Slideshow: A remembrance day, down under
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Multimedia presentation by
V.W.H. Campbell Jr. and Curt Chandler
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It is 4:30 a.m. and there's enough of a nip in the air that people are wearing jackets in downtown Sydney, Australia. They are gathered 5,000 strong to watch a ceremony being televised live from Gallipoli, Turkey, which commemorates the first war-time engagement of the Australia New Zealand Army Corps, or ANZAC, 91 years ago.
The ill-fated WWI invasion was also the first defeat suffered by the newly formed unit. The losses were so horrific on all sides -- and acts of bravery so pronounced -- that Anzac Day is remembered each April 25 by Australia, New Zealand and by the defending Turks.
By mid-day, the streets of Sydney will be jammed with 100,000 people who will watch 20,000 paraders. The numbers remain strong because service medals, uniforms and banners are passed from generation to generation. As aging veterans become too feeble -- or die -- their sons, daughters and grandchildren don the medals and march for them.
The U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Jim Nicholson, was so impressed by the outpouring of community spirit when he saw the event for the first time last month that he told the Sydney Morning Herald he'd like to take the tradition home to America.
"I am so impressed by all the people I saw wearing medals and doing it proudly, old people, young people, it was an overwhelmingly patriotic, rejuvenating experience," he told the newspaper. "It's a wonderful tradition and one we should try to emulate."
First Published May 29, 2006 12:00 am
