Dick Tynan turned his back on the family butchery business in Dublin and travelled to America. He joined the army and whilst there he met Howard Branch, a young African American private and they bonded. It was a bond that was to be cruelly broken...
Mary Elaine Tynan writes for Culture about the new Documentary On One production, Finding Private Branch, which airs on RTÉ Radio 1 this weekend - listen to Finding Private Branch above.
Around 4am, when most of us are turning over in our sleep, 81-year-old dad is waking up. If you were awake at the time, the first thing you’d hear would be the creak of his bed as he climbs out trying not to wake my mum. This is followed by the sound of his bedroom door opening, and then the gentle sound of him treading down the stairs. After that, there are soft sounds of movement in the kitchen; the cupboard opening; a clink of a mug; the ding of the microwave if he’s having hot milk, or the hiss of the kettle if it’s tea. Sometimes the toaster will pop. And then silence as he reads the paper, meditates or does a bit of writing. He’s even been known to go for a late night walk. Eventually he will go back to bed, and hopefully he’ll get some sleep.
All of this is normal in our house. It’s always been like that, and for a long time I thought it was just a personality thing. Only when I was older did I learn that he did it to stave off the anxiety and forget the nightmares and flashbacks that have plagued him since his early twenties. It was diagnosed as endogenous depression back then, which meant depression that wasn’t related to any external or environmental factor. It would take another 50 years to find out how wrong this was.
Four years ago, dad’s doctor suggested to dad that he might have PTSD so the US army agreed to get him assessed. It turns out the doctor was spot on. Dad’s 'endogenous' depression is actually PTSD. Why would the American Military assess him? Well, Dad’s troubles relate back to his time in the US army and an accident he was involved in on 27th April 1959, when he witnessed the death of his dear friend and army buddy, Private Howard Branch.
Since that diagnosis, the story becomes quite intriguing. We assumed that the military would hold up their hands and allow dad to get the PTSD treatment he needed. It was an open and shut case, right? Wrong apparently! While they acknowledged the accident dad had been involved in, the US army’s response was that they had NO records of any casualties that day and that dad would have to prove it to them. What followed was several years of letters back and forth as dad argued with them but to no avail. They had no record and unless dad could prove it, they wouldn’t entertain his claim for medical treatment.
I don’t think the army realised who they were taking on. If there’s one thing my dad won’t do, it’s give up. So when they asked him to prove that this accident did happen and that it affected him, they probably thought he’d disappear or die. He did neither. That’s when I got dragged into it. With a background in journalism, Dad asked me to help him. Which I agreed to do of course. But secretly, like the rest of my family, I was beginning to wonder if Howard had really died in the accident. Maybe he was still alive, out there somewhere. Either way, we needed to find out.
Around the time that this was happening, I was with some producers from the Documentary On One unit in RTÉ. I mentioned this story to them in passing and to my shock they found it really interesting and encouraged me to document it. I found it hard to believe that people would be interested in my family or this story but I decided to start making some recordings. That was almost two years ago, and eventually it turned into a radio documentary, Finding Private Branch.
The story is really about dad trying to get closure on something that happened 59 years ago. It’s even more complex than that, I learned along the way, because it was also about his need to confront the guilt that has plagued him because of a misunderstanding he had had j ust weeks before the accident. It’s also about my dad’s refusal to be bullied by the giant that is the US Military.
I learned a lot about my dad in the process and in particular, why he is the way he is. I’m so glad I made the documentary. I got to know my dad a lot better. We had a few arguments along the way but mostly we got closer.
I may be biased but I think it’s a cracker of a story. A sort of a David and Goliath scenario with a few twists and turns along the way. I won’t tell you who won. You’ll have to listen…
Documentary On One: Finding Private Branch, RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday, September 29th at 2pm - find out more here.
