Hi

With another Anzac Day passed, I want to write about my soldiers and my youngest son.

I attended the Dawn Service this year, as I have for many years past. Yet, this year it was extra significant.

My youngest son, Joshua, rang me the day before Anzac Day. He is 19, and is just finishing his basic training in the army. Josh has invited all the members of our extended family to his Marching Out parade at Kapooka in three weeks. He is very excited. He has been in cadets since he was twelve, and always wanted to make the military his career of choice. Therefore, it is a given that we will all make it there for this special event.

Two months ago he rang me from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, part of their training is this visit. Josh knows one of my hobbies is our family geneology, and he wanted to know what relatives of his had been in the military. It saddened me to think that, apart from his father and grandfather, and a few of my great uncles, I had no idea of who had done active service, or when.

Thank goodness for the internet. There is a website (National Archives of Australia) that is so beyond my expectations, that fabulous just doesn’t cover it. http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/recordsearch/index.aspx

Logging in as a guest was easy and free of charge,  and I was soon keying in surnames that I knew in my family tree. There is a wealth of information, and on many records they have a digital copy of the military records. Astounding information is available. Look up this site for those members of your family that have been in the military, or key in surnames and it will show what records it has.

How proud I am of all my children, and of their career choices. How proud I am of all the people who serve our country in the military, and of the families of these soldiers, sailors and airmen/airwomen.

There are different songs about Anzacs. Today I want to share with you the lyrics from a song, simply titled “The Anzac”, sung by Australian Country Singer Adam Brand.

When 1914 began
He was working on the land
With his mom and dad
He left behind his girl,
Joined up to see the world
And make his mother sad
He made it through the war Came back to town
To help his father work the fields
And rebuild his life somehow
And everybody called him “The Anzac”
That’s still what they call him now
INSTR:

He set his mind to stay
When his father passed away
And the rivers ran dry

He said I’ll take care of you mom
I’ve fought before and won
And we can win this fight

And all alone he’d work all day until he dropped
Until the place got back to best he didn’t stop
There were time’s he thought he’d been forgotten
But every night at 6 o’clock

There he’d stand for that man they called “The Anzac”
And those who gave their lives for us__
They’d stand for that man they called “The Anzac”
For fighting for the land he loved
INSTR:

At the same time every year we all remember him
At the crack of dawn we stand as one
For all our fallen friends
So drink to that man we call “The Anzac”
We will remember him
So stand for that man they called “The Anzac”
Those who gave their lives for us
Let’s stand for that man they call “The Anzac”
For fighting for the land he loved
So stand for that man they called “The Anzac”
For fighting for the land we love
We will remember them

 LEST WE FORGET!

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