Anzac Day

[PWJ]

As some of you know, I have not had the best of weeks. I am copying and pasting my Facebook Anzac Day post on here to share my thoughts with my fellow ex-service people who I know we have on board and of course those who honour and respect them:

This post is about Anzac Day but it is a little more personal than that. If you are faint of heart or squeamish then give it a miss. It is NOT pleasant. Last Friday night I had what my doctor has since diagnosed as an attack of salmonella poisoning. I was alone at home, my body wracked beyond control by dozens of constant attacks of diarrhoea and vomiting which resulted in me blacking out 3 times in 6 hours, each time sending me crashing face first on to the kitchen or bathroom tiles rendering me unconscious and alone. I have 3 serious head injuries and concussion as a result. A CT brain scan today will tell me if there is any permanent damage. On Saturday I could not compose a written sentence in less than 10 minutes. Cognition has improved somewhat since then. Thank God.

But as I came around to consciousness each time in a mess of my own filth and blood I am reminded that this was nothing compared to the terror and privations hundreds of thousands of our servicemen suffered in innumerable conflicts stretching back well over a century. I was NOT facing the wrong end of a prison guards rifle. I was NOT lying in a fetid swamp or ditch, I was NOT being shot at by someone intent on killing me. My fellow servicemen faced nightmares infinitely worse than my own at that moment.

Even on our worst days just remember those who have suffered hell and terror far worse than most of us will ever know. To them, we owe our freedom today. Lest we ever forget. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we remember them....

P.S. Thank you to those who have offered their help and support. You know I am a tough bugger and it will take more than this to lay me low.