Among those marching was Liam Teahan, an engineer who served for 10 years in the Royal Australian Navy.

He was part of the International Coalition Against Terror and worked as a ‘stoker’ marine technician.

The Launceston man was a recipient of both the Iraq and Afghanistan medals.

“Anzac Day is very much about mateship, it is very hard when you get back from the theatre of war there are not many people who understand what you went through,” he said. 

“You feel pretty isolated and places like the RSL are absolutely vital so you can have a gas-bag with the older blokes who have been through it so they can pass their wisdom down of how to cope.”

Mr Teahan said coming back to civilian life had been a difficult transition.

“I didn’t think it would be but it was, after a few years you just start to get itchy,” he said. “There are a fair few of us (younger veterans) coming out of the woodwork now, a lot of us thought we hadn’t been through what the blokes had been through in World War II, Vietnam and that sort of thing.

“We had, but we didn’t think we had accrued the brownie points so to say, but you come here and they talk you out of that.”

He said the politics surrounding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq made it hard to tell people about his service and could be isolating for many veterans.

“We didn’t have a choice, we joined, we go where we were told, we did what we were told and did the job we were given.”

Former Royal Australian Air Force servicemen Geoffrey Mayhead and Ron Clark also took part in proceedings in Launceston.

The two veterans from World War II agreed that the air force was “the best thing that ever happened” to them.

“I was a flying instructor and I was in for four years, which included some time in the air training corps, and my summing up of the air force was … that it made a man of you,” Mr Mayhead said.

Ron Clark was a member of the ground crew and was discharged in 1946.

“I used to loads bombs on, load the guns up, set the guns up, take them out and clean them when they were used,” he said.

Both said the most special part of Anzac Day was the feeling of “togetherness”.

“We both belong to the air force association which gives us the opportunity to do that with meetings every month and social gatherings from time to time,” Mr Mayhead said.

The 11am service at the cenotaph heard from guest speakers Captain Colin Dagg RAN and Jessica Faulkner from Riverside High School.