#unknown solider

I crouched in a shallow trench on that hell of exposed beaches ... Steeply rising foothills bare of cover ... A landscape pockmarked with war's inevitable litter ... Piles of stores ... Equipment ... Ammunition ... And the weird contortions of death sculptuered in Australian flesh ... I saw the going down of the sun on that first ANZAC Day ... The chaotic maelstorm of Australian's blooding.

I fought in the frozen mud of the Somme ... In a blazing destroyer exploding on the North Sea ... I fought on the perimeter at Tobruk ... Crashed int he flaming wreckage of a fighter in New Guinea ... Lives with the damned in the place cursed with the name Changi.

I was your mate ... The kid across the street ... The med. student at graduation .. The mechanic in the corner garage ... The baker who brought you bread ... The gardener who cut your lawn ... The clerk who sent your phone bill.

I was an Army private ... A Naval commander ... An Air Force bombardier ... No man knows me ... No name marks my tomb, for I am every Australian serviceman ... I am the Unknown Soldier.

I died for a cause I held just in the service of my land ... That you and yours may see in freedom ... I am a proud Australian.

They shall not grow 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 - Laurence Binyon, 1914