KEEP WATCH OVER DIGGERS

JUST as he did last year, Afghan veteran Andy Cullen stood up at the Currumbin dawn service yesterday and spelt out an inconvenient truth.

There are two types of war – the one fought overseas as Australian forces engage their enemy as a unit, with all the support available; and a war at home, fought alone against waves of despair.

Mr Cullen’s message to the former and serving ADF personnel and their families contending with what he has previously described as “soul wounds’’, the mental anguish of conditions like post traumatic stress disorder, was not to lose hope but to remember the unbreakable bond that exists in the Defence family, even after personnel have returned to civilian life.

“Life isn’t meant to be done alone ... you are loved,’’ he said.

There are good reasons for Mr Cullen’s heartfelt words of hope.

Australia lost 41 defence personnel in combat in Afghanistan, but there were 373 recorded suicides from 2001-2016 among serving, reserve and former members of the ADF.

The Cullen family is itself an example of the anguish that can still exist among veterans who are now living in the wider community. Andy and wife Zoe’s struggle with his PTSD, which manifested after his 17 years in the military, including three tours of Afghanistan, is recorded in detail in their book, Resurrected.

His living nightmare left him a broken man and took their marriage to the precipice.

But Mr Cullen’s message yesterday was not just for veterans and serving personnel.

It was also an appeal to the broader community. We have to listen.

Our ADF veterans and families have made a huge sacrifice for their country.

We all have to do more to help them adjust to normal life and to pressure governments and agencies not to abandon them when they are most vulnerable.

It is right that we honour and remember the fallen on Anzac Day.

Our duty though is to keep watch over veterans and families every day of the year.