Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

Michael John Anthony Kealy, (29 May 1945 – 1 February 1979) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who served in the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...

and was awarded the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

for his role in the Battle of Mirbat in 1972. Kealy was the commander of a nine-member SAS squad, which came under attack from hundreds of

Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf The Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير الخليج العربي المحتل, abbreviated PFLOAG), later renamed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arabian ...

guerillas during the

Dhofar Rebellion The Dhofar Rebellion, also known as the Dhofar War or the Omani Civil War, was waged from 1963 to 1976 in the province of Dhofar against the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. The war began with the formation of the Dhofar Liberation Front, a group ...

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

Death

Kealy died of

hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe h ...

on 1 February 1979 when he joined SAS candidates on a selection march in the

Brecon Beacons The Brecon Beacons ( cy, Bannau Brycheiniog, ) are a mountain range in South Wales. In a narrow sense, the name refers to the range of Old Red Sandstone peaks which lie to the south of Brecon. Sometimes referred to as "the central Beacons" t ...

in deteriorating weather conditions. He was found alive (but in poor condition) by his fellow soldier John Watts, who stayed with him and attempted to keep him warm. It was later acknowledged by the coroner that one of the major contributory factors in his death was the delay in retrieving him from the hillside—a delay of some 19 hours due to inclement weather. Another factor was that Kealy had not packed cold weather gear, instead carrying bricks in his Bergen pack to increase its weight to 50 pounds. When offered warm clothing by the search party, he refused—and even threw a warm blanket away. A combination of Kealy's stubbornness and the effects of hypothermia clouding his judgement seems to have been the tipping point. As a direct result of this and similar incidents, those attempting SAS selection are now allowed to carry only useful items in their bergens when marching.

In fiction

Sir Ranulph Fiennes Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet (born 7 March 1944), commonly known as Sir Ranulph Fiennes () and sometimes as Ran Fiennes, is a British explorer, writer and poet, who holds several endurance records. Fiennes served in the ...

turns the real Mike Kealy into a fictional character in his book ''

The Feather Men ''The Feather Men'' is a 1991 novel by the British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. The book was initially published on 17 October 1991 by Bloomsbury Publishing. In 2011 it was loosely adapted into the film '' Killer Elite''. Plot introduction ...

''. In the novel, Mike Kealy is murdered by a group of contract killers called "The Clinic" in revenge for his role in Oman that had resulted in the killing of a sheik's son. Rather than succumbing to the

extreme weather Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...

conditions while on an endurance march, as actually happened, the fictional character dies after going into diabetic shock following him being injected with insulin by "The Clinic".

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kealy, Mike 1945 births 1979 deaths Special Air Service officers Companions of the Distinguished Service Order British military personnel of the Dhofar Rebellion Queen's Regiment officers Deaths from hypothermia