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Elven
Valinor
Apr 22 2008, 4:21am
Post #2 of 7
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There have been a huge unearthing of new (old) photos lately. There was a box of old photos found in a Diggers garage - well preserved - never seen before - they are amazing to view. (what Ive seen media wise)
Recently they found the HMAS Sydney which went down off the coast of Western Australia. Torpedoed by a German ship - it has been lost for decades. I was following the story closely for many years - and just in the last weeks they found it and posted shots of her underwater. The area will be deemed a Memorial War Grave.
My Uncle William (Billy) Lang was on that ship - he was an apprentice boiler maker - he was 16 yeras old. Our family has a picture of him standing on the dock right in front of the hull of the HMAS Sydney before it departed. He has his duffle bag next to his feet - a sombre look on his face. A brave boy - he was the only male in a family of 13 children.
Lest we Forget.
I think I'm quite ready for another adventure!
Tolkien was a Capricorn!
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Starling
Half-elven
Apr 22 2008, 5:51am
Post #3 of 7
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I saw something on the news about the HMAS Sydney
[In reply to]
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I am glad to hear it is being designated a Memorial War Grave.
16 years old - wow. It is only as I approach *ahem* middle-age, that I realise how incredibly young these men were.
I grew up in a small town and on the town memorial there is the Roll of Honour, with a very long list of the district's young men who were lost. The thing that always strikes me is the number of times you see all the men of a particular family on that list of dead.
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Elven
Valinor
Apr 22 2008, 7:11am
Post #4 of 7
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Australia was such a young country with little population to protect such a huge area, and many families gave all their sons to the cause.
Thankyou for the reply Starling 
Blessings
Elven
I think I'm quite ready for another adventure!
Tolkien was a Capricorn!
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ElanorTX
Tol Eressea
Apr 22 2008, 8:39am
Post #5 of 7
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Yes, the same sad phenomenon can be observed in America.
After WWII the US armed forces adopted (and revised several times) rules now protecting the last surviving son or daughter from combat duty or peacetime draft if the other same-sex siblings, father, or mother, have died, been a POW, or received 100% service-connected disability.
BBC News August 2007
A US soldier is to return home from Iraq under a military proviso known as the "sole survivor" rule after losing both of his brothers in the war.
Jason Hubbard, 33, will be re-united with his family in Clovis, California after his brother Nathan, 21, died in a helicopter crash in Iraq on Wednesday.
His other sibling Jared Hubbard was killed by a roadside bomb in 2004, age 22. It was reported that Nathan and Jason had joined the army in 2005 prompted by their brother's death.Following Nathan's death, military officials ordered the return home of Jason, the eldest Hubbard sibling.
Under the US military "sole survivor" policy, the last remaining sibling in a war zone can ask to return home when his brothers or sisters have been killed. The regulations are designed to spare parents losing all their children to war.
The US War Department introduced the policy after five siblings, the Sullivan brothers, died when their light cruiser the USS Juneau was sunk in the Pacific in World War II.
This rule formed the basis of Steven Spielberg's 1998 reality-based film Saving Private Ryan, in which a team of soldiers are sent to Europe to look for a last remaining sibling, Frederick Niland, amid heavy fighting in World War II.
"I shall not wholly fail if anything can still grow fair in days to come."
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Elven
Valinor
Apr 22 2008, 10:29am
Post #6 of 7
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and listening to the Directors commentary for Saving Private Ryan (or it may have been a documentary part) and finding out the meaning behind the story ... I thought of that when I posted earlier and wasnt sure how to word it - so thankyou for finding that reference and being so in tune and for posting that!!
Elven x
I think I'm quite ready for another adventure!
Tolkien was a Capricorn!
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Nimloth
Lorien
Apr 22 2008, 8:50pm
Post #7 of 7
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My grandfather fought and was wounded at Gallipoli. I have a precious photo taken of him in a French hospital all bandaged up with his 'lemon squeezer' hat hanging off the bedrail. He never fully recovered from his wounds and died in his early 60s.
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