VC Awarded

A SOLDIER who deliberately drew enemy fire and then carried a wounded colleague to safety through a hail of bullets has been awarded the Victoria Cross. Details of the SAS soldier’s bravery first emerged last year.

At the time the chief of Australia’s special operations, Major-General Tim McOwan, said in late 2007 Australian troops had encountered significant numbers of Taliban prepared to attack them in large groups. An Australian, US and Afghan convoy was ambushed by a superior and well-prepared Taliban force while returning to base.

The clash resulted in nine Australian soldiers being wounded, the largest casualty toll of any single action since Vietnam. The previous day, the Australian soldiers killed 13 Taliban. As the convoy withdrew, the Taliban opened fire. Major General McOwan said soldiers reacted without concern for their own safety.

One, identified only as Trooper F at the time, but now known to be Trooper Donaldson, deliberately exposed himself to enemy fire on several occasions to draw attention away from the wounded. He then saw that a severely wounded Afghan interpreter had fallen from a vehicle and was lying on open ground raked by machine gun fire. “Without prompting, and without regard to his own safety, Trooper F ran back to recover the wounded Afghan,” the major general said. “He ran across about 80 metres of fire-swept and exposed ground, drawing intense and accurate machine-gun fire from the entrenched enemy positions.” Still under fire, he lifted the wounded man onto his shoulders and carried him back to the convoy’s vehicles. He administered first aid and then returned to the fight. Trooper Donaldson said he had not really thought about the danger when he went to rescue the stricken interpreter. “I’m a soldier … I’m trained to fight, that’s what we do, it’s instinct and it’s natural and you don’t really think about it at the time,” he said. “I just saw him there, I went over there and got him, that was it.”

Well done that man.