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Many former soldiers may be around him, but for World War II veteran Peter Aubrey a drink at the local RSA to mark Anzac Day is an increasingly lonely affair.
Mr Aubrey, who fought in Italy from 1943, walks over a kilometre from his Papakura home each year for a beer at the RSA in Elliott St.
He used to catch up with a few old soldiers he served with, either there or at the Orakei RSA, but now there is no one left.
"They're all dead - gone."
Mr Aubrey, 88, always attends the dawn service, following in the footsteps of his father, Robert Aubrey, who was at Gallipoli in World War I.
"He always went to the parades, every year at the Auckland Cenotaph."
His father was shot in the leg after landing at Anzac Cove in 1915.
"He said he looked up this `bloody hill' and it was hopeless because people were firing down."
His father said little more about that day, "but I think he was affected ... he was very bad tempered".
Mr Aubrey was a young farm worker at Pukekawa when he was called up for the infantry in World War II. It helped that he was used to the outdoors and wearing heavy boots.
"All the townies got blisters."
While glad to get away from farm work, he never expected to return alive.
He says many soldiers felt same way, especially by the time they arrived in Italy. Many took to drinking the local wine and spirits, thinking each day could be their last.
As a rifleman he saw plenty of action in Italy and shot at German soldiers, although he never knew if he hit any.
He saw comrades die around him.
"If anyone said they weren't scared, they're a bloody liar."
Also at the Papakura RSA yesterday were Vietnam veterans such as Trevor (Storkey) Gilbert, who served 21 years in the Army after joining in 1964.
A former parade commander, he has not missed a dawn parade since 1975, and has attended the Papakura parades since 1981.
Mr Gilbert was a military instructor, and is now back working for the Ministry of Defence doing property management for the Papakura military camp.
In Vietnam, he was based in the Mekong Delta, where he helped to set up training camps.
Of his year in Vietnam, he said: "I learned a lot about myself."
He was only 22 and already married with two young children.
His family were there to meet him when he returned after a year's service, but otherwise the returned soldiers got a hostile reception.
"At a local pub people started calling me a baby killer."
Despite that, he has no regrets whatsoever about choosing a career in the Army.
