Community service honours the fallen

 THE sacrifice of the Anzacs sent to Türkiye in World War One was acknowledged at the Eaglehawk commemorative service on Tuesday.

Bendigo RSL committee member Stephen Lee served 32 years in the defence force and recalled his personal connection to the Gallipoli landings.

“It is 108 years since Australians and New Zealanders splashed out of the sea onto the Gallipoli peninsula,” said Mr Lee.

“One of them was my great uncle, Felix Vague, who was shot dead in a landing boat before even reaching the shore and his body was never found.

“He is one of countless thousands which we have an obligation to remember on this day.

“So now we gather this morning, wondering what to say, and how to honour those whose bones rest in the coasts, hills and valleys of a foreign country, and whose spirit has moved our people for over a century.

“Few of us can recall the detail, but we have imbued what matters most.

“That a generation of young Australians rallied to serve our country when our country called, and they were faithful even unto death.

“Beginning at Gallipoli 108 years ago they fought, and all too often they died for their mates, for our country, for their king, and ultimately for the ideal that people and nations should be free.”

Mr Lee spoke about the courage of the soldiers and their example being the reason for our freedoms today.

“Instead of landing on Gallipoli, they would have longed for the homes they had left behind, the times they might’ve shared with their families, the backyard sports they could have played with their mates,” he said.

“But ordinary men did extraordinary things. They lived with death and dined with disease, because that is where their duty lay.

“It’s the greatest love that anyone can have, the readiness to lay down your life for your friend.

“It’s this that’s ennobled those Anzacs to all who’ve come after them. They faced the hardest test and they did not flinch.”

The service also acknowledged those who served in the Vietnam War, a conflict that Australia officially withdrew from with from 50 years ago.

War widow Jill Williams lost her husband in that war.

“I feel that none of the boys should have been sent to the Vietnam War,” said Mrs Williams.

“We shouldn’t have fallen into line with the Yanks to send them to a war that no one was going to win.”