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ANZAC Day

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rugbyskier

Ted Thorn (20)
Just saw this thread, haven't been online much in the past week.

I had a huge day on Saturday. Got home from the Brumbies match around 10:30 on Friday night and got up at 3:30 on Saturday to go to the Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial. I park by the road between the War Memorial and ADFA when I go to the Dawn Service and I knew the crowd was going to be big when I had to park further away than last year, when I had arrived nearly an hour earlier. Got to the War Memorial and just managed to find a seat in one of the temporary grandstands, and the crowd was already larger than the previous year.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-AK (Andrew Kellaway)-xap1/v/t1.0-9/11140081_10153740972219881_3597189507281023216_n.jpg?oh=33d3a1c951bc2b8c5e801e1d3c4f1a1d&oe=55D602C0&__gda__=1439260053_f993214858a2fb5abf0432efe99999f0

Here's a photo that a photographer from the University of Canberra took at the start of the service. The crowd is 200-400m deep down the sides of Anzac Parade.

The Dawn Service was beautiful and the readings from the diaries of servicemen and servicewomen from Gallipoli to Afghanistan beforehand were very touching.

I then went home and got ready for the march, as one of my rugby team mates had invited me (as an Australian ex-serviceman) to march with the South African veterans. I was pleased that I was able to drill march without problems despite not having done it for 16 years. We marched up Anzac Parade, did the 'eyes-right' to the Governor-General and then sat in the stands to watch the service.

Had lunch with the South African vets then did my own personal commemoration at the War Memorial, placing the poppy I wore for the march next to the name of my grandfather's uncle who died near Ieper (Ypres) Belgium in March 1918. I had hoped to be in France and Belgium on that day, going to the Villers-Bretonneux Dawn Service and then the Menin Gate service, but circumstances conspired against me. Being in Canberra for the two services and participating in the march was the next best thing.
 
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