Pride at remembrance at Hamilton’s Anzac service
It’s easy to feel a sense of melancholy at a dawn or civic service on Anzac Day. But amongst the grief, there are good stories too, and happy memories of time served.
Bruce Tronell reminisces fondly on his time in military training as a young man.
“I was in the era when you did military training at school but I also got called up on National Service because they were calling out on your birthdays,” Tronell said.
“So I went in at 21.”
He recalls how he was required to fill out a form stating what kind of job he would like to do: soldier, chef, truck driver, or engineer. He said he received some good advice: not to put his first choice at the top.
“I was informed by someone, never put down what you want to do first because you won’t get it,” he said.
“Put down what you want to do about third on the list, and that’s what I did, and I got the engineers which is what I wanted.”
He was working on the western bypass in Taupō in those days, and wanted to gain more experience with machines. His training included everything from learning to throw hand grenades, to learning the intricacies of the machines he would be using.
“The first [hand grenade] I did, I couldn’t get rid of it quick enough because it’s hard to know the timing. So I pulled the pin out and threw it straight away. And I got growled at, of course.”
His small group of six also trained with dummy land mines, where three of them would place the mines, and three would dismantle them. “It was really challenging because your life depended on you as an individual, no one else,” he said. “But I enjoyed it. I did the Waiouru air strip and that. I never went to Vietnam because it was on during our training. And the Australian engineers went, not the New Zealand ones.”
On Anzac Day, he remembers his time in training and service, and wears his medal proudly. He said he thinks having military training in schools was good for the country.
“I really believe that if we had kept our national services in colleges, we wouldn’t have half the trouble we have in New Zealand, because people would have respect. And that’s what we’re missing I think, respect.”
At the civic service Mark Dearlove also fondly remembered his time in service.
He wears one medal on his left-hand side, indicating that he earned it himself.
“I was in the Territorials for five or six years,” Dearlove said.
“It was peace time so it was a great boys’ adventure. We got to go overseas, and had a small stint in Malaysia. It was a good adventure.”
He attended the service with his brother Phillip. They were there mostly to remember their grandfather, who served at Passchendaele in WWI.
“He was quite badly wounded there so these are his campaign medals,” Mark said, pointing to the medals on the right side of his shirt.
“He’s an amputee so he lost both his arms. But he came back, carried on with life and had a family.”
Dearlove tries to come to either the dawn or civic service every year.
“I think it’s a time of reflection. I think currently we live in a lot of prosperity and peace and we take it for advantage. And the generations before us marched off to war, and a lot of them didn’t come back. So it’s about remembering their sacrifice.”