desert Storm, treating American, Coalition and Iraqi soldiers. Once again Harry witnessed the brutal and horrific injuries that war brings and the toll suffered by the civilian population. Having served in the jungles of Vietnam and the deserts of the Middle East he had accumulated huge combat experience. Speaking about the differences between the Viet Cong and Saddam's Iraqi army, Harry says the Viet Cong were incredibly loyal whereas the bulk of the Iraqi army, most of whom had been forced to serve, had ill feelings towards their leaders. Harry retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1996, having completed nearly 40 years in the military. He is currently living happily in the US with his wife Tommie and his three children, Kevin, Sean and Brian. HH-43 Huskie with Parajumper in Vietnam. Harry O'Beirne in Vietnam, December 1963. A USAF Kaman HH-43B Huskie. Harry O'Beirne pictured recently.

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