A FORMER soldier has told the High Court he was "absolutely terrified" when his post in Lebanon came under mortar attack during an early morning incident in 1999 in the course of which another young soldier was killed.
David Concannon said shrapnel had come through the walls of the billets where soldiers were sleeping and he received a cut to his lip from shrapnel during the attack on May 31st, 1999. When he came out of his billet to get to a bunker, he saw Pte David Kedian lying covered in blood on the ground.
Mr Concannon, who left the Army months later, said he felt unable to speak about the incident afterwards to Army superiors as he believed other soldiers would speak about him behind his back and he also feared that voicing his fears would not be good for his career.
He recalled two critical incident stress debriefings being held afterwards and would not dispute there were four such debriefings, including two on May 31st, 1999. Nor would he dispute that Army superiors had invited members of his platoon to talk openly about their feelings and fears following the incident and were also told it was natural to grieve.
He had secured a discharge in February 2000 and had not worked for six months after that. He felt lonely and depressed, began sleepwalking and suffered nightmares, sleeplessness and mood swings.
He went for counselling from May 2002 which helped.
Yesterday was the second day of the hearing of actions by former Pte Concannon and Pte Darren Clarke, both 28, arising from the incident at Irish Unifil post 642 near Brashit in Lebanon when mortars fired by the Israeli-backed De Facto Forces landed inside the Irish compound and Pte Kedian (22) was killed. Pte Clarke sustained injuries from shrapnel and another soldier, Pte Ronnie Rushe, was seriously injured.
Both soldiers were aged 19 at the time and were on their first overseas tour of duty with the 85th Battalion.
They have sued for damages for post-traumatic stress disorder and injuries, and also allege negligence in failing to ensure a safe place of work for them and that their billets were unsafe and unsuitable for use by peacekeeping forces.
It is also alleged that, had the Defence Forces responded more speedily in getting the soldiers from their billets to bunkers as soon as the mortar firing began, Pte Kedian might not have died and others might not have sustained injuries.
The Minister for Defence and the State have denied the claims.
Earlier yesterday, Pte Clarke told Colm Ó hOisín SC, for the State, that he remains with the Army and had served overseas again in 2002 and in 2006. After the 1999 incident, he had sleep difficulties and nightmares.
He had later attended counselling and this had helped him a lot. He agreed the concept of survivor guilt had been discussed with him by a doctor which related to persons who survived a traumatic incident feeling guilty about surviving.
