For our tomorrow they gave their today

The simple but powerful tribute on that monument in Burma says, “When you go home tell them of us and say: for your tomorrow we gave our today.”

OVER the years in wars around the world over one hundred thousand Australians have given their today for our tomorrow. What a remarkable sacrifice for any human being to make - to give their life so that future generations can enjoy freedom.

FOR many the dawn service takes on a special significance.

This eerie half light just before the sun comes up plays tricks with soldier’s eyes and from the earliest times, the half hour or so before dawn, with its grey misty shadows, became one of the most favoured time for attack.

Soldiers are traditionally woken up in the dark before dawn, so that by the time the first dull grey light crept across the battlefield they were awake, alert and manning their weapons.

DAWN is also the time when a group of volunteer Australian and New Zealand soldiers found themselves wading ashore at dawn at a small beach on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. Could you possibly imagine what would have been going through the minds of those young lads as they jumped off onto the Turkish shores in Anzac Cove at that time of day, knowing they may never ever return to their homeland and they may never see their family and friends again?

A FEW years ago our son travelled to the Gallipoli Peninsula with a bunch of other Wollongong University history students who were each required to research a Digger then present their finding to the group while standing on the old battlefields.

“This was the most emotional part of our journey,” he said, adding that there were a lot of tears as each separate human story was told.

“My soldier was Corporal Fred Crisp from Bowral who was my age when he died at Gallipoli in 1915. The fact he was my age and from my district made it all the more real,” said Sam.

And that’s the harsh reality, isn’t it? Just good solid kids, like Bowral’s Fred Crisp, with their whole lives ahead of them, needlessly cut down in their prime.

I SPENT a memorable day at El Alamein in the Western Desert when travelling in Egypt some years ago with my wife Barbara.

This patch of desert is where Montgomery cleaned up Rommel’s Afrika Korps. Goodness only knows what they were fighting for out there, but they certainly created some headstones.

It was a particularly poignant and very sad moment for us to be out in that hot, dry and dusty Western Desert by ourselves standing among the memorials etched with the familiar names of thousands of young Aussies who were slaughtered in this battleground. We were both surprisingly moved by the feel of the place - the loneliness, the bloody futility of it all. Not just the dead Aussie lads, but also the New Zealanders, Scots, Brits, Indians, Pakistanis, Canadians, Italians and Germans.

EACH DAY as we turn on our radios, read our newspapers and watch the television, we hear of horrific wars around the world - people committing insidious atrocities on other people. Every time we hear those news items from remote parts we should be reminding ourselves how very lucky we are to live in such a relatively peaceful country, thanks no small part to the men and women who have left our shores to protect our freedom.

VETERANS deserve respect from us who have never had to confront the horror that is war. And not only our servicemen and women, but those on the home front too. They must have gone through their own hell waiting for news.

EVEN WAR, as serious as it is, can have a lighter side.

Like seventy one years ago, when young Harry Jackson signed up in the army.

On his first day in basic training, the army issued him a comb. That afternoon the army barber sheared off all his hair.

On his second day, the army issued Harry a toothbrush. That afternoon the army dentist yanked seven of his rotten teeth.

On the third day, the army issued him with new underpants.

The army has now been looking for Harry for seventy one years.

LEST WE FORGET