NSW: Final march for 36th Battalion

AAP General News (Australia)
04-25-2005
NSW: Final march for 36th Battalion

By Adam Gartrell

SYDNEY, April 25 AAP - As the Australian 36th Battalion sailed towards New Guinea in
May 1942, 18-year-old infantryman Stan Waugh imagined he was bound for a tropical paradise.

"I was very naive," Mr Waugh said today before taking part in the Anzac Day march in Sydney.

"What we got was altogether different. When we were approaching Port Moresby I was
expecting Hawaii, with beautiful hula girls on the beach.

"There were no hula girls."

Instead, armed with only a rifle and six weeks basic training, Mr Waugh's platoon was
plunged into a long and costly jungle war from which many men did not return.

They played a vital role in the Kokoda campaign and in the savage battles fought in
Northern Papua.

This morning, Mr Waugh and about 25 members of the 36th Battalion gathered for their
final Anzac Day march together.

Mr Waugh, who lives in Melbourne, said he and his fellow soldiers shared an "unshakeable
bond" that would not end with their final march.

"Being infantrymen, you depended on every other man there to get you through," he said.

"It wasn't all grim - you had to see the funny side of things, and we also had a lot
of good times.

"In fact, you tend to forget all the bad stuff and focus on the good times, which is nice."

Keith Irwin, president of the 36th Battalion Association, agreed with Mr Waugh and
said he wouldn't be marching next year.

"We're just getting too old," he said.

"There are 135 of us still alive, but I'd say there would be no one without some sort
of medical problem, some minor, some major," he said.

"It's getting too much. You just cannot turn back the clock."

Despite the association's decision not to march as a group next year, many of the 36th
say they will be back.

Bill Leeman, 81, from Tweed Heads, has only missed the Sydney march once and said "as
long as I'm able I'll keep coming."

"God willing I'll be here next year," Mr Leeman said.

AAP ag/kp/snp/de

KEYWORD: ANZAC NSW 36TH

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