On Anzac Day, The Last Post always hits me in the heart and soul

I have long stopped trying to fight the tear that rolls down my cheek as that melody drifts across the air on Anzac Day.

The emotion may be due to the melody representing, for me, so many who died so I could stand on a lovely autumn day and admire the colours of the leaves without fear.

The Anzac Day march and service always fill me with pride and a sense of profound sadness that flows through my body for most of the morning.

Children marching, relatives wearing medals for those who could not march, crowds of people, families, young and old saying 'thank you' to those who served.

That fills me with pride; I can't say why. It just does.

Gallipoli was part of the war that was supposed to end all wars.

It was a war that was devastating, with the lives lost on both sides of the conflict.

That fills me with sadness, and I can easily acknowledge that.

On Anzac Day, you will hear the words echoed across our city, from the president of the RSL Sub-Branch, the Mayor, and visiting dignitaries, but mostly from returned diggers, that war should be commemorated, not celebrated. When I hear those words at past Anzac Day ceremonies, I usually see the nods of agreement from the gathered crowd.

Lieutenant Colonel Graeme Barnett, who improvised his speech at the 2024 Launceston dawn service, said it was heartening to see so many gathering to commemorate the sacrifices of those who served.

That fills me with hope. I hope the sacrifice those diggers made when they landed in Gallipoli was not in vain.

In the years since Gallipoli, our leaders have still sent young men and women to war, but it wasn't until Vietnam that the majority of society protested and called for a better way to solve the world's problems.

Half a century on from the Vietnam War, Vietnam veterans often recall their time in service as something they "had to do." Those words stick with me and make me extremely sad and cranky.

Presidents and Prime Ministers appear to have not paid attention to the main lesson from Gallipoli and Vietnam. They still send men and women off to die or receive permanent injuries, and innocent members of the public in countries living with war experience the same. Look at the horror of the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts for proof.

The lesson. War is futile, and violence achieves nothing.

As the bugle sounds The Last Post on Anzac Day, lest we forget.....