Tears in the crowd for recent loss on Remembrance Day
She was an emotional face in the crowd of some 200 watching the Remembrance Day service in Martin Place.
This is what it is all about. Remembering.
Megan Rull, from Sydneyâs west, explained who she was remembering. âMy late partner and his service. Mostly that he should be here - and he isnât.â
Megan Rull, 29, whose partner, an Afghanistan veteran, took his own life last year, is comforted by Joanne Beavis, from Legacy, at the Centotaph in Martin Place.Credit:Kate Geraghty
She gave a nervous laugh. âThe poems and The Last Post always get me. He served in Afghanistan and in Papua New Guinea.â
Her partner died last year in August, and this was her second Remembrance Day service with the support of two members of Legacy.
âHe is one of the 42nd soldiers. He committed suicide [41 soldiers died in Afghanistan. 42nd is a reference to those that took their own lives afterwards].
âHe was retired. He was 34, thatâs very young.â
You are wearing his medals [on the right side]? âYes. Always will.â
Leaden skies didnât prevent a flypast by a Hercules C130 marking the start of the service. In Martin Place thereâs one of those rotating billboards with an advert for the new Bond film No Time to Die. Thatâs probably what the veterans from WW2, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan were thinking today about their colleagues who didnât make it home.
Like last year COVID-19 still affected the commemoration.
War widow Barbara Jeanes, director for War Widows Guild of Australia, probably knows better than most what Megan was going through.
âWe have about 2500 widows all together from different services,â she said speaking over the skirl of bagpipes.
âWe are really a dying generation but we are bringing in younger members now, anybody associated with defence.
âWe have about 35 members from Afghanistan and a couple from Iraq.â
John Hitchem, 73, was one of the first to take a seat in the white rows of chairs.
He does battlefield tours to Gallipoli and the Western Front, but COVID-19 has dented business.
John Hitchem, 73, an army reservist for 37 years, waits for the Remembrance Day ceremony to begin.Credit:Kate Geraghty
âThe market is pretty well down,â he said. âThe centenary was big [of the First World War]. Basically people arenât travelling, thatâs the first thing, and they donât want to get stuck over there.â
With 11 medals overspilling his lapel, Sergeant Peter Rudland was one of 15 Afghanistan Veterans attending the first Remembrance Day since Australiaâs withdrawal from the country.
âItâs inside a year since we left, and it makes it fairly significant today,â he said.
âIn 2010 I was part of the Special Operations Group and the American Blackhawk helicopter I was on crashed just short of the target. I broke most of the major limbs, legs, pelvis, spine, my face.â
Afghanistan veteran Peter Rudland at the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Centotaph in Martin Place.Credit:Kate Geraghty
The mood of his colleagues?
âI think everybody is quite happy with the withdrawal as a whole,â he said. âWe all knew it was coming and had to happen.
âThere is obviously disappointment on how that was handled, it all seemed to be a bit last minute and impacted a lot on the way the country functioned, and it probably could have been handled a bit better.
âThatâs not having a dig at our government, thatâs a gentle word on the holistic side of things.â
French veterans talked to Australian veterans with no thoughts of differences over submarine contracts.
Dominic Perrottet laid his first wreath as NSW Premier. Regular wreath-layers included NSW Governor Margaret Beazley and Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore.
The order of service was in many ways familiar but the faces in the crowd coping with the haunting sounds of the bugler is always changing.
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