Werribee RSL’s Don Orr will spend this year’s Remembrance Day doing what he normally does, reminiscing on the past.
Held annually on November 11, the day serves as a memorial of those died in the line of duty following the first world war.
“I take a couple of minutes to reflect on the cost of freedom in this country, and the cost to other nations, and the 65 million people who were killed in the first world war, both civilians and military,” Mr Orr said.
“That’s a significant amount of human life.”
As a veteran solider himself, Mr Orr said he was called out to Vietnam.
“I didn’t know if whether it was right, wrong, or indifferent, [but] I went and I did my duty to the best of my ability.”
Beyond remembrance day, Mr Orr said the best support people could give the veterans in their life is to be there for them.
“Talk to them as if they’re just a friend, and you accept them warts and all,” he said.
“[People] will get alongside me and say, ‘Don, are you alright? are you managing?’.
“Just get alongside them and ask them how they’re doing, that to me has been an excellent remedy for the preventing me from going over the edge.”
Residents can meet Werribee RSL members at the cenotaph in Werribee to lay a wreath at about 11am on Remembrance day.
