Lest We Forget [Archive]

AdrianF

11-11-2009, 12:29 PM

I am on a break from teaching at the moment and when I asked the student to stop what they were doing for a minutes silence they asked "why?"
I had to stop after and explain why we have a minutes silence. These are 15-16 year olds.
Part of australias history and they have no idea at all

Adrian

renormalised

11-11-2009, 12:43 PM

Precisely why we should be teaching it in schools.

Half of them are flat out remembering about the Gulf War, let alone anything earlier.

iceman

11-11-2009, 01:01 PM

Lest We Forget

I just finished reading a book called Pacific Fury (http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=537565) about (obviously) the pacific war, and Australia's role in it. Very interesting reading.

I'm now reading A Bstard Of A Place (http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=505831), specifically about the Papuan campaign - not just Kokoda though. More about Milne Bay, Gona, Buna and Sanananda as well.

Incredibly interesting, frightening, sobering reading.

renormalised

11-11-2009, 01:09 PM

Dad was up in PNG...he was a reconnaissance scout. Before that, he was in the Middle East...fought at Tobruk and such.

He used to tell us all stories about what went on...unfortunately, he passed away 7 years ago, now, and it never occurred to me to write them down. I can still remember most of what he said, so I might just do that anyway. Before I end up forgetting!!!.

picklesrules

11-11-2009, 01:23 PM

Lest we forget

Allan_L

11-11-2009, 01:41 PM

[FONT=Times New Roman]

...Lest we forget

casstony

11-11-2009, 01:47 PM

I'm gradually educating our kids about the folly of war, it's horrors and sadness. Images of devastated landscapes, barely sane soldiers and burned children do a good job of dispelling any romantic notions of war. Throw manipulative or incompetent leaders into the mix and it's clearly something to be avoided.

I do my remembering in small, regular doses - it's too depressing otherwise.

WarpSpider74

11-11-2009, 01:58 PM

Lest we Forget...

taminga16

11-11-2009, 01:59 PM

Did they beat the drum slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
And did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play The flowers of the fallen.

The green fields of France.

Eric Bogle.

mojo

11-11-2009, 02:32 PM

Thanks. I appreciate it.

Wars in general puzzle me. The carnage of WWI amazes me every time I think about.

taminga16

11-11-2009, 02:54 PM

An old farmer that I worked with some years ago told me some horrific instances of his time in France, one I will never forget was of him seeing his mates drown in the mud. Madness.

Lest we forget.

Greg.

kustard

11-11-2009, 02:56 PM

I remember at school having the minute silence. My step dad was in PNG as well but he never told us stories until he had a stroke and only then did he tell us some of the horrific things that he endured. He died shortly after.

Lest We Forget...

jjjnettie

11-11-2009, 03:32 PM

I have been told some very sobering/shocking experiences from the Vietnam war and from PNG ww2. Stories that had never been told to wives and family because of the shame and extreme sadness involved.
Lest we forget and glorify war.

And though I hate the very idea of war, I am no pacifist, I would stand up and fight for the freedom of my children and country.
Lest I forget the sacrifices that others have made for me.

Octane

11-11-2009, 03:53 PM

One of the general managers of one of our departments is an ex-army general.

On today's date, each year, at 10:57 AM, he takes command of the all-encompassing corporate PA system and delivers a speech, so that each and every one of us hears what he has to say.

He doesn't even have to say anything after his speech; at 11 AM, all the typing and clicking stops and everyone pays their respects in complete silence. It is a sombre and humbling reminder of the sacrifices that great men and women have made in the past so that we have what we have today.

Lest we forget.

Regards,
Humayun

xstream

11-11-2009, 03:58 PM

We will remember them..

Lest We Forget.

Ric

11-11-2009, 04:30 PM

Lest we forget.

My wish is that we learn from these terrible times for a peaceful future.

11-11-2009, 05:55 PM

Lest We Forget.

.

leon

11-11-2009, 06:02 PM

I'm with you Ric, War and the end result has no winners other than a lot of good people dead.

I do as you guys do remember, but what a cost, wouldn't it be nice if everyone lived and loved in PEACE.

Leon

BerrieK

11-11-2009, 07:21 PM

Lest we forget.

Let's also think of Aussies currently deployed, thank them, and hope (and pray) they come home safe in body and in mind.

