A glorious bout of Autumn sunshine accompanied the Anzac Day march and commemorative service at the Cenotaph in Sturt Street.
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With the streets lined with residents pinned with poppies and sprigs of rosemary, a procession of veterans, brass bands, students and supporters marched around the city’s War Memorial.
Colonel Jan McCarthy, who was appointed to the Royal Australia Army Nursing Corp in 1966, and completed five overseas postings, performed the oration.
As a theatre sister in the First Australian Field Hospital at Vung Tau in Vietnam, Col McCarthy told The Courier she had built a strong connection with the soldiers she tended to in intensive care.
“It was pretty busy at times, we had a lot of very seriously wounded boys, but they were magnificent. I loved them all.”
As a recipient of the Associate Royal Red Cross in 1982 for her services to nursing, Col McCarthy said looking across the vast crowds at the Cenotaph was “a bit overwhelming, but wonderful”. She noted that more and more, women’s contributions to the war effort were being unearthed.
“In the last few years we’ve managed to get out and say a few things, and you’ve got a new generation of girls who, previous to us women didn’t serve overseas, and now they do,” Col McCarthy said.
“There is more awareness of women’s contribution, and the fact is that people are suddenly realising that women did serve. We tend to hide under a bushel a little bit.”
After the final vestiges of the Last Post had rung out across the crowd, a flock of white pigeons were released and circled above, representing the work of animals in service.
For Corporal Adam Kelly, who led the Catafalque Party during the commemorative service, Anzac Day becomes more meaningful each year.
He completed two trips to Afghanistan, first in 2006 and then in 2011, as part of the 8th/7th Battalion of the Royal Victoria Regiment.
“It’s a day where everything that, when I joined the Army, meant a lot to me then and means even more to me now,” Cpr Kelly said. “Especially to commemorate those in World War I, they were the ones that forged our identity.”
“Really we’re just the custodians for the other guys, the ranks of World War II are starting to thin out which is unfortunate, our Korean and Vietnam veterans are starting to get a little bit older.
“It’s up to our generation to keep it going.”