our boy's 50 miles from Baghdad

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0...5E25777,00.html

Our aussie SAS are 50 miles from Baghdad and are kicking some serious iraqi butt!

I am damn proud of australia, we are cutting it with the best of them.

[Winetalk.com]

Originally posted by meatloaf@Mar 30 2003, 07:12 AM
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0...5E25777,00.html

Our aussie SAS are 50 miles from Baghdad and are kicking some serious iraqi butt!

I am damn proud of australia, we are cutting it with the best of them.

meatloaf,
Australia has been #1 ally to US and Britts since the turn of 20th century!

God Bless!

[cj]

we may have only sent over 2000 troops, but they sure as hell are a fine 2000!!

divers have been clearing underwater bombs from the port uhm quasar, our airforce has gotten involved in the last few days, and we can only imagine the intelligence missions they've been sent on that we won't about until after its all over.

i saw something the other day that put a lump in my throat ...

the day the war started i was driving through the city, there is a memorial statue for our anzac soldiers, and the base was lined with fresh flowers, bunches and bunches of them piled up on top of each other and people were actually standing around it and reading the inscription on the statue.

April 25th is anzac day here in oz, and I bet this will be one of the biggest years ever where people attend a parade or a service to honor those who died last time, and any time before.

The polls have swung around in the last week, and our nation is prouder of our soldiers (both past and present) than the media & peace protestors claim. I can't wait for the 25th of april, so that instead of seeing rude inappropriate graffiti and signs of hatred everywhere in my very own street, I can see proud shoulders and chests in uniforms and medals and australian flags flying in the wind.

and if I so much as SEE a peace banner i'll ........ :grrr:

[Torone]

Like I said, Australia Rocks!

I've been to our ANZAC Day dawn services (the 4:15am service) since I was 12.
This is one of the most celebrated days in the Australian calander, the day our service men & women and their families wear their medals of honour, they parade through the streets and the public thank them for their sacrafice.

Australia has served in almost every major theatre of war: Boar War, Turkey WWI, europe/africa/pacific in WW2, Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, IRAQ 1 & 2 (and I'm sure I've missed a few), so we have a lot of ex-service men.
We also liberated East Timor from Indoesia and her 200 million manic population!

This year will be the biggest ANZAC day in history, I bet more people will turn out to ANZAC day celebrations then all the recent anti-war protests put together! So if you want to support our service men, get out to one of the parades!

And Serge as an Australian I'm damn proud of the United States, many people forget that in WW2 the Japanese bombed in or around Darwin, Carins, Marebba, Townsville, Brisbane & Sydney. If it wasn't for General McAuthur helping us we would be speaking Japanese.



Last edited by meatloaf at Mar 30 2003, 01:44 PM

My Aussie history seems to be sadly lacking here. Please explain ANZAC day and I'll tell you the meaning of 5 de Mayo :P

[cj]

Meatloaf, I like you ;-)

My family will be proudly attending the parade this year, wearing the medals of my great-grandfather who was an anzac (he lied about his age and enlisted at *we think* the age of 15), and of my other great-grandfather who was in the airforce. I think its more important this year than ever to show that we are proud of our veterans - ALL OF THEM.

Heather, here's the best summary I could find:

ANZAC Day

ANZAC stands for Australia and new zealand army corps ... basically england sent 20k of our guys on a suicide mission because of their poor judgement ...

I just got sidetracked reading a bunch of links looking for the best summary ... on the page i posted above is this poem, which I am ashamed to say I haven't recited since school, although I still remember the words by heart.

For the Fallen
by Laurence Binyon

They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning,
We will remember them.

and then starts the eery sound of trumpets in the last post ...

The Last Post



Last edited by cj at Mar 31 2003, 01:05 AM

Hi CJ...I like you too ;-)

my grandfather and his twin brother served in the New Zealand army, thankfully they never saw a day of combat in WWII but they were the first group of people into Hiroshima after the japanese surrended.
My grandfather's brother was a photographer so we had some shots over Hiroshima, the people.

