As a 16-year-old she asked her brother, a Vietnam veteran, a question she regrets to this day: “How many people did you shoot?”

“I wish I had known then what I know now,” Ms McQueen said.

“I never would have asked that question and I may have learned what it was like for him in the Vietnam War.” 

As the guest speaker at this year’s Anzac Day commemorative service in Maldon, Ms McQueen urged veterans to share their stories, and their loved ones to inquire about their experiences.

But she offered some advice on how best to do so.

“Ask them what the terrain was like,” Ms McQueen said.

The weather, the friendships, the living conditions – all topics the OAM recipient said could lead to interesting discussions.

“There’s a lot more to service in a war zone than shooting and fighting,” Ms McQueen said. 

“Probably only a small percentage of a person’s war service was spent actually fighting, thank goodness – in some cases not at all.

“But this doesn’t mean the experience was all that pleasant… There are more horrors in war than being shot at or shooting at the enemy.”

Ms McQueen said every person’s service for their country was important, no matter what roles they performed.

“Without each and every one of you, the job could not be done,” she said, addressing the veterans in particular.

More coverage: Your guide to Anzac Day 2018 in Bendigo and central Victoria

A crowd gathered outside the Maldon Visitor Information Centre for the service, which started with a march at 10.45am.

Maldon RSL Sub-Branch president Glenn Miller was among the veterans in attendance.

He recognised the sacrifices of people who effectively volunteered their services in aid of their country –people like Victoria Cross medal recipient Private Patrick Joseph Bugden.

According to the Australian War Memorial, Private Bugden was recognised for twice leading small parties to silence the enemy posts at Polygon Wood, near Ypres in Belgium.

“Five times he rescued wounded men trapped by intense shelling and machine-gun fire,” the war memorial records state.

“Once, seeing that an Australian corporal had been taken prisoner, he single-handedly rushed to his comrade's aid, shooting and bayoneting the enemy. He kept fighting until he was killed.”

RELATED: ‘I do what I do because I care’

Mr Miller said it was men like Private Bugden whose example people ought to remember.

“Men who believed that the tyranny caused by others should not be inflicted on the defenceless,” he said.

“They were, in essence, volunteers given very limited training, equipment, medical treatment and supplies and sent to an unknown land to fight an unknown foe.

“We must grasp the values of this lesson they have left with us.”

Though much of what we know about the country’s service history is sombre, Ms McQueen said there were moments of humor. 

“They had to make some fun to stay relatively sane,” she said.

It was the more jovial anecdotes Ms McQueen said occupied the bulk of the veterans’ discussions whenever they got together.

“In the main, they don’t dwell on the war stories,” she said.