By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, April 28: Australian army veterans paid respects to the family and comrades of the late navy officer Joanna Felicia Rohna during the Anzac Day march held in Adelaide, South Australia on April 25.
The march took place on the same day that Joanna was buried according to naval tradition at Kampung Engkeroh, Serian.
According to a press release, the Sarawak flag was featured prominently for the second time at the head of a column of Malaya & Borneo war veterans during the march, which is also to honour their comrades who served and died during the Malayan Wars.
The flag also honoured all Commonwealth military, police and civilian forces, including Iban trackers, who lost their lives in defence of Sarawak.
Anzac Day is the prime commemorative occasion in Australia. It has as its basis a solemn ceremony to remember the landing of the Australasian soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915. Since that time, the term ‘Anzac’ has come to denote courage, resilience and mateship, and is applied as an honorific for all Australian and New Zealand soldiers.
Fifty years later, a new generation of Anzacs deployed overseas—to support the defence of Sarawak.
Perhaps the most significant event on Anzac Day is the Anzac March. This is a solemn commemoration of the sacrifice of some 103,000 Australian Service personnel who lost their lives in wars and peacekeeping missions in the service of the nation.
Anzac Day begins with a Dawn Service (representing a soldier’s funeral service), and the March that follows is akin to the procession of soldiers to the graveside. The commemorative service at the Cross of Sacrifice which follows represents the gathering at the grave of one who has made the ultimate sacrifice.
Confrontation veteran Don Cameron, who is Vice-President of the South Australia & Northern Territory Branch of the National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association Australia Inc (NMBVAA), led the contingent of Malaya & Borneo veterans in this year’s Anzac March as tribute to the Iban Trackers he had served beside nearly sixty years ago.
In 1965, during the Indonesian Confrontation with Malaysia, Private Don Cameron served in Sarawak as a Rifleman with 6 Platoon, ‘B’ Company of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR).
Australian ground troops were assigned to West Brigade, to conduct and support counter-insurgency operations in the First Division of Sarawak. On Feb 13, 1965, 3RAR at Terendak Camp at Malacca was warned for deployment. Cameron was a member of the advance party which flew from Singapore to Kuching on Feb 15.
On the same note, State President Major Paul Rosenzweig OAM (ret’d) said that eight Australians lost their lives while on operational service supporting the defence of Sarawak (four died near Kampung Stass, one near Kampung Gumbang, one near Kampung Bokah, and two were swept away during a river crossing).
According to him, another three Australian soldiers died after being evacuated from Sarawak.
“Their sacrifice was not in vain, upholding the sovereignty of Sarawak. Lest We Forget,” he added. — DayakDaily
