Anzac Day as relevant as ever, says RSA

RSA chaplain Ron Ashford, left, with flag orderly Dave Agent and RSA president Captain Richard Short at the Armistice Day commemoration last year. Photo / Supplied

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

Those words were part of a poem first published more than 100 years ago and have remained part of a memorial to fallen soldiers ever since.

Since 1916, communities across New Zealand have taken a day in April to remember the soldiers who died at Gallipoli.

But those who survived that day in 1915 are long gone and only a few who fought in World War Two remain.

Richard Short, now Dannevirke RSA president, right, with Ivan (Bonny) Bodley, one of the few remaining veterans from World War II at a service in 2014. Photo / NZME

Yet Anzac Day was just as relevant as ever, according to Dannevirke RSA chaplain Ron Ashford.

Relevant enough that young people would come along to services proudly wearing the medals of grandparents or great-grandparents who went to war.

Even the RSA, once known as a place for returned servicemen and women to gather and share stories of what they went through, has had to change.

Now it was more about pastoral care and helping those who had been in military service and now had difficulty returning to civilian life.

It had not always been this way.

Ashford, who was born in the United States, noticed some vast differences in the way people in New Zealand dealt with their experiences in the war.

"In America, there was almost a daily conversation about World War II."

When he came to New Zealand 46 years ago he said he noticed there were very few references to war.

"It was sort of an unspoken creed that they wouldn't talk about the horrors of war. So they came back and they didn't talk with their wives or their kids or their grandkids about it."

There were certain things, like what machine guns or tanks could do to people's bodies, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq, and other experiences that veterans never talked about.

"It's very horrific and so the way that they thought to deal with it was after WWI and II was not to talk about it."

Dannevirke veteran Phil Lamason was an example.

When he returned from his service overseas, he never talked about his experience with family, and it wasn't until late in his life that his family knew the full story of what he went through when he was taken prisoner and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp.

For the past 15 years or so, there had been an effort to highlight the need to talk about what veterans had gone through in any combat situation, which included more recent wars, and the RSA had begun dealing with issues such as post-traumatic stress.

"That's a good thing," Ashford said.

Recognising that not all wounds were visible was the beginning of real change, he said.

However, while it was termed post-traumatic stress disorder, many soldiers who returned said it wasn't a disorder.

"When you witness a horrific event or when you've participated in a horrific event it's not a disorder, your body is basically breaking down, because you're not designed to do those sorts of things," Ashford said.

Anzac Day would be recognised with a number of services around the district.

Ashford said schools were making a concerted effort to have students at the services with some local schools also holding their own services.

Commemorative services will be held across Tararua on Monday.

The Cenotaph at Dannevirke Domain. There will be a dawn service and a civil service later in the morning. Photo / Leanne Warr

Dannevirke will have a dawn service at 5.45am at the Cenotaph at the Upper Domain and a civic service will be held at 8.30 am.

Captain Richard Short, president of the RSA, will also be present.

There will be a remembrance service at the Boer War memorial in Norsewood at 10.30am.

Woodville will hold a dawn parade at 6.30am in Fountaine Square with a civil service at 10am at the Cenotaph.

Pahiatua's dawn service will commence at 6am at the Cenotaph.

A service will also be held at the Mangatainoka Cemetery at 7.30am.

A complete list of services in the district can be found on the Tararua District Council website: https://www.tararuadc.govt.nz/news/2022/anzac-day-services-in-the-tararua-district.