By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
COME Remembrance Day this year, a group of three veterans plan to mark their respects at the northern-most tip of Australia.
Shane Dixon, Mathew Keene and Chris May – all members of the south-east Melbourne based group Young Veterans – by that stage would have camped at 30 towns between Wilson’s Promontory and Cape York over six weeks.
By the south-north trek’s end, the group would have spoken at tens of schools, groups and RSL branches – including Pakenham RSL on 2 October – to spread awareness on the often-overlooked plight of the young, modern war veteran.
“Kids are often shocked to know me and (brother) Scott are veterans of the war,” Chris said.
“They picture veterans as old guys with jackets.”
Most of Australia’s returned veterans are now in their mid-twenties to thirties.
Some return with disabilities, mental health issues and some simply struggle to cope with fitting in to civilian home life.
Chris May remembers spending his 20th birthday in a rocket shelter in Afghanistan after his party was “rocketed”.
He and his companions shared a birthday fruitcake cooked by his mother and lit with 20 candles.
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he said now of that experience.
Such treats like that cake also “mean the world” to our servicepeople, Mr May said.
Soberingly, he returned home after being wounded when his armoured vehicle drove over a roadside bomb.
Chris’s brother Scott of Pakenham won’t make this trip but has been at the forefront of organising it for the past two years.
He said the group has built a following of recently returned servicepeople – reaching out via Facebook and Twitter, which are not the traditional domain of the RSL.
It has helped many newly-returned servicepeople – and anyone who put on “the uniform” – to get help, counselling and housing.
On weekends, the group organised camping trips to stir some veterans “out of the woodwork”.
“The way young people communicate has changed dramatically,” Scott said.
“Not every veteran has a disability. A lot of guys just struggle to fit back in.”
On 2 October, just prior to embarking on its 40-day cross-country odyssey, the group dropped into Pakenham RSL for breakfast as their ex-military Land Rovers got a last-minute service.
On Saturday the group marched a 36 kilometre round trip by foot to reach the promontory’s southern-most marker.
They made it back in time for an AFL Grand Final function at Leongatha RSL.
As an early good omen, Shane and Chris won a couple of footballs in the function’s raffle.
To keep up to date with the trek, follow the Young Veterans site on Facebook.
