ANZAC Day Approaches
Another ANZAC Day approaches and this one will be a bad one for me. Unfortunately the list of Ex Service people I have served with and no longer will make the ANZAC Day parades is getting longer and longer.
That I suppose is a given when you realise how old we all are now and the sorts of lives we have lived. The one thing that can not be a given though is how many of us of died or suffered from various types of cancers. As ex communications operators we have seen our numbers succumb to cancers at a rate of roughly twice the rest of the population. Some of us smoked some of us didn't. Lots of us drank heavily,
The one thing that we all had in common, and i'm not just talking about my own service, but those in the Army and Airforce as well is that we all used radio communications. It doesn't matter if you are in a ship, in the field or in an aircraft, you are never very far from either the sets themselves or the transmitting aerials.
The worst part of it is that our numbers stand out because we are only a small military in this country, and the number of communicators is even smaller. So when our numbers start to disappear it is even more noticeable to us. Information was being collected by en ex Airforce communicator as to the number of past communications operators had died and what cancers they had had and where they worked while they were in the service. Unfortunately, he too died of a rather nasty, aggressive form of cancer.
So this ANZAC Day I will try and remember all those that have gone before me already and a lot of them before their time. This year as I say will be a bad day. The lines of faces marching past in my minds eye are getting longer and longer.
I will go to the Dawn Parade and I will see them in the frosty air as they watch over us and then they will be there when we do the local service as well. I will still be able to see them in the daylight as they watch us carry on with our commemorations.
They will probably come over and hang out when I go home and have a couple of drinks for them as well,
i and others like me, as well as their families, will remember them. The only ones who will not remember them are the Defence Department whose mantra is that there is no link between our cancers and our service to our country. Them and of course the politicians, to whom ANZAC Day is a photo opportunity
So on behalf of my comrades who can't speak for themselves any longer, i just want to say to both my ex bosses in the Defence Department and to all those politicians who always treated us a some sort of lower life form who had to be tolerated at the least, a heartfelt Fuck You Very Much!
That I suppose is a given when you realise how old we all are now and the sorts of lives we have lived. The one thing that can not be a given though is how many of us of died or suffered from various types of cancers. As ex communications operators we have seen our numbers succumb to cancers at a rate of roughly twice the rest of the population. Some of us smoked some of us didn't. Lots of us drank heavily,
The one thing that we all had in common, and i'm not just talking about my own service, but those in the Army and Airforce as well is that we all used radio communications. It doesn't matter if you are in a ship, in the field or in an aircraft, you are never very far from either the sets themselves or the transmitting aerials.
The worst part of it is that our numbers stand out because we are only a small military in this country, and the number of communicators is even smaller. So when our numbers start to disappear it is even more noticeable to us. Information was being collected by en ex Airforce communicator as to the number of past communications operators had died and what cancers they had had and where they worked while they were in the service. Unfortunately, he too died of a rather nasty, aggressive form of cancer.
So this ANZAC Day I will try and remember all those that have gone before me already and a lot of them before their time. This year as I say will be a bad day. The lines of faces marching past in my minds eye are getting longer and longer.
I will go to the Dawn Parade and I will see them in the frosty air as they watch over us and then they will be there when we do the local service as well. I will still be able to see them in the daylight as they watch us carry on with our commemorations.
They will probably come over and hang out when I go home and have a couple of drinks for them as well,
i and others like me, as well as their families, will remember them. The only ones who will not remember them are the Defence Department whose mantra is that there is no link between our cancers and our service to our country. Them and of course the politicians, to whom ANZAC Day is a photo opportunity
So on behalf of my comrades who can't speak for themselves any longer, i just want to say to both my ex bosses in the Defence Department and to all those politicians who always treated us a some sort of lower life form who had to be tolerated at the least, a heartfelt Fuck You Very Much!
8 years ago