This is short, unlike the usual blather from Socotra House LLC. The Writer’s Section gathered to start a new week and to mark a special day of observance for the young men of the Australia-New Zealand Army Corps, the famed ANZACs. Some of us have children who have observed the Day they celebrate on Australia and New Zealand’s fair shores. We have special remembrance for the sacrifice of those who were caught up in the assault on the shores of Gallipoli in World War One, or what they thought of as The Great War, the one supposed to end them all.

Today, the commemoration now honors the men and women of Australia and New Zealand “who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations” and “the contribution and suffering of all those who have served.” We do not have personal memory of New Zealand, since in our time the government in Wellington decided somewhat arbitrarily to deny a visit by our warship, the USS Midway, on the grounds we could not confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons onboard.

Since we were home-ported in Japan at the time, we had come to our peace with that issue and you would think an exception might have been made. But we send our respect for the Kiwi’s service and honor them nonetheless.

The topic of ANZAC Day did lead to a longer story regarding a celebration in Sydney’s King’s Cross district in one tumultuous year, one filled with merriment and details that should be left in the past. Further discussion of that remarkable week-long conference trip long ago was deemed by the Old Salts as not appropriate for mass consumption on a day of Remembrance. We will let the combined experience of adventure and romance in Perth on the west coast of the Outback, a month in the stolid capital at Canberra and those astonishing days in Sydney for other times.

So we will let those stories pass with glasses raised high, and a sigh of fondness for a marvelous and memorable ANZAC Day, celebrated with appropriate respect Down Under.

Our cousins Down South are a remarkable bunch of people, and we think of them and their lost ones with honor and tribute on this day. Hail to those who served on this ANZAC Day!

– Vic

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
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