Heather at Gallipoli Cove, Turkey where our men fought the turks, there is a huge sandstone memorial erected by the King of Turkey (I believe) in the 1920's. It celebrated the sacrifice by both Australia and Turkey, the king said it was a tribute to Australia, a country that was so far away to send her men (fathers, brothers, uncles, sons) to fight the war.

There is a great legend we always hear about on ANZAC day about how an Australian got lost in the middle of the night and ran into a Turk in a small gully on the front line, they sat down shared a hello & a smoke and went back to their trenches. Mateship even in war.

btw - Heather are you a mel gibson fan?



Last edited by meatloaf at Mar 30 2003, 10:55 PM

[cj]

hang on, you're a kiwi?!??!?

don't worry, I won't hold that against you




thank you for inspiring me on this little treck for information!!

Mum and I just sat down to search for her grandfather's details on the net, we have never been able to get information due to a family feud. Said family decided that he should be put in a home and all of his posessions should be divided between them despite the will and the fact that he isn't dead yet. He is 96, and started to forget things about 3 years ago - fit as a fiddle otherwise! He has gone down hill fast, the last few phonecalls have been really hard for my mum, as he raised her through her troublesome teens.

We just found the WWII airforce archives with his details and found all the info we need to request more.

There was a show on cable last night about this guy who makes plaques, he started with Gallipoli cove after visiting and finding no information in english ... he hand sculptured a plaque with a message and had bob hawke launch it. He's since put them in about 15 different locations where australian's have fought.

He said "Just because Gallipoli failed, doesn't mean we should forget it."

yep I'm half kiwi, but I don't dwell on that. I am a proud Australian who loves to bag out the kiwi's, as all australians do!
however a recent discovery embarrassed me, I was born in Australia but apparently I was christened in New Zealand by a maori minister.

Having been the only kid out 4 to be christened in Australia I too suffered from the Kiwi ribbing, my Dad (an aussie) my brother & sisters all gave it to me. Apparantly I'm now more kiwi than all of them, it took 2 weeks just for them to settle down ... I don't know how poor old mum puts up with it.

sorry to hear about your papa ... but 96 is a damn good achievement! and still going strong ...



-- hey cj here is good kiwi joke (not sure if you've heard it before) --

One night a small, twin engined commercial airplane was flying over
South Auckland with five people on board: the pilot, Jonah Lomu, Winston
Peters, the Dali Lama and a student. Suddenly there was an explosion and
the passenger cabin began to fill with smoke. The cockpit door opened and
the pilot burst into the compartment.

"Gentlemen, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that we're
about to crash in South Auckland. The good news is that there are four
parachutes, and I have one of them." With that the pilot threw open the
door and jumped from the plane.

Jonah Lomu was on his feet in a flash. "Gentlemen, I am New Zealand's
greatest athlete. The country needs great athletes. I think the greatest
athlete should have a parachute.!" With these words he grabbed one of
the remaining parachutes, and hurtled through the door and into the
night.

Winston Peters rose and said "Gentlemen, I am the country's cleverest
man. The country needs clever men. I think New Zealand's cleverest man should have parachute too." He grabbed one and out he jumped.

The Dalai Lama and the student looked at one another. Finally, the Dali
Lama spoke. "My son, I have lived a satisfying life and have known the
bliss of True Enlightenment. You have your life ahead of you. You take
the parachute and I will go down with the plane." The student smiled slowly and said:
"That's awesome, your holiness, but chill out. New Zealand's cleverest man just jumped out wearing my backpack."



Last edited by meatloaf at Mar 31 2003, 05:39 AM

I was talking with my sister & brother-in-law a couple of weeks ago, and he said his uncle was an australian bomber pilot, with an australian crew in England flying sorties over germany.

When they visited him they got a map out of Germany to see where he had been and he was going through the towns & cities, it turned out he & his crew had bombed most of them. Amazing stuff.

It'll be interesting to see what roll your papa was doing in the air cor.