We all wanted the experience to be perfect.
This is a day that the nation stops and pays reverence to the Australian men and women who suffered and fought during so many wars.
We attended the mornining service, but the crowd was so thick that the actual servicemen couldn’t get through to pay their respects.
Something has been lost.
The Silence of a crowd of thousands is something to experience, one mind, one heart, one soul...a respect for those men and women that never stopped to reason why? Single-minded people, determined to protect our shores and way of life.
This is what ANZAC DAY is all about: showing our respect for those that suffered and died for an IDEAL.
For me, however, today seemed different.
An old friend, who served in Cambodia, a Navel man, saw the carnage of war. Hundreds of bodies floating in the waters below and, because of the orders from the First captain, they were to leave them, the dead women and children, some alive and alone.
Then he heard a cry for help in the distance.
Through his binoculours, he saw a little girl striving to remain alive on top of a dead women’s body...no more than two years old.
As the Second in Charge, the Captain of the crew, the order to stop was obeyed in an instant.
(He knew his career was on the line.)
“To our left, only a few k’s away, is a child in distress. Turn 380’ south and we will bring her on board.”
Despite the rantings of the Admiral, the crew turned the destroyer around, under gun fire, and brought the little girl on the ship...half starved and terrified.
Whether the ‘luck’ of human’s or the grace of God, not one of the crew had been hurt, and the ship moved steadily into calm waters.
She was a baby no more than two, cold and distressed.
James, (the second in command) my best mate at the time, loved the baby from the start, and raised her with his lovely wife.
ANZAC DAY has come around once again. The problem is the young crowd, who have never experienced war, treat the day as a holiday, and today, for me, a man who served, was not REALLY recognized, another oldman with a few medals, trying to buy a beer at the RSL. But the young fools would not let me in as it was, for them, just another party.
Little Sue, (pictured above.) who was saved by the pure courage and humanity of the Second Captain, now lives in a suburb of Melbourne with two beautiful children that have, after so many years, grown up, have been educated, and are now contributing to the good of the world.
This was unexpected but a pure joy to know and remember...
This is a day that the nation stops and pays reverence to the Australian men and women who suffered and fought during so many wars.
We attended the mornining service, but the crowd was so thick that the actual servicemen couldn’t get through to pay their respects.
Something has been lost.
The Silence of a crowd of thousands is something to experience, one mind, one heart, one soul...a respect for those men and women that never stopped to reason why? Single-minded people, determined to protect our shores and way of life.
This is what ANZAC DAY is all about: showing our respect for those that suffered and died for an IDEAL.
For me, however, today seemed different.
An old friend, who served in Cambodia, a Navel man, saw the carnage of war. Hundreds of bodies floating in the waters below and, because of the orders from the First captain, they were to leave them, the dead women and children, some alive and alone.
Then he heard a cry for help in the distance.
Through his binoculours, he saw a little girl striving to remain alive on top of a dead women’s body...no more than two years old.
As the Second in Charge, the Captain of the crew, the order to stop was obeyed in an instant.
(He knew his career was on the line.)
“To our left, only a few k’s away, is a child in distress. Turn 380’ south and we will bring her on board.”
Despite the rantings of the Admiral, the crew turned the destroyer around, under gun fire, and brought the little girl on the ship...half starved and terrified.
Whether the ‘luck’ of human’s or the grace of God, not one of the crew had been hurt, and the ship moved steadily into calm waters.
She was a baby no more than two, cold and distressed.
James, (the second in command) my best mate at the time, loved the baby from the start, and raised her with his lovely wife.
ANZAC DAY has come around once again. The problem is the young crowd, who have never experienced war, treat the day as a holiday, and today, for me, a man who served, was not REALLY recognized, another oldman with a few medals, trying to buy a beer at the RSL. But the young fools would not let me in as it was, for them, just another party.
Little Sue, (pictured above.) who was saved by the pure courage and humanity of the Second Captain, now lives in a suburb of Melbourne with two beautiful children that have, after so many years, grown up, have been educated, and are now contributing to the good of the world.
This was unexpected but a pure joy to know and remember...
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