Yesterday was ANZAC Day, where we commemorate the brave Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations". ANZAC Day is held on the 25th of April each year to mark the anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign in World War I, where thousands of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and Allied troops lost their lives.
It has been a proud Australian tradition since 1915, and some feel that it was at the battle of Gallipoli that Australia and New Zealand truly became nations in their own right. The term ANZAC now exemplifies the spirit of our nations, celebrating our best and most unique qualities.
As an Australian owned business, Rhye Media holds the ideals of the ANZAC spirit in high regard. We pride ourselves on our ingenuity, enterprise, resourcefulness and endurance, and believe that good humour, mate-ship, and courage are some of the best qualities one can have.
We attended an ANZAC march and service yesterday and were struck by how the service has managed to hold onto so many of its traditions while still evolving to keep the attention of modern audiences. Performances by bagpipes and marching bands were interspersed with contemporary covers of Waltzing Matilda and I Still Call Australia Home. The Lord's Prayer was recited, as was an excerpt from a local year eleven student's award-winning essay on what the ANZAC spirit means. The national anthems were performed, and the traditional minute of silence and performance of the Last Post and the Reveille still remained, as haunting as ever.
Currently serving Australian and New Zealand military personelle attended similar, less ornate services, followed by a 'gunfire' breakfast. News crews documented some of these events, recording messages from troops and broadcasting them back here.
While the original Anzacs were in the trenches they had no way to contact their loved ones back home. The most they could do was write a letter and hope that they'd have a chance to send it off soon, and even then there was no guarantee it would find its way back to Australia or even get past censorship. A lot of soldiers kept journals, detailing their daily lives and their inner thoughts, even though the information they divulged could have proved very dangerous had it fallen into enemy hands.
This need to document the unique experiences of fighting on the front has survived to this day, with quite a few currently serving soliders even running online blogs from their bases. The New York Times has a blog called At War: A Soldier Writes. This compilation of "notes from the front line" by active duty military personnel, veterans and their families has been running since November 2007. This willingness to connect provides a unique insight into a life that the majority of us will never get to experience.
Fighting a war in a foreign country is by no means anywhere close to ideal, but the advancement of technology and the development of programs such as Skype has ensured that families and troops no longer have to wait for the postman to deliver their correspondance. Family and friends can track movements online, can video chat and call and go much further in breaching the gap between here and the war zones than was possible in the past.
To any and all who have been affected by war, we thank you for your sacrifices. To the ANZACs, the Allied troops, and the Turks who fought at Gallipoli; to all the soldiers currently deployed, displaying the ANZAC spirit on the front lines 98 years after it first appeared, our thoughts are with you.
Lest we forget.