Page 20 - Signal Summer 2018

| CATHAL BERRY |

SIGNAL talks to Comdt Cathal Berry,
who recently completed a career
transition from being an infantry
Officer to his current role as School
Commandant of the Military Medical
School, Curragh Camp, which
involved resitting his Leaving Cert
and undergoing extensive medical
training. As he says; ‘You don’t have
to retire from the Defence Forces to
try something completely new.’

‘Knowledge Conquers Fear’

Could you provide a brief summary of your Defence What is your own current role within the Medical
Forces career to date? Corps and what does it involve?
I joined the armed forces 23 years ago and have served Currently my main role is Head of the Military Medical
as an Infantry Platoon Commander, an instructor in the School in the Curragh. Like most Defence Forces person-
Cadet School and in a variety of roles in the Army Ranger nel however I also have to cover for colleagues who are
Wing (ARW). I’m currently employed as a Medical Officer deployed overseas. This means I spend one day a week
in the Medical Corps and have completed a total of four in Limerick trying to complete tasks that would normally
overseas tours of duty in Africa, the Balkans and the take five days as the medical officer who is usually based
Middle East. While deployed abroad I worked as a troop there is deployed to Syria. Another colleague of mine is
commander, staff officer and military observer for the currently deployed to Lebanon so I have to cover most
UN, EU and NATO on different occasions. of his responsibilities in St Bricin’s Hospital aswell. So
The highlight of my professional career to date was to answer your question I am trying to do the duties of
when the then Chief of Staff Lt Gen Dermot Earley three appointment holders. Three different jobs in three
addressed the ARW Task Group three days prior to our different counties, each of them full-time roles in their own
deployment to Chad in 2008. It was awesome. 30 min- right- these sorts of situations can lead to frustration for
utes of no notes nor slides- just a Commanding General personnel, with families feeling the strain.
looking every person in the eye telling us precisely what What were the drivers behind wishing to transition
he expected from us in the desert. An absolute privilege to the Medical Corps?
to be in that room and I am the better soldier for it. I guess I’ve always been interested in medicine in gen-
Another defining moment was attending the then eral and surgery in particular. Maybe it’s the farm boy still
named University College Galway as part of the military’s in me, but I like working with my hands. If there was an
3rd Level Education USAC programme. The decision epiphany moment however it was as a student on the
taken in 1969 that all commissioned officers should have infamous Platoon Commanders’ Battle Course in the UK
a third level qualification was a generation ahead of its in 2003. Gulf War II began during the course so as you
time. There is a reason why our bomb disposal people can well imagine there was an edge to the training and
are better than the bomb makers, why our IT special- we got a right good going over. Indeed many of my fellow
ists are better than the hackers and why we can think classmates were flying to Saudi Arabia the day after the
straight as well as shoot straight- and it’s because of this course finished to link up with their regiments closing in
programme. Knowledge conquers fear. on Basra.

28 | | SUMMER ‘18 |