For World II veterans Walter Young and Ray Colvin, Anzac Day is about comradeship and paying tribute to their fallen comrades.
During the war, Mr Young – who grew up in Scotland – served as a telegraphist air-gunner in the 821 Naval Air Squadron.
His friend, Mr Colvin, now aged 98, joined the Royal Australian Navy as a teenager and recorded six years of service.
Mr Colvin lives at the Manor Court Werribee Age Care centre, where Mr Young is part of the respite care program.
Mr Young, a 93-year-old great-grandfather, can still recall many details of the war.
“We flew in Barracuda aircraft – they were torpedo dive bombers,” he said.
Mr Young said his squadron was based in the Far East when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
“Then, on my father’s birthday, 9th of August 1945, they dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki,” he said.
Mr Young’s father served in World War I.
For Mr Colvin, family played an important part in his war days.
He became a navy cadet at the age of 17 and followed two of his brothers into the Navy Reserve.
Serving mainly on Bathurst class corvette ships, Mr Colvin said discipline was a large part of his days onboard.
“Everything that you did in the war wasn’t easy, but you did it,” he said.
Mr Colvin said what he enjoyed most about the war was the “comradeship” among defence force members.
Last Tuesday, Mr Colvin and Mr Young attended an Anzac Day service at the aged-care centre.
“It’s for the Anzacs and all the soldiers who have passed on – their lives were taken away from them,” Mr Young said.
