An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir March 2018 www.dfmagazine.ie 28 | By don lavery I t is one of the iconic pictures of 1960s ire- land; President John f Kennedy's motorcade on o'connell street in dublin. the closest person to the president's car is my dad, then captain Jim lavery, riding his motorbike while commanding the cavalry escort from 2 Motor squadron (now 2 cav sqn). this was June 1963; five months later Kennedy would be dead, shot by a sniper in dallas. Capt Lavery had trained all the men who made up the presidential escort that day, and by all accounts he was a tough but fair commander. While President Éamon de Valera was the unit's usual focus, they also provided escorts to many visiting dignitaries, such as Princess Grace of Monaco. The Kennedy visit, however, was different as the country was transfixed with the glamour and prestige of the most powerful man in the world coming to visit his ancestral home. His security detail's briefing included a warn- ing of a possible rooftop sniper on the motor- cade's route into Dublin. Live ammunition was issued to the escort's officers, including my dad, who, as he was riding right next to JFK, would have to have been the first to react in the event of an assassination attempt on the president. Capt Lavery had addressed President Ken- nedy in Irish when presenting the escort at Dublin Airport, and later, when huge crowds overwhelmed Ken- nedy's security outside Iveagh House, he drove his motorbike into the crowd to get to the president and ensure his safety. Before leaving Ireland, Ken- nedy gave Capt Lavery a gold tie pin of his WWII boat, PT 109, as thanks for guarding him. Both men were of a similar age, and both had seen action, Kennedy in the Pacific, and Lavery in the Congo. My father, who was born in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in 1922, joined the Irish Army as a Commissioned Tempo- rary Officer in 1944, and was troop commander of 8 Cyclist Squadron. In the event of an invasion, as an experienced motorcyclist my dad was tasked with rushing to Belvelly Bridge, which connected the vital harbour and naval base at Cobh to the mainland, to set off a demolition charge to blow the bridge. Given a regular commission in 1946, he served with 1 Motor Squadron and 4 Motor Squadron, before joining 2 Motor Squadron in 1956, where he served as adjutant, troop commander, and second-in-command. He volunteered for the Congo in 1960, serving with 33 Infantry Bat- talion as Admin Officer with A Coy, which lost nine soldiers in the Niemba ambush in November 1960, an inci- dent that shocked Ireland to the core. Three of the 11-man patrol were from 2 Motor Squadron, and the patrol com- mander, Lt Kevin Gleeson, was a friend of my father's. The small patrol was attacked by more than 200 warriors and remains the Irish Army's worst loss of life in a single incident in more than 50 years of peacekeeping. My twin, Mike, and I were seven years old when a chaplain came to our home in Rath- mines to tell my mother Nancy that dad was safe, after fears that he had been caught up in the ambush. My father interviewed one of the two survi- vors of the ambush and two years later, along with Comdt Jack Gallagher, Comdt Brendan Heaney (MO), and Comdt Thomas Malachy McMahon, he took part in a secret mission deep into Baluba territory to recover the body of Tpr Anthony Browne, who had fought his way clear of the ambush site before being overwhelmed some distance away, perhaps days later. The four Irish officers expected to be at- tacked by the warriors who they knew were in the surrounding bush, and my father recalled carrying a Gustaf sub-machine gun with 12 magazines, a satchel of grenades, and a .38 revolver with 12 rounds. They held discussions with local tribal lead- ers, some of whom had been involved in the ambush, and told them that Browne's wife and children wanted his body back (although he was not in fact married). As a result one of the chiefs agreed to guide them. As they moved on, Capt Lavery stayed close to the chief, later saying the man would have been, "the first to get it" if they were betrayed and ambushed. However, the chief duly led them to a spot and there, as Lavery noted in his di- ary, "was little Browne". Capt Lavery also led a patrol through hostile territory to rescue a Belgian priest, Fr Defour, before his mission was overrun. (Some 58 years later I came across a photo I had never seen of that patrol, on Facebook!) The priest later stayed at our home in Dublin as a guest of our family. My dad did a second tour in the Congo in 1962 as an armoured car section commander with 38 Infantry Battalion. During that trip, his elderly, home-built Ford armoured cars with their Vickers machine guns provided valuable fire support and reconnaissance for UN and Irish troops attacking Simba Hill and in the advance on Kipushi. His cars' machine guns fired 47,000 rounds over two days, giving an Escorting President Éamon de Valera in the early 1960s.

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