There may be some people who wonder why a group like this would gather every two years to remember a war that ended over fifty years ago. Perhaps they would think that participation in a war is something people would prefer to forget.
For those who take an active part in a war it is a searing experience; an experience, or rather, a succession of experiences that can never be fully blocked out of the memory. Fortunately this experience contains a leaven of happy memories; of comradeship and laughter, and the sense of living on a higher plane of togetherness and true sharing; of being proudly, but quietly, conscious of one’s country and race; in short, of having a heightened awareness of patriotism - however much that word and its implications can be derided.
The English poet A Housman was writing of those who died in the 1914- 18 war when he said:

“Here we lie, because we did not choose
To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.”

The words, of course, are fittingly applicable to the boys of tender years who died while serving in RAF Bomber Command, in our two Squadrons, from 1942-1945.
Air crews, particularly of Bomber Command, were an exclusive group; exclusive, however, only in the sense that, being small in number, once they were committed to what were euphemistically called ‘trips’, they were totally dependent on the skill and courage of one another. This total dependence resulted in a relationship of loyalty and trust that was almost tangible. It was a feeling that did not come from words or speeches but was fused in the sharing of extreme danger - “tested like gold in a furnace” as the Book of Wisdom tells us - a danger which culminated far too frequently in their falling together in death.
We are here now, not to relive old battles, lost and won, but to recall to mind, to grieve over, to pray for, yet, to remember with pride those young men whose service resulted in their giving totally of themselves, their lives and such short lives so many of them lived.
A Commemoration of this kind recalls for each one of us the realisation that young men of their calibre won renown that cannot really grow old. That is why it must be constantly stated that they would have to be numbered among the elite of their generation, if the manner and degree of their service are properly understood. They have provided for us and for all Australians, even for generations yet to come, an example of duty and service beyond praise. A Commemoration of this kind would, I’d like to think, deepen our awareness of the way they enriched our lives because we were in their company.
We would not be true to their memory, to the purpose of this Commemoration if we accept the delusion, held by so many, that service is out of date, that it holds little or no force of meaning. We no longer have to experience service in the harsh and hard testing ground of war, but the memory of our mates should make us remember that selflessness is always the basis of true service.

 May this be the prayerful thought of all of us:
“God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there will be no more death, no more weeping or pain, for the old order has passed away.
The battle of your sons, our brothers, is over and in the victory at last, may they triumph in Heaven.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.”