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KATHY RAFTERY FIRST heard about Patrick ‘Bob’ Gallagher when looking at an old childhood photo of her mother.
It was an Irish Press image of a group of schoolchildren taken in 1956.
Her mother explained who everyone in the photo was. When she got to Patrick she said, ‘That boy died in the Vietnam War.’
Intrigued about a Mayo man fighting in one of the most high-profile wars of the 20th century, Kathy started to research his story.
Patrick was born in Co Mayo in 1944. He grew up near Ballyhaunis, before emigrating to Long Island in the US in the early 1960s.
He joined the US Marine Corps and was stationed in Vietnam during some of the most intense fighting of a controversial war that waged for almost 20 years.
Two of his sisters also lived in New York and were aware he was serving in Vietnam, but he swore them to secrecy as he didn’t want his family in Ireland to worry about his safety.
Kathy notes that all the letters he sent home went through a military training camp in California so had an American stamp, meaning his family never suspected he was living elsewhere.
Grenades
A fateful event in Vietnam forced his hand, making telling his parents inevitable – before they found out from someone else.
Patrick was hailed a hero after saving his comrades from incoming grenades, throwing himself on one of them to save his fellow marines in 1966.
A military citation states: “Without hesitation, in a valiant act of self-sacrifice, Lance Corporal Gallagher threw himself upon the deadly grenade in order to absorb the explosion and save the lives of his comrades.
Through his extraordinary heroism and inspiring valor in the face of almost certain death, he saved his comrades from probable injury and possible loss of life. His daring actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
Luckily, the grenade had a delayed fuse which allowed him to roll over and throw it away before it exploded.
Patrick was awarded a Navy Cross, the second highest honour in the US military, for his actions.
He sent a letter home explaining he was serving in Vietnam. Soon afterwards a journalist from RTÉ arrived to interview the parents of the Mayo man hailed a war hero.
The news was a surprise, to say the least.
During the course of researching and recording the documentary, Kathy spoke to some of Patrick’s relatives and men who served with him in Vietnam.
His fellow soldiers said Patrick was proud of receiving the Navy Cross but “didn’t want a big fuss made of it” and “just wanted to move on” from a “traumatic” experience in which he could have died.
They remembered him as “very positive and very thorough … a nice guy”.
“When I starting researching it I didn’t realise what a big story it was,” Kathy notes, adding: “It has been an honour to speak to these marines.”
She says they were very sad about recalling Patrick’s death, but happy to help ensure his story was remembered.
Ambush
Patrick was killed in an ambush by Viet Cong soldiers on 30 March 1967, shortly before he was due to leave the country.
Kathy says the attack happened “out of nowhere” on a routine patrol.
Millions of people – both soldiers and civilians – died in the almost two-decade war. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC bears the names of almost 58,000 members of the US armed forces, including Patrick.
He was one of thousands of Irish people to have served with US Armed Forces in the Vietnam War. About 30 of them were killed in action.
There is an online petition calling for the US Navy to honor Patrick by naming a ship after him. It has over 5,700 signatures to date.
Mayo Boy, Vietnam Hero will be broadcast as RTÉ Radio’s Documentary on One at 2pm today, and repeated at 7pm tomorrow. You can also listen to it online after it has been aired.
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Name them. I bet there’s a few there either
A. Related to someone
B. Party hacks
C. Incompetents who failed miserably everywhere else.
D. Someone with 3 state pension already
I heard there are bondholders in it also
The legend Gerald Fleming is in the pic – giving the V sign to camera – He knows the sea and wind and arrows and fronts and stuff. Wink. Goodnight.
Gerard Fleming & Co are using the equipment that Michael Fish was using back in 1987
Give them time the floods only started a month ago
They are a bit late coming together at this point. It is a pity we have a habit of been re active rather than pro acrive.
Minister Hayes during the week as an example thinking he great announcing better protection against floods. Hello minister nothing has changed in the ladt few hundred yeara all the places that flooded always were prone to floods.
Declan the limerick flood never happened before. Came from a totally different direction. Never happened in living memory.
What is the national emergency group anyway? ????….. No idea. .. Never heard of them but probably a shower of overpayed, overindulged “experts” feeding at the national troff
I may be wrong but I’ve yet to see any Civil Defence or Army Reserves out helping!
Civil defence were deployed in Cork City last night, including river rescue units.
Defence forces troops were out in limerick the other day as was the civil defence
Civil defence are deployed at a local level. My mother volunteers with them and they’ve been called out on various occasion throughout the year for flooding etc.
They don’t get nearly enough credit. Majority of them my mam works with are volunteers.
Don’t mind sitting around talking about what might happen. Go to Holland and ask the Dutch how they dealt with coastal erosion and flooding…take a shortcut and ask somebody who has already dealt with the problem and has the solution…saves money …gets results faster
I smell oodles of overtime here.
I’d say the expenses are pretty good as well.
They will reconvene in the summer
What summer?
2013
A talking shop…..
god help us if we do get a real natural disaster. There isn’t one person in kildare street with leadershio skills.
No help from the army in clonmel as shatter closed the army barracks and posted the soldiers to kilkenny Bks.just to keep big mouth Hogan happy .
Rumour has it that they reckon stricter internet controls and more pylons will greatly reduce the number of floods we are experiencing.
The piss and wind brigade!
The response, or rather lack of, by the Irish authorities to the continued bad weather and flooding is severely lacking.
A few sandbags isn’t going to be any good in situations like this and measures that will divert floodwaters and limit damage will need to be taken.
Another example of the complete lack of response is that the main online Irish data on flooding is on the OPW website and hasn’t been updated since 2009.
There is no attempt to crowdsource flooding data in realtime, a methodology which has been successfully used in other countries.
Is it not a bit illogical to have the National Emergency Coordination Centre right in the centre of Dublin? If the emergency were anything besides weather, the centre of the capital might not be the best place to be.
It’s about time national fire ambulance. Service. Mr sean hogan against this if look at fire service some refuse to Ture out flooding.
Alot of county’s, I’d say most, (retained anyways), don’t turn out to flooding. It’s crazy. They’d rather send the civil defence cos it’s free. I’d love to see the chaos in the country if the gardai was run like the fire service. In this country they under-react to everything, and when something goes tits up they cover there arses till it’s forgotten about.
Irelands Justice League?
Nothing
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