ANZAC day

[karly_in_a_box]

Hey folks!
Well, down here in Aus, yesterday was ANZAC day (Australia New Zealand Army Corps).

Even before i started dating a RAAF man, i have attended every service and march that i possibly could. Over the past years though, i have noticed a trend amongst the Melbourne march audience that has me a little disturbed.

Our past service men and women get rousing applause as they march past, which they well deserve. Yet, when our current service men and women pass, not a single clap could be heard for them. i appreciate that the day is for memory of our ANZACs, but surely our current folk deserve applause too. Whether they have been deployed yet or not, the fact remains that they know the risks and are still willing to be available to defend Australia.

For those other Australians on the board, is this trend occurrent in other states? was it just the part that i was watching from?

 

[Tasman]

Hey folks!
Well, down here in Aus, yesterday was ANZAC day (Australia New Zealand Army Corps).

Even before i started dating a RAAF man, i have attended every service and march that i possibly could. Over the past years though, i have noticed a trend amongst the Melbourne march audience that has me a little disturbed.

Our past service men and women get rousing applause as they march past, which they well deserve. Yet, when our current service men and women pass, not a single clap could be heard for them. i appreciate that the day is for memory of our ANZACs, but surely our current folk deserve applause too. Whether they have been deployed yet or not, the fact remains that they know the risks and are still willing to be available to defend Australia.

For those other Australians on the board, is this trend occurrent in other states? was it just the part that i was watching from?

Hi Karly

There were good turnouts in Hobart for both the Dawn Service and the 11:00am parade and main service. It was very pleasing to see the big turnout of young people. There was a big increase in the numbers of relatives wearing medals earned by deceased husbands, fathers, mothers or siblings and who are more than filling the dwindling ranks of WW2 servicemen and women. The encouragement to wear these medals (worn on the right hand side of the chest) has given real pride to these people who are now representing the deceased diggers.

Cheers

 

[old faithful]

I spent ANZAC day in Karratha WA,and am very proud to report an excellent turnout at the dawn service. Mining companys put on early buses for those who wanted to attend. And attend they did. For a relativly small town,it was a huge turn out. I was happy to see the local scout groups march along side diggers. girl guides and boy scouts who marched will no doubt remember that day for the rest of their lives. the miners went to work after the service,and over a thousand locals spent the day at the Pilbra regts barracks. In all,i would rate it as the best ANZAC day that i have ever attended. The age groups represented were 5yo,s to 95 yo,s.
on another note,it was interesting to hear that the Pilbra regt,s landrovers are to be rebuilt....no news from project overlander.

 

[Simon9]

For those other Australians on the board, is this trend occurrent in other states? was it just the part that i was watching from?

Not at all in Brisbane. The active personnel marching get as big a cheer and applause as the veterans. I've noticed it every time I've marched. I think maybe it's because our drill is so good.

 

[flyboyEB]

Yet, when our current service men and women pass, not a single clap could be heard for them.

That's strange, I marched in Fremantle last year and Perth this year with the Air Force Cadets and even us cadets were getting an applause, especially from the old diggers. Must be lefty/hippies

P.S. Yes, I like reviving old threads

 

[Tasman]

This year I was particularly interested in the televised dawn service from Villers-Bretonneux in France.

Three years ago I visited the memorial at Villers-Bretonneux with my wife when we were looking for the grave of one of her great uncles who is buried in one of the nearby war cemeteries. He was a farm boy who left his home in National Park in Tasmania at the age of eighteen and never returned. His two older brothers, who had enlisted earlier in the war had been killed a year earlier in battles near Ypres in Flanders. One of them has no known grave so is listed on the Menin Gate in Ypres. Three out of three! We were staggered at the number of Australian graves and the huge number of Australian names on the walls at Villers-Bretonneux and on the Menin Gate.

Tas

 

[flyboyEB]

We were staggered at the number of Australian graves and the huge number of Australian names on the walls at Villers-Bretonneux and on the Menin Gate.

'Lest we forget' is all I can say

 

[Yasin20]

im turkish australian and i think you are right what you have said
@ karly

 

[Goknub]

I think there is also the expectation that Veterans will be old, grey-haired men. I've been in Townsville for a few ANZAC days and former soldiers who served in Somalia and East Timor (circa 99) are starting to march and it is odd seeing such young(ish) Vets.

 

[flyboyEB]

I think there is also the expectation that Veterans will be old, grey-haired men. I've been in Townsville for a few ANZAC days and former soldiers who served in Somalia and East Timor (circa 99) are starting to march and it is odd seeing such young(ish) Vets.

Yeah, and you can probably bet more than a few of the current servicemen who were marching have been to Afghanistan, Iraq, the Soloman Islands or East Timor (both INTERFET and 2006-current)

 

[mattyem]

I remember my first anzac day parade with the navy. Ive never felt pride like I did that day!

It was an awesome experience talking with the vets at the RSA afterwards and having a few drinks with them too