Lest We Forget

[Owen]

I'm sure many of us today will have spent time reflecting on those friends and family that have been affected by war both past and present.
For me ANZAC day always brings memories of a good mate who served in Vietnam and died many years later from cancer attributed to agent orange. This occured not long after my mother had passed on, so it was a difficult period.
As you may have guessed, I love good poetry.
In tribute to both of them I put together my own inadequate piece.


The Fates.

A child is born, a loved one dies
And each of us lives out the lies
In insulated peace, lest we might see.

That all we hold as truth and right,
our hopes, our faith, our dreams are nought;
But crystaline defence 'gainst what will be.

For all of us will come to know,
When Atropos has struck her blow
Her icy hand of fate has sought and sealed.

A friend, a lover, a confidant;
The measure of the thread too scant,
This universal truth to us revealed.

She takes not one, but all who've touched
or loved and laughed or been rebuffed.
A little piece of all who've ever known.

Begone grim horseman, no crop there be,
yes take the sisters back with thee.
And all the wars and plagues that you have sown

For in our lifes great tapestry,
our threads entwined, till we are one
Thus we may die, but truely all cheat death

Though short our time upon this earth
We greet your scythe with nought but mirth
My friend will live whilst ever I draw breath.


In Greek Mythology, the three fates decided the fate of all mankind.
Clotho spun the thread, Lacheis measured it out and Atropos cut the thread of life.

[aussiefool]

I was going to tell you all, the reasons why I go not go to any ANZAC Day services.... blah blah ect ect........
But instead I'll just say thanks
Aussiefool
Ex serviceman

[choppa]

i still miss him,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Big_unit]

The man I am named after my Great Uncle James William McNelis. To say that Im proud and extremely honoured is the the tip of the iceberg.

[Big_unit]

Great Uncle Charlie McNelis, my younger brother is named after him.

[DaveSue_Fishos_Two]

That is fine poetry Owen.

Dave

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

That's interesting stuff Jeff, what's your source there?. I did see what I presume to be Mercury ( By your description ) but it didn't quite fit if you know what I mean. Where are you mate? It was really impressive here, they were very close together and the colour just really made the whole thing jump out. I wish I'd had a camera. I'll certainly never forget it or the people whose memory it evoked.

Mate,
Excellent site:
http://www.heavens-above.com/
Click Select under the Anonymous users section on the page
click australia, then type in Townsville into the search string
It will probably come up with Townsville QLD, click on that.
Your lat and long and local time are now fixed for the rest of your session. All info will be given relative to your own little spot on the world and local time will be correct.
Go to whole sky map
Set the date and time you want to view the heavens. It will then produce a map of the stars for that exact time and your exact position, with moon and visible planet positions highlighted. If you want to print it, select the black on white option. Note that the map is for use looking up (east is shown on the left and west on the right), so face south, hold the map up over your head and it should line up with all the star positions.

Its a really great site, for satellite tracking it is the best around. Hope you find the site interesting.

I'm living in Manila at the moment, so I might get a view of venus and the moon, but with the light and other pollution here, there is little chance of seeing Mercury.

Cheers
Jeff

[-Henno-]

Polishing boots, ironing 7 creases in my pants, tying silly bows, scrubbing my hat with toothpaste. That's what it used to mean to me.

Every year it seemed our base was called upon to send sailors to attend dawn services all over the state. It was a major hassle and I always figured if it was about honouring fallen servicemen that on that one bloody day that the living servicemen could have a day off. It did get better as the day wore on though. Everybody wants to shoot a drink to the guy in uniform and suddenly you are a hero for the day even though you are just a radio technician!

When I first joined up we sent a huge contingent of 200 young fellas to lead the march through Sydney. The streets were dead quiet but lined with heaps of people that all of a sudden started cheering as we rounded the first corner with SLRs clinking and boots smashing the deck.

The main thing I remember about that march was the gunnery officers that has spent weeks training us by screaming in our ears had to leave us alone to just do it and if we stuffed up we stuffed up. So they all went to the RSL and by the end of the march were a bit under the weather. Weapons were returned to the bus we had driven in in and if we wanted to stay we could. We all stayed. The gunnery jacks were so legless though they forgot the fact that besides the SLR's we also had razor sharp bayonets sheathed in scabbards on our belts and drove off without collecting them. By the end of the day we were knocking the lids off stubbies with em and chucking them at trees in Hyde park. No major injuries but nobody got in a fight that day. Somebody always wants to fight a sailor, but 200 sailors with bayonets, not one taker.

One thing you notice by the days end is all the self confessed hero's you are bumping into. Every civvy was in the SAS and you can never seem to run into an ex medic, cook, pay clerk. Yep a couple too many beers and everybody was a trained killer by the end of ANZAC Day.

[GES]

I attended the dawn service at Cleveland. What a turn out of people. It gets bigger every year. WONDERFUL.

GES

[catchy_fishy]

ANZAC Dawn is not celebrated to my knowledge in South Africa. (Armistice Day in November is however.)

It really has been wonderful reading all the posts in this thread - and being witness to the love, pride, respect and honour. It has been a privelege to be a small part of this -thank you for allowing me to join you in your rememberences.

Catchy Fishy

[revs57]

I have difficulty to find the words expressing my gratitude to those who have served and given the ultimate sacrifice, and their families that suffer silently when all have gone back to business as usual. i'm grateful for the ANZAC day parades, dawn service and other events that remain to help our generation remember our brave heros and all who have served our countries call.

I've had the privelege to participate at our local Primary Schools Anzac Day service for the past 5 years. I must admit I always feel inadequate, looking at he sea of young faces from many races and ethnic background...It reminds me that our children may just be the one's who learn to accept and reconcile with others who have different ideological, political, cultural, traditional and religious ideals.

In war everyone loses, however there can be no peace without justice and sometimes justice comes at a cost because someone has to stand up against that influence that seeks to rob people of freedom

A humble thanks to all who have stood up

Rhys

[borisdog]

catchy_fishy - Plenty of your countrymen paid the ultimate price too mate, the whole point of the most sacred day on the Australian calender is to preserve the memory of our people who fought and often died, regardless of the reason, for their country. We owe it to them to preserve that memory.

[borisdog]

I got caught p in the family tree thing a while back and stumbled into this thing. It's an Australian military service records site. To my knowledge it's pretty much only Army but there are other records there. I've found lot's of mine and wive's relations from WW1 and 2. WW1 records are much more complete but it's progressing all the time.

http://www.naa.gov.au/the_collection...s/ww1/ww1.html

[Bream_Reaper01]

I don't march but i do remember all soldiers,especially my granfather that lies in a grave in Palestine from WW2.

[catchy_fishy]

catchy_fishy - Plenty of your countrymen paid the ultimate price too mate, the whole point of the most sacred day on the Australian calender is to preserve the memory of our people who fought and often died, regardless of the reason, for their country. We owe it to them to preserve that memory.

Including a good friend of mine.

Whilst at school I led the rememberance day parade in my final year as a student Cadet and whilst it was a proud day, it was a sad day when I realised after the names were read from WW1, and WW2 and then more recently in border skirmishes that there were guys that I physically had known that had already paid the price.

I did not mean as South African's no one remembers, nor that no-one paid the ultimate price, rather that the common bond of remembering seems to have disappeared. In certain schools and in the military war heroes are remembered on 11/11 - but not to the same extent as Anzac Day.

I was comforted to experience the posts in this thread - let no SA cricket supporter hear this, but Aussies are a wonderful people and a wonderful nation for the values you hold dear.

Mike