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President's message March 2012
THE PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Again we enter the time of year when we are approach Easter and right after (though not like last year) we have Anzac Day.
We have now had a very successful arrangement in place with our lunch together at the South Brisbane Institute of TAFE for a few years now, and that will continue — so we again look forward to a great attendance. Prior to that we will be able to pay our respects at our simple dedication at the Crypt at Anzac Square followed by the Anzac Day parade. Details of this are outlined in the newsletter.
Our treasurer Greg Snow will not be with us this year as he and his wife Lyn are heading off to Europe and are to visit the various War Cemeteries in France. On Anzac Day they intend to lay a wreath from the Remembrance Club and so our thoughts are with them. It should be a wonderful experience and I wish them all the best for a safe trip. Of course he assured us that the club's funds were intact, We have lost a couple of our originals recently. Namely "Stewie" McCloskey in Townsville and John McCarthy here in Brisbane. We forwarded one of our unit wreaths to Townsville, and according to our friends up there it was very well received.
I seem to have become the flavour of the month due to the desecration of the war graves in the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Benghazi. I was then interviewed by the "Australian" on Sunday, and a photographer sent out to our home. Then interviewed by 3AW in Melbourne, and then followed up by 6PR in Perth on the Monday afternoon. Then followed a TV interview where again I was able to give the picture as I saw it. Of course like any old soldier who was at these places, and having buried our first casualty, Kelvin Croker after he was killed at Mersa Brega, I was very angry , and find such conduct inexcusable. I had always worried if Kellie was later picked up and transferred to a war cemetery, and was really pleased to find out he was in the Benghazi cemetery.
I have never forgotten that day, and remember it as if it were yesterday.
(Editor: As always our man was his descriptive self in the TV interview andhe had a ready answer when asked what he would have done with thosewho had desecrated the graves. It was simple — "Shoot the b......s")
Please remember to send in any items of interest, as all our members like to know what is happening and quite often the journal is the only way things concerning our club and our past history is made available. What you think about items concerning your ex-service relations may not be of interest, can often be something others know little about and yet are keen to hear more about. And twenty pages take some filling, so your assistance is important.
I look forward to again seeing many of you at our Anzac luncheon.
Gordon Wallace
See the poem written by Gordon about: "The Burial of Kelvin Croker"
