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VIETNAM veteran Ian Fruend attributes the breakdown he suffered six years ago to one thing - it was "because of some of the things I did and saw" in battle. After a harrowing war, the infantryman, who served with 8RAR in Nui Dat, Vietnam, returned to Australia without fanfare, landing in Sydney to find the airport in darkness. There was no one to meet him, or offer support. Seeking solace at nearby Liverpool RSL, he was singled out by an old Digger who, identifying his short hair and bandaged arms as that of a soldier recently returned from Vietnam, spat...

THE plumed slouch hat of the Australian Light Horseman returned to the battlefields of France after 90 years yesterday to mark a new era of Anzac Day celebrations. This first dawn service to remember the Australian contribution to the war on the Western Front in northern France, drew a crowd of more than 4000 and was followed by a boisterous parade through the streets of Villers-Bretonneux, the site of a decisive Australian victory on April 25, 1918. As dark descended on Anzac Day commemorations in Australia, on the other side of the world, three riders in the uniforms of the...

A BAGPIPE plays Waltzing Matilda and the old soldiers step forward again. The streets are lined with people clapping, although their eyes search the ranks for veterans, rather than those who march to honour them. From Byron Bay to Baghdad, it was a day for memories and mateship, hymns and morning prayer, but also a celebration of what it is to be Australian. As the first rays of sun struggled to break through the clouds over Australia's most easterly point at Byron Bay, World War II veteran Ken Rogers, 85, traded memories with Vietnam veteran David Lawrence, 71. Mr Rogers...

IT has taken 62 years but tomorrow four brothers who served across the Pacific in World War II will march together for the first time. As age wearies them, the Shearim brothers finally decided to create their own piece of family history on Anzac Day. Eldest brother Laurie, now 89, spent the war in the jungles of Borneo and Morotai, delivering supplies to the infantry under the threat of bombs and mortars. Keith, now 85, survived the horrors of a Japanese concentration camp as a prisoner of war for 3½ years. Charlie, 82, fought the Japanese in tough infantry battles...

THE wholly justified furore over the dreadful misplacing of the body of Private Jake Kovco illustrates once more how profoundly Australians regard their servicemen and the memory of their dead servicemen. The ins and outs of this case remain to be fully explained. But whichever way all the information falls, this was the most monumental bureaucratic blunder and failure to discharge a sacred duty. Much will be made, rightly, of the sometimes maddening bureaucracy of the Defence department and its inability at times to do the simplest things right even as it overperforms in its core war-fighting task. But the...

AS dawn broke over Gallipoli today, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders were reminded of the bloody beginning of the Anzac legend they had gathered to honour. During the solemn service before more than 7000 people, Australian Governor-General Michael Jeffery outlined the ghastly scene that unfolded after the landing at Anzac Cove 91 years ago. "Perhaps it's from the relative safety of our time that we can fully comprehend the scale of what was won and lost in the hard-fought battle of the Gallipoli campaign," Major-General Jeffery said. "We lost the campaign with 26,000 casualties but had won for us...

MATESHIP is set to be be a central theme of Anzac Day commemorations around Australia this week, with organisers expecting large crowds. Australians will pause on Tuesday to remember the sacrifices of those who died in the line of duty, 91 years after the original Anzacs landed at Gallipoli. This year's commemorations come just days after an Australian soldier accidentally fatally shot himself while maintaining his rifle in Baghdad on Friday. Thousands of people are expected to flock to veterans' Anzac Day marches and parades in major cities and towns throughout Australia. The Defence Department says about 1500 Australian servicemen...

Some descendants of wartime foes can march on Anzac Day, the Victorian RSL has ruled for the first time. But the ruling applies only to descendants of World War I Turkish soldiers, because they were "a very honorable" enemy, according to the Victorian RSL president, Major-General David McLachlan. The endorsement does not extend to families of German, Japanese, Italian or North Vietnamese. "I could never ever see, in Victoria, Japanese veterans of the Second World War marching in an Anzac Day march," Major-General McLachlan said. "They were a dreaded enemy that was despised by the Australian veterans." Much had been...

THERE will be no booze and no Bee Gees and visitors to this year's Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli will be given garbage bags. Announcing arrangements for the 91st anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Billson said the Australian, New Zealand and Turkish governments were united in their commitment to protect and preserve the former battlefield in Turkey. Mr Billson, flanked by Turkish Ambassador Murat Ersavciand and RSL head Major General Bill Crews at the Australian War Memorial, said many lessons were learned in dealing with the record crowd which attended the 90th anniversary activities last year....