A time to die
An untold story of an Australian soldier’s death on overseas deployment

- Capt Peter McCarthy -

By Maj Charles Weller
Peacekeeping operations are not without risk and at times have demanded the ultimate sacrifice.

The threats can be many and varied, from disease and snakes through to intense combat between belligerents and, in some cases, action directed at the peacekeepers.

A simple task such as going on patrol can end in tragedy.

On January 12, 1988, Capt Peter McCarthy stood in on a patrol for an officer who had just arrived at UNTSO in Lebanon.

Peter, an RACT officer, had recently been appointed as the Assistant Ops Officer in OGL.

Commander of X Ray Team, Maj Gilbert Cote, was the patrol senior and decided to show Peter McCarthy the gullies and wadis used by the different parties as infiltration routes.

As they rounded a blind curve they were met by an APC that ran them off the road. Maj Cote made the decision to drive into the ditch on the side of the road to avoid being crushed.

They made it by bare centimetres. The patrol vehicle was recovered with assistance from the offending APC before they continued patrolling, thanking their luck for a narrow escape.

After midday the pair patrolled up a serpentine road to a vantage point that allowed excellent observation in all directions.

As the vehicle turned back and crossed another track it hit an anti tank mine.

Maj Cote recounts the details, “the next thing I knew, I was flying through the air. We had run over a mine. When I found the remnants of the jeep I found Peter too. I felt for a pulse but there was nothing.”

“I woke three days later in hospital. I had cracked ribs, a skull fracture, lacerations everywhere, fractured hands, a punctured lung and I was paralysed on one side. But I was alive. Poor Peter wasn’t.

“It’s a crying shame. He was a young up-and-comer in the officer corps; a bloody good soldier.”

The mine was not meant for them but nonetheless it killed one Australian and severely wounded a Canadian.

Capt McCarthy was at the end of his tour with UNTSO preparing to return home.

He had initially served as a member of the OP panel and later as a member of Team India in the Irishbatt AO.

His wife Susan, and young daughter Sarah resided in Nahariya with the other OGL families.

The funeral service, held in Naquora Camp, was attended by the McCarthys, the Australian UNMO’s and their families.

Full military honours were rendered by OGL Observers and representative groups from all UNIFIL battalions.

During the time that UNTSO has been operating, 27 UNMOs have died while on active service.

Capt Peter McCarthy joined his Australian forefathers who fell in earlier conflicts in the Middle East.

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