Paul Penno OAM shares his thoughts on Eaglehawk's 2024 Anzac Day service.
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00:00 We had between seven and eight hundred people turn up.
00:04 And what was really encouraging about that was so many young parents with small children.
00:09 You know a small community like Eagle Hall, nine hundred men volunteered out of a population of eight thousand.
00:15 And that has a huge impact on the smaller communities where they lose large numbers in terms of percentage.
00:24 And it's quite moving, quite emotional actually to participate and a privilege to be involved with organizing and doing presentations.
00:34 Very much as this year was for peacekeepers and peacemakers, which is perhaps finally there's some focus on recognizing the people who go to these places
00:49 and they're in a very difficult situation. They observe so much trauma and so much death and destruction.
00:56 And they are really restricted to maintaining peace and providing support to communities.
01:04 And they on occasions have been forced to stand by and witness major acts of terrorism without being able to intervene.
01:12 So the traumatic element of that is really not clearly identified in the way where people are actually involved in active warfare per se.
01:25 So it's really timely and important that we've focused upon the peacekeepers and peacemakers
01:32 and acknowledge their contribution to Australia's efforts in maintaining world peace.
01:38 It's always been a sad time for people that go to war and expect to come back and be acknowledged positively.
01:48 And I think for the Vietnam veterans that was an absolute tragedy in the sense that there was no welcome home.
01:54 There were massive hundred thousand people participating in the protest moratoriums in Melbourne.
02:03 Not the sort of welcome home you would expect. And then there was acts followed by a broader community rejection.
02:10 But no doubt the last 10, 15 years been a massive shift in that.
02:16 It's a nice presentation. I think it's lovely to have someone that's local that gives a personal perspective on their experience.
02:24 And I think that's much better than traditionally we've looked for somebody so-called important to stand up and be authoritative.
02:33 And usually they're from out of town. But the last few years we've really focused on having a local veteran getting a local perspective.
02:41 And it gives the local community that opportunity to engage on a feeling level with what has happened to this person.
02:47 Thank you.
02:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]