On recent ANZAC parades in the deep south I was appalled at the conduct of mindless fools who organised indigenous veterans to march separately from their comrades beneath an indigenous flag.
It was a deliberate act of unjustified political correctness to flout well established protocol and thus threaten the very core of the military ethos by sacrificing established unity for questionable diversity.
Unity in the military forces implies “all for one and one for all” Sharing and caring for each other no matter race or colour. Be it the heavy loads, sentry duty, the inevitable dangers and that last spoonful of food or the last of the water. So often caring for a mate down with fever or a cobber who had just received sad news from home.
All our fallen and those comrades since gone, no matter race, colour or religion have the same status. They were and always will be brothers.
The RSL and its sub-branches should revisit the past and think again on the urgent need to protect ANZAC protocol from mindless politically correct agitators hell bent on destroying our proud values.
George Mansford
Yes you are right Brother when I went through singleton we were taught we were all the same. We are all green or camoflage these days that is our skin and we see no further. Proud to call all who served my Brother. It is a sad day that political correctness has began to filter through to the Army and the RSL.
As usual George is right, it was a divisive act
The “mindless fools”are aboriginal minority who seek to use Anzac Day as a political platform,as it’s creator stated “is not the Australian flag,permission to use it given by the aboriginal community”.The flag was authorised in 2008,definitely long after our flag was flown at Gallipoli.Please don’t cast dispersions on our last sacred time celebrated by our service people for their commitment to our country Australa.
What an absolute disgrace…..whom ever made the ‘captains call’ on this should be held to account. I am so over people using ANZAC Day for their own political agenda, last year was for a council issue in NSW, and now another which will divide. The military is one place where cultural differences and religion and colour matter not when protecting a mate from harms way……….This makes me reconsider my membership.
Yes I think it would be much more satisfactory if all march together in the unit groups. I have sympathy for our aborigine comrades. I can understand their disgruntle attitude when one considers the treatment they received when returning home after the first & second world wars. They were treated as second class citizens and their sacrifice for their county was quickly forgotten. How many comrades in arms stood by them?
Gee, you’d never see white Australia, such as the likes of newspaper columnist Andrew Dolt and the joke of a deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, use Anzac Day for their own political purposes. No, never.
Well said George. There were never been any racial divisions in the ADF during my service, nor at any time before. That is not part of the Australian character. However, there are those who cynically seek to cause that division now, for their own benefit. They make me sick.
We are a but one band of brothers. Always have been. Always will be. My Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cobbers living and gone would be appalled at this segregation.
Whoever the fool was who made the decision to march separately obviously does not understand the ethos of service personnel.
No one has ever fought for Australia under the indigenous pennant. As Brig (Retd) Mansford suggested, we are and were all mates under the Australian flag serving the same purpose as best we could.
Behind it all will be a few egoistic narcissists who will be smugly feeling good about the whole thing.Politics are supposed to be no part of the military,and this is just political correctness going mad.