Sad shot at tradition

At the dawning of April, the NZ Defence Force should be pressing their uniforms, polishing their boots and dusting off their rifles in readiness for Anzac Day.

Instead, our armed forces have written to Returned Services Association branches telling them NZDF can no longer provide a volley of shots at their dawn services.

“Firing parties are a legacy from post World War I Anzac Day services when the occasions were funereal in nature, allowing the public to come together to mourn for family members who would never have a funeral at home,” explains the letter from an NZDF desk that calls itself the Heritage, Communication and Protocol Group, Anzac Support Team. Some support.

Is this the first sign the Defence Force may have decided a century of commemorations is enough? If so, our military chiefs are losing interest in Anzac Day sooner than civilians who attend the annual services in large numbers. How sad and unwise not to reinforce the honouring of national duty and lost lives that military service sometimes requires.

How hard can it be for the Force to find a few soldiers to form a firing party at dawn services in every city? The Christchurch RSA started to organise a firing party of its own until police stopped them.

The letter says the NZDF will continue to provide volley fire at military funerals and official sunset ceremonies. But we are supposed to remember them “at the going down of the sun and in the morning”. Lest we forget.