Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

In a few short hours it will be April 25th, which is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand.

It is our national day of remembrance, initially created to honour those who fell in The Great War, but later expanded for the nations to honour all of those who have served in our respective armed forces through the years. The date commemorates the Gallipoli Landings in Turkey on April 25th, 1915.

I spent most of today at work teaching teenagers a bit about their history that is often sadly lacking, to help give them some appreciation of the day beyond a day off and a football match. I capped it off by showing them this video of a song that I first heard as a primary schooler from a teacher who I now believe was a veteran of the Vietnam War. At the end of it, several had welled up in tears. Sometimes you have to feel it, rather than just read, be told about it and talk about it - if you want the message to be felt and not just heard.

A Walk in the Light Green

Lest We Forget.

Looking forwards to the dawn service tomorrow with my local community. Well, I'm driving half an hour to be there since I moved, so it isn't technically my local community, but it's where I belong for the morning. I'm surprised at the marines marching in Darwin (apparently), but I take that as them saluting the efforts of our soldiers, sailors and airmen alongside their nation, rather than what I'm sure some people will say is a cheapening of the march in that city. I hope those currently deployed feel the prayers and thoughts of those who care for them while they are away from home, be that deployed somewhere nearby like East Timor, or further away like Afghanistan. I'm glad to hear teachers still impress upon their students the importance of the day in our countries history, and that we aren't celebrating a victory, but honouring the dead of a defeat, and along with them the thousands of servicemen and women in the years that followed.

Lest We Forget