Family, mateship and a barbecue are all at the core of the National Servicemen’s Memorial Service.
For the Nashos, these three key principles have been upheld since their training days.
“Puckapunyal was the training grounds for the National Service 2RBT, Two Recruit Training Battalion,” local veteran Hank Kreemers said.
“During the training period, after so many weeks of training, families were allowed to visit the guys like me.
“We used to meet the family and have a barbecue, all over the place — on the ground, anywhere you could get together, have a cuddle and a barbecue.”
Hank, who now serves as the local contact for the National Service Association, has been attending the event for about two decades, nearly 10 years of which he has been helping to organise the service.
The services began after veteran Jim Oliver established the National Servicemen's Memorial Obelisk in Puckapunyal’s Memorial Garden.
Since then, the memorial service has followed the same method: a march to the memorial garden to remember those lost, followed by connection, a catch-up and a barbecue.
Hank said, over time, the day had transformed.
From being held on the gravel, to the cricket club, to, now, the Bridges Barracks Sergeants’ Mess — while the traditions are upheld, the day certainly looks a little different to how it did when the veterans were training.
“The older guys, they go back to the Korean War, when they got an invite to the Sergeants’ Mess, because in those days you were ‘nothing’, for them to walk into that beautiful mess out there, the eyes just lit up,” Hank said.
“It was really touching, that first year having it there.”
The day will start at about 9.30am with a brief at the cricket Club, then a service at the monument, followed by the barbecue at the Sergeants’ Mess.
Alongside the memorial service, the grounds at Puckapunyal Army Base will also come alive with an ADF Open Day, in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Australian military, which falls on Sunday, March 1.
Hank said while many of the National Service Association state and sub-branches were set to soon be dissolved into the national association, he felt confident the service would continue well into the future.
“(Regimental Sergeant Major) Tony Charles has assured me that the Puckapunyal service, even when we’re all gone, that the Puckapunyal service in March will still continue,” he said.
The memorial service, and ADF Open Day, will be held on Saturday, March 14 at the Puckapunyal Army Base.
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