By BRIDGET SCOTT
AN AUSTRALIAN soldier who was awarded the country’s highest award for bravery captured the minds of a group of year nine students at Cranbourne Secondary College late last month.
Thirty-one-year-old Dan Keighran was awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia for his actions in the Battle of Derapet on 24 August 2010 during the war in Afghanistan and spoke at the high school on Thursday 27 November.
He is the third soldier to be awarded the medal, which was created in 1991 as a bravery award specifically for Australians, and is also the first member of the Royal Australian Regiment to receive the award.
The remarkable story of this young man was enough to invite plenty of questions from students and instil a sense of inspiration among them.
The Aussie solider came from humble beginnings in rural Queensland and told students that he can recall growing up in a house with dirty floors and doing his homework by candlelight.
Corporal Keighran has meet Queen Elizabeth II three times.
He no longer serves as a full-time soldier but is now in the Army Reserve.
The soldier was honest about his time in the army and spoke about the hardship he and his mates endured.
Corporal Keighran was awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia after he used himself as a decoy to draw enemy fire away from colleagues who were tending to a battle casualty.
