Today is ANZAC Day. My Australian readers will know what I mean, and what that generally means to us. For my other readers, I'll simply say that ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. On this day we remember those who fought, died, suffered, returned or otherwise served their country. It's kind of like Veterans Day or Rememberance Day. Why 25 April? Well that was the day in 1915 when the Galipolli Campaign commenced - the day the ANZAC legend was born.

So, what does ANZAC Day mean?

I can remember as a youngster, firstly in the Scouts, and later as a cadet in the Air Training Corps, marching in what seemed like a huge parade each year. In those days, the ranks of the marchers were still strong with my fathers generation of ex-servicemen returned from World War 2, as well as numerous First War vets. It was a day of solemn rememberance - what seemed like long winded speaches at the cenotaph, or awe at the stories told of horrors and heroism by those that had experienced them first hand not much more than twenty years previously. The march seemed to take forever to get to the Park where the cenotaph was located. If we were unlucky we were half way between a pipe band playing "Scotland the Brave", and a brass band playing "Colonel Bogeys March" - both at different beats and equal volumn, which made it impossible to keep in step to either! In the Park above the cenotaph was an old captured German fieldgun - now long since rusted away. We used to play on it for hours, pretending to re-enact the horrors and the heroism we heard from the returned "warries".

Did we glorify war by that play? I don't know. At that age, its difficult to understnd the concepts and ideals that persuaded men to fight in far off battles. Or to have any understanding of the struggles and real horrors that those men suffered.

And then came the Vietnam War.

Had I been a couple of years older, I might have been conscripted and sent off to Vietnam. But Australia's involvment in the War ended in 1973, the soldiers that came home suddenly were not the heroes that their fathers had been. There was a feeling that we should not have been involved in Vietnam - that somehow it was not an "honourable" war. ANZAC Day was different from then on. It is perhaps best summed up in a line from an Eric Bogle song: "And I ask, what are they marching for?" [note: the song ":And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is about a disillusioned war vet questioning the reason for all the slaughter and suffering]. The ANZAC ranks thinned, either through many passing on, or turning away in disillusionment. There was open confrontation between the "peaceniks" claiming "glorification of war", and the "warries" countering with "you'll never understand". The crowds thinned as well, and at one time it looked like ANZAC Day would simply fade away.

But it didn't. Today was testament to that.

There is an awakening in the younge that the ANZAC spirit means something. The ANZAC legend is alive and well. Maybe not in the numbers I remember as a kid - not in the marchers anyway. But the crowds are returning. Especially to the Dawn Services.

It is as if the people are latching onto ANZAC Day, and making it our national day (afterall so-called Australia Day is really only the anniversary of one European settlement at Sydney). Maybe its because I have actually seen first hand where these legends happened. I've touched, albeit superficially and in a removed way, the horrors and the heroism of those old stories I heard years ago. And I'm not the only one. Its become something of a "semi-religious" pilgrimage for Australians, young and old, to visit the old battlefeilds overseas, especially Gallipoli.

So, do we glorify war? I don't think so. We remember family members we may never have known. We acknowledge the debt we owe them (afterall we do live in a relatively peaceful land and time). We look to encourage that very same spirit of self-sacrifice and "mateship" that is the ANZAC spirit. "Their name liveth forever". And we who remain must carry that legend forward. "Lest we forget".

And what does ANZAC Day mean for me personally? Its the inconvenience of "having" to get up at 4:30am to be at the Dawn Service, its the pain of chaffed underarms from the several marches this day, its the sore feet from standing to attention and marching. But most of all its the pride of rememberance of the true heroes. I've done my bit to carry the legend forward. And my "suffering" is nothing compared to what they went through. "They" made my country what it is today. And for that I am thankful.

I know I've shown this one before, but it *is* one of my favourite pictures: The Kalgoorlie Cenotaph

And if you want to see me in my Air Training Corp uniform.