Some day, no one will march at all

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I live in a city with just under 2 million people. Today was ANZAC day, which is similar to the US veterans day. It is a ceremony held today to coincide with the landing of the Allied forces at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.

At the procession today, for the first time there was no survivor of the armed forces in WW1 present. All these guys are now very old- the few survivors- are over 100.

I recall the procession when for the first time there were no survivors of the Boer War, when the procession was lead with a cavalry horse and an empty saddle with the riding boots facing the reverse.

It has to happen. But it is sad.
:frowning:

2

Ah, but " their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong". :slight_smile:

Sad, yes, although perhaps remarkable that there are still 100 survivors. I hope their remaing years are happy ones.

3

The OP didn’t say there were 100 survivors. Those few survivors there are are 10 years old or older.

4

10 years old? Those brave children.

What I just did was very wrong. I apologise thoroughly.

But it is still a good thing that this was the first time that there were no living survivors considering that they would have had such long and fruitful lives.

5

My Father was a pilot in Vietnam.

He is now 67yrs old.

When he no longer marches, I will march in his place.

With pride.

6

This is a bit of a hijack, but how old are you, Cicero? The Boer War was at the turn of the century, with the first World War at least a decade away. I don’t doubt that you were there, but I am curious, as it seems to me that being able to remember the first time there were no Boer War veterns would’ve been a good while ago.

Or maybe that’s just because my area has almost lost all of it’s World War II veterns, and so WWI and the Boer War seem more ancient to me. I don’t know. All in all, it’s a very bittersweet moment.

7

Doesn’t sound so strange. The Spanish-American war was in 1898, and the last surviving veteran died only in 1992:

Given that, there’s no reason that Boer War veterans weren’t still around in the past ten years or so.

8

The parade would have been in the early 1980’s- I don’t see anything particularly weird about it. FWIW, my grandfather fought in the Boer War: however he died in the 1950’s.

9

Thanks for putting it into some prespective. I think it’s my own area’s lack of vetern longivity is skewing my thoughts.

10

I had a quiet day, watched the parade on TV, and rang both my grandpas, veterans of WWII and Korea respectively.

It was sad, being a Sunday, that it almost seemed that ANZAC day got lost into being just another weekend.

Some thoughts:

I thought it cheap that Johnny Howard popped off to Iraq for the day.

I cheered at the 15000 defiant young Aussies & Kiwis who gathered at ANZAC cove despite government warnings that they’d be a terrorist target.

I was saddenned that in Melbourne, they only two Victorian WWI veterans were too frail to March.

I was moved by all the video messages home they played on TV of soldiers in the Solomons, Iraq, Timor etc etc.

I loved the story on TV about the 10 “trouble teens” who got trekked the Kokoda trail.

I watched the old diggers march alongside the schoolboy cadets and realised that they hadn’t been much older than those boys when they volunteered to go to war.

I love the words on the memorial at ANZAC cove:

11

Oh, the Ataturk quotation is wondeful!