Students as young as five were held in thrall when a Vietnam veteran shared his memories at a Tamworth Public School Anzac Day service this morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Geoff Maynes was the keynote speaker at the event, which also featured song, music, wreath-laying and a display of a soldier's dugout and a sulky.
Mr Maynes said he thought it was important to talk about wartime experiences with youngsters because "it just gives them an idea of what their forefathers went through".
Read also:
He spoke of learning he'd been called up, after the numbered marble with his birth date was drawn out in the national service ballot.
He was at the Bedourie Races, on a day off from jackaroo work on a western Queensland cattle station.
"The manager turned up and said: 'I have a letter from the government for you' - and I opened it up and it said my marble had come out and I had to report for a medical down in Brisbane."
Mr Maynes described his "battle inoculation" training, which aimed to desensitise soldiers to the conditions of combat.
Private Maynes went to Vietnam as a reinforcement and spent about 10 months of 1968-69 with the 1RAR there, including a month as a scout and about six months as a machine gunner.
By the time his tour of duty ended, he was acting sergeant - but says that was only due to a lack of numbers due to fallen comrades.
The Anzac assembly was led by school leader Josie Francis, Katie Sheppard and Nahum Cale-Layson, with a welcome to country in Kamilaroi by Bowen Strong, songs by Ruby Curnow-Grieve and accompaniment on the trumpet by event organiser, deputy principal Charlie Jones.
Josie said such events "provide us with the opportunity to remember all people involved in any war - we will remember them. Lest we forget."