ANZAC Day Ceremony

Having missed the 2020 ANZAC Service due to Covid, this year’s theme was to celebrate the role of our volunteers who played their part during the conflicts from WW1 until today. The role of the Citizens’ Military force and known today as Army, Navy and Air Force Reserves, is to defend our land from invading enemy forces during the full-time service personnel deploying overseas.

 

Most people believe it was the full-time soldiers only who served in conflicts. However, there has been the need to call on the volunteers to deploy with the regulars. A significant event during the New Guinea Campaign in WW11, the responsibility to defend and stop the advancing Japanese fell on its volunteer forces until regular soldiers joined them to assist. In recent conflicts, we have seen again; the Reserve forces called overseas filling roles as skilled personnel.

 

During the devastating fires known as Black Saturday in 2009, the special guest at our ANZAC service in 2018, Col Jason Cook, was tasked to command and deploy 4 Brigade Army Reserve personnel to the King Lake area to search for survivors. The communication network destroyed, and most roads blocked; on foot with radios, they searched home by home.

 

This year’s guest Warrant Officer Second Class Nicole Morgan, who was part of 4 Brigade Headquarters, told us of the regular and reserve personnel working together to assist with the devastating fires in Gippsland/ NSW, floods and support during the Covid Outbreaks. The Reserves consist of people from all industries and professions bringing along with them valuable skills. When the call to report to their Army Reserve Units and provide continuous service, they stepped forward, as they always have over the years.

 

John Tserkezidis

Materials Technology Teacher