National Servicemen Commemorative Ceremony

Thank you Jo for your kind introduction, and for what you and the Visitor Services and Commemorations Teams do to help us honour those who have served, those still serving, and the families who love and support them.

We gather today, at this wonderful monument, to acknowledge the 287,000 young Australian men were called up for compulsory training in the Navy, Army and Air Force between 1951 and 1972.

We pause and remember the 212 who died on active service in Vietnam and Borneo and the many more who gave their health.

National Service was part of Australia’s defence-readiness policy for over 20 years.

Many of you, like my Dad Vin who was called up in 1954, served when called, met the mandatory training obligations, and then went on with your lives. Dad once called it ‘life interrupted’. In honour of my Dad, and each of you, you’ll note I’m wearing his Anniversary of National Service Medal. It was issued after Dad died, and has never been worn. Indeed, this is the first time it’s been taken out of the box. I also have here this rather weathered slouch hat - with the Royal Australian Signals Corps badge  - the only physical item I have from his service. If you allow me this indulgence, I also remember my Dad’s previously unrecorded service today. 

But we are here today because, for over two decades, the National Service Scheme (1951-72) was an essential part of our defence preparedness. I spoke earlier this week at the Battle for Australia Commemoration. We were honoured to host three Second World War veterans, Les Cook, Ms Merle Hane and Mr Terry Colhoun. I reminded the audience that even though the Japanese had not prepared plans to invade Australia, Les, Merle and Terry didn’t know that. Japanese forces were in front of them, and Australia was behind them. That was all they knew and all they were fighting for.

In the same way, we can look back now at the National Service scheme, and wonder what was the threat? Why were more than a quarter of a million young men called up? What must it have been like for each of you, and your families, when you were conscripted? 

To paint a picture for those of us here too young to remember, the Berlin blockade by the Soviet Union had occurred only three years earlier, in 1948. So too had the first Arab-Israeli war. We were witness to Communist insurgencies in Malaya and Vietnam, and Communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950. We had the Suez Canal crisis of 1956, the Confrontation with Indonesia in Borneo in 1963 and, of course, the Vietnam War. And all of this was overlaid with the tensions of the added threat of nuclear war.

It was in that context that each of you served and, in the doing, provided an essential component to our nation’s Defence.

And it is why we gather today.

We are here to honour you and all who served with you. Those who did your time and moved on with your lives, and those who stayed on and, like your President Ron Brandy served – how many years did you serve Ron? There you go – 34 years (including a six month deployment to Operation Slipper at 62 years of age)!

You are all most welcome today, and I am humbled to be in your midst.