Cade Lucas
Anzac Day is always an opportunity for ex-servicemen and women to get together and share stories about their days in uniform and for some, their time at war.
Few though would be able to share stories as numerous and as colourful as those of Wyndham Lodge resident, Ronald “Dixie” Lee.
The 99-year-old Navy veteran is one of just two surviving Coastwatchers from World War II, military intelligence operatives stationed on remote Pacific islands who observed enemy movements and rescue stranded Allied personnel.
Born and bred in Tasmania, Dixie was well used to remote islands and seeing navy ships dock in his hometown of Burnie fostered a desire to join up and go to sea himself.
After enlisting as a 17-year-old in 1941, Dixie was assigned to HMAS Manoora and set sail for Singapore where they were docked when Japanese aircraft launched their first raids on the territory and Britain declared war.
After quickly departing, Manoora returned to Sydney in 1942 where it narrowly avoided being attacked by Japanese midget submarines.
Dixie was then soon assigned to HMAS Moreton in Brisbane, the new temporary headquarters of legendary US General Douglas Macarthur.
In his next role Dixie rubbed shoulders with an even more famous American statesman.
While serving in Guadalcanal in the Soloman Islands on 1943, Dixie helped rescue a young American naval officer whose vessel had collided with a Japanese destroyer and sunk.
His name? Lieutenant John F Kennedy – JFK – who less than 17 years later would be elected president of the United States and 20 years later assassinated while in office.
More than 80 years later JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy is the US Ambassador to Australia and regularly sends Christmas cards to Wyndham Lodge, addressed to the man who helped save her father.
