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RESPECT:
Sailors take part in services around the world including
LS Mark Gibson at Lone Pine, Gallipoli. Photo: LSPH Phillip
Cullinan
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Photo:
LSPH Phillip Cullinan
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The
crew of the Manoora at the dawn service in New Caledonia
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PRIDE:
Submariners march in Canberra
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CN
takes part in the commemorations at Anzac Cove
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Volume
49, No. 7, May 4, 2006
Several
thousand RAN personnel donned their Ceremonial Dress uniforms
and proudly marched side-by-side with scores of war veterans in
Anzac Day marches held in cities around the country on April 25.
Anzac Day 2006 also featured numerous Dawn Service commemoration
ceremonies in Australia and on famous battlefields around the
world including Gallipoli, where Chief of Navy VADM Russ Shalders,
AO, CSC, RAN read the ‘Anzac Ode’.
As the strains of the Last Post echoed through the Dardenelles,
VADM Shalders laid a wreath for the youth of Australia who wrote
the Anzac tradition with their blood at Gallipoli 91 years ago.
VADM Shalders said Anzac Day was a time to remember the sacrifices
of earlier generations of Australian servicemen and also reflect
on the dedication to duty of the current Navy and ADF personnel.
Defence Minister, Dr Brendan Nelson, said Anzac Day is a time
to pay tribute to “those Australians who have proudly served
our country”.
“We remember those young men and women whose commitment and
sacrifice came to symbolise the struggle of a young nation, starting
to make its way in the world,” he said.
“We reflect on the Anzac tradition, which embodies the values
of courage, sacrifice, determination and mateship.”
“It is important also that we remember those who carry on
this tradition”, in reference to the 2,000 Australians serving
overseas in seven different operations, providing surveillance
and keeping peace around the world.
The Navy and ADF personnel on deployments overseas took time out
from ongoing security operations to conduct Dawn Services in the
Solomons, Iraq, Afghanistan and other UN peacekeeping missions.
The ship’s company of HMAS Ballarat which is on station in
the Persian Gulf as the RAN’s contribution to Operation Catalyst
made the time to conduct an Anzac Day Dawn Service.
Anzac Day in Australia saw thousands of past and present Navy
and ADF personnel march side-by-side, in what has come to symbolise
the handing over of the torch in which the legend of fighting
spirit of Anzac burns bright.
The old salts who served in WWII, Korea, the Malayan emergency,
Vietnam, and numerous peacekeeping operations gave the nod of
approval to the current RAN members for upholding the tradition
of Anzac.
Closer to home several thousand sailors and officers from the
fleet and numerous shore installations around the country participated
in Dawn Services and Anzac Day marches.
Led by Navy Band detachments, thousands of sailors formed a “sea
of white” as they marched through the streets of cities around
Australia. Their campaign medals and ceremonial swords glinted
in the brilliant autumn sunshine.
The Sydney Detachment of the RAN Band led the way for 500 Navy
personnel featuring the ships’ companies of HMAS Newcastle,
HMAS Parramatta, HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Darwin, which has just
home-ported to FBE from HMAS Stirling.
CMDR Tony Raeside, commanding officer of HMAS Melbourne, led the
march by HMAS Melbourne Association members, which included sailors
who served on the former aircraft carrier, Melbourne.
CAPT M.J Van Balen headed a march by some 250 sailors and officers
from HMAS Watson, the RAN’s premier training facility.
Scores of sailors from HMAS Kuttabul also joined the march to
help carry the banners of various navy associations including
the Scrap Iron flotilla that served in WWII with great distinction.
In Canberra, scores of sailors from HMAS Harman joined the Dawn
Service at the parade ground in front of the Australian War Memorial,
and later marched in the Anzac Day parade that was attended by
CDF ACM Angus Houston.
In Brisbane, 50,000 people lined the main street to cheer the
march by 15,000 past and present Australian service personnel,
with the Navy providing a larger than normal showing this year.
Not only did PNF and Reservist members based in South-East Queensland
turn out but so did the ship’s companies of three visiting
RAN vessels, HMAS Diamantina and auxiliary minesweepers Wallaroo
and Bandicoot.
And in WA, about 800 personnel from HMAS Stirling, HMA Ships Anzac,
Warramunga, Westralia, Melville and the submarine FEG marched
in Perth, Fremantle, Rockingham, Kwinana, Pinjarra, Byford, Busselton
and Yarloop.
HMAS Anzac, currently in DSRA, sent a detachment of 50 personnel
to the ship’s adopted hometown of Albany, to participate
in Anzac Day commemorative services there.
Her sister ship HMAS Arunta sent a detachment of personnel to
her adopted hometown of Alice Springs.
Collins class submariners attended a Dawn Service at Stirling
to commemorate the crews of the RAN’s first submarines, AE1,
which sank in 1914, and AE2, which helped write the proud tradition
of Anzac by being the only Allied warship to penetrate the Dardenelles
in 1915.
Meanwhile at HMAS Creswell, CAPT Mark Sander delivered a moving
Dawn Service in which he appealed to the sailors to “carry
in your hearts and in your mind’s eye this place where you
first trained together to be officers of the RAN.
“It is the focus of our attention this morning as we honour
the memory of those selfless generations of men and women of our
naval service who gave the last full measure of themselves, and
lost their lives doing their duty.”
“Lest We Forget”… the people and Service personnel
of Australia certainly didn’t.
Nirimba
veterans reunited
HMAS
Nirimba veterans turned out in force to participate in Anzac Day
activities in Canberra, with hundreds taking part in the Dawn
Service and later marching along Anzac Parade.
The Sydney training establishment held a major reunion in Canberra
to coincide with the Anzac Day commemoration.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the commencement of RAN
apprentice training at HMAS Nirimba.
The reunion was for all those who were trained at Nirimba or instructed
or served as ship’s company, whether they were Australian
Public Servants or military members.
