Mick Coyle | ParaData

Mick Coyle enlisted into the Irish Guards in 1954 and qualified as a military parachutist at RAF Abingdon in 1956.

He served with the Guards Independent Parachute Company in Cyprus and Suez later that year.

Mick transferred to The Parachute Regiment and subsequently served with 2 PARA, at Depot, and then with 1 PARA before discharge in 1970 as a corporal.

After emigrating, he joined the Australian Army in the 1970s and was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in the Military Division as a Company Sergeant Major in 1988.

Mick is a member of the Airborne Forces Association Western Australia.

By ParaData Editor based on information kindly supplied by Mick Coyle

Date not known
No 1 (Guards) Independent Parachute Company (Guardsman)

Operations

Event

Cyprus (EOKA Campaign)

A continual round of village cordon and search operations, road blocks, curfews, law enforcement and riot control followed. Operations were directed against terrorist enclaves in the Kyrenian and Troodos Mountains and the Paphos Forest.

Event

Suez (Operation Musketeer)

French paratroopers with part of the 1st (Guards) Independent Parachute Company were to capture two vital bridges leading south from Port Said and isolate the town.