For the ANZACS

[methylatedghosts]

Remember our fallen this ANZAC day

And try to do our best to be sure that our fallen didn't fall in vain.



Anzac is the day we all remember, when the troops
Of Australia and New Zealand came together
To fight the war of all wars that was suppose to end
The misery and hatred among nations and men

But we haven’t learnt the lessons of this Great War
For the past eighty years we have fought more and more
From that Great War right up till today
With the Spirit of Anzac for peace we have prayed

But alas we have answered many calls with our Brothers in Arms
World War Two, Korea Borneo Malaya and Vietnam
At every call the Spirit of Anzac was kept alive with pride
We did fight gallantly against hardened enemies side by side

That Spirit lives on as our young men and women still fight
On distant battle fields for the right
While in fields afar the poppies still bloom
As our gardens of stone fill with gloom

So you see Anzac means more than just the first Great War
When we commemorate those who live no more
Let us remember all who have served
And without regret their faithful service Lest We Forget

R.W. Hamon
2sec, 2Pl, Whiskey Two RNZIR
4 & 6 RAR ANZAC BNs
Vietnam 1968-69

 

[*Anne*]

:namaste

 

[Peacewise]

Lest we forget.

My grandfather served in WW2, here is a short reflection of his during an interview many years after the war, about coming home from an aerial assault on japanese war ships, in which australian air crew died, and no harm to the enemy was done.

the interviewer states to my grandfather.
"That must have been pretty lousy for morale, because, after all, you must have known quite a few boys that didn't come home, and?"

grandfather responds.
"We always knew. We lived in tents, at what we called our operational bases. We always knew who hadn't come back, because the kerosene lights weren't on in that particular tent. But we just accepted it, it was something we got 75 cents a day for."

...
interviewer : I'm sure there aren't too many pleasant memories of that for you, either.

Grandfather : Of our hundred who started out full-time training on the 31st of march, 1941, 74 were killed.

Today Grandfather is the last surviving member of Number 13 Course, Empire Air Training Scheme.

Lest We Forget.

 

[Storm]

:candle:

 

[kiwimac]

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

 

[joea]

http://blogs.sfu.ca/services/volunteer/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/poppy_3001.jpg

 

[sandandfoam]

There was a great exhibition about Gallipoli fifteen odd years ago in the museum in Auckland, it was very touching. Also very depressing.
There was a documentary on here last night about James Martin, it was good.
A truly awful waste of young life it is right to remember their sacrifice.

 

[methylatedghosts]

Hard to imagine it was 95 years ago this year.