Qld: Wearied by age but unbowed in Brisbane

AAP General News (Australia)
04-25-2010
Qld: Wearied by age but unbowed in Brisbane

Eds: Reissuing to advice pix and video available.



BRISBANE, April 25 AAP - Flying Officer Robert Chester-Master flew twelve-and-a-half
missions over Europe during World War II.

How do you fly half a mission, the 86-year-old was asked ahead of Sunday's Anzac Day
parade in Brisbane?

"The Germans shot us down on the way home," he said.

"That only counts as a half."

Mr Chester-Master's war was spent in the hottest of hot-seats over Europe - he was
a rear gunner in a Lancaster bomber, an extremely dangerous place to be.

"I wasn't a prisoner of war, he said.

"They called us evaders because we evaded capture.

"The Belgian underground kept me hidden until the allied army broke through after D-Day.

"Then they let me go home."

On Anzac Day, Mr Chester-Master joined around 15,000 veterans and serving personnel
who marched through Brisbane's CBD under clear skies.

An estimated 50,000 turned out to watch, waving flags, clapping and cheering as their
heroes marched or were driven past in a 90-minute cavalcade.

Governor Penelope Wensley took the salute outside City Hall, with the crowds lining
Adelaide St four and five deep.

A "Fuzzy-Wuzzy Angel", Theophilus Koropaije, from Popondetta in Papua New Guinea, wore
his traditional head-dress for the march.

Now 82, he said he carried food, medical supplies and ammunition to Australian troops
and helped evacuate the wounded.

Perc Lyall, OAM, is a veteran of conflicts decades apart.

He served in both Tobruk, in North Africa in World War ll, and also in Vietnam.

He chatted with Dave Lee, a young infantryman recently returned from Afghanistan.

The respect was mutual.

A huge family group, including four generations gave Mr Lyall a mighty reception as
he was driven past with some of his 2/15th Battalion mates.

Also there was Keith Buck, a veteran of the 2/6th Independent company, one of Australia's
elite commando units in the 1939-45 conflict.

Mr Buck said he had never seen so many people at Brisbane's Dawn Service, with some
10,000 e packing Anzac Park and around the Cenotaph.

With each passing year, age wearies more of older veterans, but scores of jeeps, taxis
and golf buggies carry those no longer up to the march.

AAP stg/it/

KEYWORD: ANZAC QLD PARADE (WITH PIX AND VIDEO)

� 2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.