Kerrie

taminga16

11-11-2009, 07:49 PM

I spent the last year of my Secondary schooling year expressing my opposition to Australia's involvement in the war in Vietnam (All Draft, No Vote), "wagged" school (first time) to attend the Melbourne Moratorium march, arrested at 17 for supporting Paul Fox, ride motorcycles with three "Vets", (whom I love dearly) that still require a daily hug, watch them try to deal the mess in Vietnam that they consider theirs, still struggle with being here and alone, and we sit at home and wait for the next generation of Vets to come home.

We really have a long way to go.

Greg.

Jen

11-11-2009, 08:10 PM

We will remember them :)

Satchmo

11-11-2009, 08:54 PM

Remembrance day means different things to different people.

I also think of the young people who slept for days at a time on my bedroom floor when I was a kid, who had the strength of character and moral conviction to become literally fugitives from the law at a young age, in the rejection of their 'duty'.

Each to their own.

renormalised

11-11-2009, 09:31 PM

Been listening to Redgum..."I was only 19" and 'Running with the Hurricane"...great songs. Good themes for today...futility of war and the stupidity of politicians who always seem to start them.

FredSnerd

11-11-2009, 09:39 PM

Sorry Carl, Redgum, one of my pet hates of all time. Awful lyrics. Much preferred Eric Bogle (Band played waltzing Matilda).

AstralTraveller

11-11-2009, 09:43 PM

I also think of the civilians caught up in war. My partner is from Germany and both of her parents had very hard times. His family fled on foot from what is now Poland to west Germany digging over old potato farms hoping to find some that everyone else had missed. He ate naught but snow for 8 days. She was in the Ruhr Valley (Diesburg I think) and was bombed by the yanks by day and and the poms by night. Days at a time in air raid shelters with the earth shaking. Neither of them were 10 when the war ended. Then they were in a shattered country. What did they do to deserve that?

PS Reading this again I realized that it might seem that I was being partisan about the rights and wrongs of that war. I wasn't. That is just the example that I know.

renormalised

11-11-2009, 09:53 PM

I like him too:D:D

Buck

11-11-2009, 10:39 PM

Similar story here Carl. Dad also was in the Middle East and then PNG. He didn't talk much about the war, but he had kept a daily diary and was also a photographer (processed his own work). After he died in 1998 I reproduced his diary to cd complete with his photographs of the Middle East and PNG campaigns. He didn't like anyone to see the diary while he was alive, but at least we have his personal record of 6 years in active service in WW2. Interestingly there are 2 pages deliberately torn out of his diary. He was only "courting" my mum at that time, so maybe something happened that he recorded, but later regretted. We'll never know now!

The Australian War Museum have shown an interest in his diary and the photos - active servicemen were not supposed to keep records, let alone photos, even though they were more a reflection of daily life in the AIF - but now they are a rare historical record that helps keep the history of Australians at war real and accurate.

Paul

marki

11-11-2009, 11:10 PM

We had a small service at school today. The kids were magic and deeply moved by it all. At 11 oclock a student played the last post and you could have heard a pin drop. The young have not forgotten but I trully hope it is something they will never experience.

Lest we forget.

scopemankit

11-11-2009, 11:14 PM

Remember those from all sides of all wars.

jjjnettie

11-11-2009, 11:19 PM

That's right Chris.
Each side believes they are fighting the righteous cause.
They have families and loved ones that they've left behind.

renormalised

11-11-2009, 11:43 PM

I can relate to that...my family had combatants on both sides, in both wars. Pop actually went AWOL about 3 weeks after the war ended to visit the rellies to see if they made it through OK. Visited rellies both in the UK and Germany. Crazy thing was if they'd have known that family was on the field whilst they were fighting, they'd have probably all gone AWOL:P:D

Ended up somewhere neutral like Switzerland, in a tavern drinking beer and schnapps:P:D

FredSnerd

12-11-2009, 11:13 AM

My mother and uncle were 8 and 5 in a small italian village when the bombers came and caught them by surprise. My uncle took refuge against this wall and Mum thought it wasn't a good idea and ran amid the mayhem and bombs to coax him away. They got away but a few moments later the wall was demolished. Can you imagine. That was their reality at ages 8 and 5.