As the Eurobodalla yesterday paused to remember the sacrifices made in wars past and present, one of the region’s oldest living veterans took his place proudly at the Nelligen march.
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Ninety-two-year-old Norm Miles, who served in Papua New Guinea in World War II, never misses an Anzac Day march.
It is also an important day each year for another reason, as he phones up his 90-year-old mate Charlie in Melbourne for a catch up.
The pair are the only two left from their squadron, the 2nd 4th Independent Company (Commandos).
Unlike Norm and Charlie, many others who sailed from Australia never made it back from the field.
At the age of 21 Norm enlisted in Sydney and was sent first to Newcastle, where he and his army mates guarded the coast on horseback.
From Newcastle he was sent to Western Australia where he volunteered for the commandos, destined for Papua New Guinea.
The special forces commando squadrons had been established to repel the Japanese in the Pacific.
Norm was heavily involved in scouting and gathering intelligence on the movements of the enemy.
“They asked for volunteers, so I joined," he said. "It was a lot of hard work and you did lots of things that other troopers wouldn’t do.
“You would be by yourself quite a bit, scouting and reporting on what you found.
“I was on a little island off New Guinea and was doing a patrol chasing the Japs, when one of them shot me in the head.
“I was paralysed for two weeks after that, I couldn’t even move a toe.”
He “came good” though, and jumped at the chance to board a ship when he heard his troop was going to Sydney on leave.
“I missed our boat with my troop on it, there was only an officer and myself left behind,” he said.
“That boat, that had all our mob on it, was torpedoed and most were lost.”
These were not the only near misses Norm was to experience during the war.
He casually says he had his knee grazed by a bullet on one occasion and on another had the crotch shot out of his pants.
“I was too scared to look at that one,” he said.
Norm was on Tarakan Island (off the coast of Borneo) when the war ended, though he and his mates didn’t find out until two days later, and were still fighting.
“One of the runners came up and said, ‘I don’t know what you blokes are doing because the war’s ended’.
“I was delighted because I’d had enough. We were sick and tired of living on bully beef and biscuits.”
While Norm said he had a lot of good friends in the army, he also lost many of those friends, which is why he feels it’s important to take part in Anzac Day commemorations.
He says it’s a day to relive memories, and to talk to other veterans and share stories.
“We have a lot to talk about. A lot of them want to hear the stories about the things that happened.”
And those stories are becoming more important as the number of World War II vets like Norm taking part in the marches decline with every passing year.
