LEST we forget.
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Age has not wearied the resonance of these three simple words, nor the years condemned what they represent.
Anzac Day remains unquestionably this country’s most significant and solemn national event.
There is no other day on the calendar that conveys so profoundly the values we, as Australians, hold dearest.
Every year more and more people attend Anzac Day commemorative services across the nation and Bendigo is no exception.
We do this not out of mere tradition or a hollow sense of obligation.
Rather, it is driven by a genuine desire to pay tribute to the brave men and women who sacrificed so much in far-off theatres of conflict.
As each year passes the direct links between the past and present inevitably fade.
Australia’s last remaining WWI soldier, John Ross, passed away in a Bendigo nursing home in 2009 and surviving WWII veterans are small in number.
With fewer ex-servicemen left to tell their stories first-hand, it is incumbent upon all of us to ensure their sacrifices are not forgotten.
This year there has been a greater focus on the service of those called upon to fight in the Vietnam War.
In Bendigo, for the first time in the city’s history, Vietnam veterans were given the honour of leading the parade.
For decades the veterans of this war were treated as pariahs, never afforded the same respect and recognition that servicemen of past wars were granted.
As such, many refused to march on Anzac Day, but yesterday’s historic event is another step forward in understanding the contentious conflict and its lasting impacts on those who served when their country called.
War should never be glamourised. It is ugly, bloody and – as history and hindsight have demonstrated – so often avoidable.
Yet the legacy of those who have fought for our country must be preserved.
By keeping alive the spirit of the Anzacs, we honour the sacrifices they made to ensure the freedom and lifestyle we enjoy today.
The key to guaranteeing we never lose sight of this lies not in mythology but in truth.
Only then will we continue to truly remember them.
Ross Tyson, deputy editor