11:11:11

[Private_collector]

The Rememberance Day ceremony in Gympie was a shambles. I was very upset about it and still am.
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This year was sadly to be an EXTRA special occasion because one of our local servicemen had been killed/murdered in Afghanistan and his family were present and came up to lay a wreath at the ANZAC flame, after those laid by the official party. Now amongst their heartbreak and grief, the family of Corporal Ashley Birt will have memories of a very average ceremony.

The whole thing was running ahead of time, then either the bugler didn't front or CD wouldn't work. Ode was recited, no Last Post and No Reveille to follow. The ceremony ended roughly FIVE MINUTES BEFORE 1100hrs. Then there was something that put a lump in my throat, a great number of the crowd stood still and waited for the town hall bells to ring at 11AM, then dispursed silently.

To add insult to injury, the memorial plaques of recently deceased ex-servicemen/women that were to be attached to the wall in our memorial lane were LOST in transit between Melbourne & Gympie, and had not been found by Rememberance Day. These were ordered by Gympie locals to honor their family members. Corporal Birt's plaque has a seperate and special place on the main entrance to the Memorial Lane, and this plaque was not among those lost, thank God!
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Anyone passing through Gympie, make sure you come see our Memorial Lane. It is lined with large murals made of individual pieces of hand painted & fired mosaic. From memory, I believe there are currently 12 of these, and plans are in place for future additions. We are extremely proud of this beautiful tribute!

Lessons will be learnt from this year and we will do better in 2012.

Lest We Forget

[Ed Storey]

Nice and sunny and warm at the Remembrance Service here in the Middle East. No sign of snow and no chance of clam chowder or beer at the Legion afterwards.

[Keith Webb]

That's very poor form, Tony - I hope the organisers do learn from the experience, and what a terrible thing to add to the grief of the family.

In our case I was at work and at 11 I could hear a bugle from the school over the river so we (people from my business) gathered on the balcony for the minute of silence, broken only by birdcalls and the juggling of throttles of the unseen formation of what sounded like the RAAF Museum's Winjeel and CT4 doing a pass over the shrine on the other side of the city.

By the time reveille sounded I realised we had been joined by a couple of other people from businesses which sub-let space from us.

[hrpearce]

The new principal at the state school the boys atend had a remberance assembly with a minutes silance, something the last two principals didn't do. Unfortunatly I was driving a semi on a narrow road so I couldn't stop.

[Howard]

In the minutes leading up to 11:00 at work things went bezerk and absolute chaos rained down. Much to my own embarrassment all of this activity caused me to forget what time of day it was.... Until my work colleague heard the bugles sounding the last post on the radio (which I could not hear from my position)...
We all immediately stopped our activity (six of us in the office) until the minute was over.
This sort of surprised me because the colleague who called for the silence has never outwardly expressed reverence for our servicemen/women.
As each Remberance Day & ANZAC day passes, there are fewer & fewer veterans within our small community. It is good to see that it is not only a select group who are determined to keep their memory alive. I have noticed an increasing number of people gain a deeper respect for those who serve compared to when I was a young bloke 20/30 years ago.
Lest we forget.
My son Sid has just told me their school paused for a minutes silence, too. Excellent.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Howard

In the minutes leading up to 11:00 at work things went bezerk and absolute chaos rained down. Much to my own embarrassment all of this activity caused me to forget what time of day it was.... Until my work colleague heard the bugles sounding the last post on the radio

Hi Howard,

I was in my workshop Friday morning and lost track of time, then heard Big Ben chiming on the radio from another unit in the yard. Stopped work and stood between two old WW2 warhorses to reflect, and thinking what scenes they might have been in.

There is definitely a raised interest in the Rememberance now, probably due to current conflict bringing it home to the younger ones who have friends out there.

regards, Richard

[Jon Skagfeld]

Here, in the small village of Chatsworth near Owen Sound Ontario, we had about 3" of snow overnight.

By morning, the roads were clear but whilst marching into the Cenotaph area, it was a bit difficult maintaining step. Since there's no words of command as to to "Mush while wearing mukluks and snowshoes", we slogged on anyway.

Looks like the whole village turned out. Like Jordan said, just toward the end of the ceremony, damned if a beam of sunlight shone down!

Good omen, good parade, good eats afterward.