The post below was originally delivered as a speech at Forward Operating Base Hadrian, Deh Rahwud District, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan in 2011 to the soldiers of Combat Team – Charlie – The Jackals – and our allies from the United States Army.

Today, Anzac Day, is a day for us to remember and commemorate.

It is a day to remember why it is we do what we do, those places that we have gone that others feared to go or that they could not.

It is a day to remember our mates from this war as well as wars past.  To celebrate the comradeship of serving in the Army together, knowing that those to your left and right are some of the few in this selfish day and age who are willing to take a stand for something they believe in.

It’s a day to bullshit, tell your war stories, and keep the memory of the things we have done and seen alive so that hopefully one day the Politicians can do their job right and stop the wars.

And on operations, is the best place to do it.

This morning we stand here with our brothers-in-arms from America, as we have done so often in the past, on operations in a deadly and dangerous theatre of war, having dealt our enemy a sound knock in the past seven months.

We stand here having lost one of our own. Having seen and heard of our mates being wounded physically and mentally. Knowing that there may be more to come.

We stand never alone, fighting together.

At home the streets will be filled with members of the public who will cheer the veterans as they march past. Then most will go home and enjoy their public holiday, most more worried about work tomorrow then what the day is for.

At home the Veterans themselves will march and gather in their watering holes. Starting with the odd quiet beer, and for the younger generation, probably progressing to the odd raucous rum. After about that tenth drink maybe most of them will also forget why they are together.

Here, in Afghanistan, we have a chance to pay proper homage to the fallen. To remember. I’m not asking that you kneel in prayer or meditation the whole day. But simply that as you knock your beers down that you give a decent thought to the reason for the day.

For me I will remember Luke Worsley. An outstanding soldier from day one. One of the finest I have met. Killed as he entered a compound and warned his mates of the danger ahead. I will remember Scotty Palmer. A soldier with a troubled start to his career, who through perseverance and dedication reinvented himself and came more then good. A helicopter crash in Sha Wali Kot took him from us. I’ll remember Mick Kearns, who survived three tours with the Brit Army without a scratch and then was seriously wounded within a year of joining the Aussies. I’ll remember Tim, who shot through the legs, commanded his SAS patrol in the field for five hours before being evacuated. I’ll remember D.J. Smith, killed in an APC rollover in Pucka.

I’ll remember Akka.

In the future I will remember what it is we achieved in Deh Rahwud.

Enjoy your day. Spare a thought for us, spare one for the Vets from the other wars.  Then get your kit ready, crack on with the job.

We’re not done yet.

Never Alone, Fight Together.