dr greg
One Too Many
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and it gets darker the further you head upriver.....
Well friends, it's that time of the year again. I'll be thinking of my Dad tomorrow, who served in Darwin at the age of 16 on the anti-aircraft searchlights during the bombings. He remained in the Army until his real age was disclosed, and discharged at the age of 17. At 18 and two months he then joined the RAAF, was shipped to Melbourne for technical training and worked as a mechanic on military aircraft until 1946.
Dad never said a lot about the war, but I know he lost a lot of friends who went to places overseas made famous to later generations by our servicemen's tenacity, courage and blood shed for our freedom. Today, we have diggers like Ben Roberts-Smith, Daniel Keighran and Mark Donaldson, all VC recipients who fought in Afghanistan, and so many others like them, too many of whom have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the service of freedom and democracy.
God bless all who've served and continue to serve in Australia and New Zealand. Lest we forget.
Upon being challenged by Woodrow Wilson about his presence at the Versailles Peace Conference...
"I speak for 60,000 dead. Who do you speak for?"
- Billy Hughes, P.M.
Trivia:
Australia boasted the ONLY completely civilian-volunteer army during the Great War.