Coalition airmen observe day of remembrance

4/28/2010 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- Airmen from six partner nations gathered at the memorial plaza for a dawn service to observe Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Day April 25 here.

A national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC Day is commemorated April 25 every year by both countries to honor members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought in Turkey during World War I. Much like Memorial Day in the United States, ANZAC Day pays tribute to all who have served in military operations for their country.

Royal Australian Air Force Squadron Leader Charles Vandepeer spoke about the history of ANZAC Day and its importance to the people of Australia and New Zealand.

"We do not celebrate victory or glorify war, we celebrate the triumph of human valor, the spirit of ANZAC."

Considered Australia's most important national occasion, ANZAC Day marks the anniversary of the 1915 offensive to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey and open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. The campaign lasted eight months and more than 8,000 Australian soldiers died.

Observed by Australians and New Zealanders around the world, the ANZAC Day service is traditionally held at dawn as a symbolic link to the Gallipoli landing. Participants offer prayers, recount the battle, sing hymns, lay wreaths, lower the flags to half mast and observe a period of silence. Participants also recite the Ode of Remembrance and raise the flags again at first light as a bugler sounds "Reveille."

Senior officers from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Great Britain, Canada and France each laid a wreath at the bases of the flag poles here.

RAAF Air Commodore Neil Hart, the Combined Air and Space Operations Center director, and Maj. Gen. Stephen L. Hoog, the deputy Combined Force Air Component commander, were among the distinguished participants.

As the flags were lowered to half mast, Staff Sgt. Mark Nixon, a member of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command Band, sounded the last post bugle call.

After a moment of silence, RAAF Flying Officer Bronwyn Rowe recited the traditional ode.

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old," he said. "Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them."

Senior officers from the air components of the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada and France present arms during the Australian National Anthem April 25, 2010, in Southwest Asia. Each wore a red poppy, the traditional symbol of remembrance for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Day.
(U.S. Air Force photo/Maj. Chad Steffey

Australia takes her pen in hand,
To write a line to you,
To let you fellows understand,
How proud we are of you.

From shearing shed and cattle run,
From Broome to Hobsons Bay,
Each native-born Australian son,
Stands straighter up today.

The man who used to "hump his drum",
On far-out Queensland runs,
Is fighting side by side with some
Tasmanian farmer's sons.

The fisher-boys dropped sail and oar
To grimly stand the test,
Along that storm-swept Turkish shore,
With miners from the west.

The old state jealousies of yore
Are dead as Pharaoh's sow,
We're not State children any more
We're all Australians now!

Our six-starred flag that used to fly,
Half-shyly to the breeze,
Unknown where older nations ply
Their trade on foreign seas,

Flies out to meet the morning blue
With Vict'ry at the prow;
For that's the flag the Sydney flew,
The wide seas know it now!

The mettle that a race can show
Is proved with shot and steel,
And now we know what nations know
And feel what nations feel.

The honoured graves beneath the crest
Of Gaba Tepe hill,
May hold our bravest and our best,
But we have brave men still.

With all our petty quarrels done,
Dissensions overthrown,
We have, through what you boys have done,
A history of our own.

Our old world diff'rences are dead,
Like weeds beneath the plough,
For English, Scotch, and Irish-bred,
They're all Australians now!

So now we'll toast the Third Brigade,
That led Australia's van,
For never shall their glory fade
In minds Australian.

Fight on, fight on, unflinchingly,
Till right and justice reign.
Fight on, fight on, till Victory
Shall send you home again.

And with Australia's flag shall fly
A spray of wattle bough,
To symbolise our unity,
We're all Australians now.

25th of April 1915 - Australia is baptised in blood.

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