Albany RSL to commemorate Australian Defence Force service in the last 50 years for second year running

In February 2024, the Albany RSL held its first service to recognise all forms of Australian Defence Force service in the past 50 years.

The service was the idea of newly appointed RSL president Rex Hendriks, and was extremely successful.

As a result of this, a second service will be held on Saturday, and will incorporates some upgrades to the original service.

For example, this week’s service will be held at 5pm instead of earlier in the day.

This will allow those wishing to attend from other parts of the State to travel to Albany during the day, attend the service and function after the service, and return to various home locations on Sunday.

As such, disruptions to work should be minimised for most attendees.

The service is designed to recognise all forms of ADF service, essentially since the mid-1970s.

Although there are various services held to commemorate various deployments overseas, many who served have no formal recognition of their time in uniform in the last half-century.

Some examples of this are the naval patrols regularly conducted in the Australian sphere of interest and further afield, as well as Royal Australian Air Force members also conducting the very same tasks by air.

Further examples are the ongoing deployment of army members to Malaysia to the Royal Malaysian Air Force Base Butterworth, near Penang, to protect Australian RAAF assets in the base area.

These deployments have been conducted since 1973, with about 20,000 army personnel undertaking the three-month rotations.

Initially, these were only manned by regular soldiers. However, for a number of years, army reserve members have now formed a part of these deployments, giving them valuable training overseas.

This, in turn ,very much highlights the value of part-time service in the navy, army or air force.

In addition, the value of Australian contributions to peacekeeping operations since 1947, as well as humanitarian operations, cannot be understated

The service on Saturday will be held at the Forts, starting at 5pm with a drumming display by the Air Force cadets from the Albany 705 Squadron commencing at 4.30pm.

The service is scheduled to run for about an hour and followed by a public function at the Albany RSL.

All are welcome to attend the service and function to commemorate all ADF service in the last half-century.

Queries can be directed to Albany RSL services director Michael Tugwell on 0421 647 301 or by emailing metco03@outlook.com.