Female ANZAC reflects on her wartime experience and love story

They met and fell in love in the midst of the Korean War— 70 years on, Shirley McLaren’s love for her soldier husband still shines on in his memory. See their love story here.

It was the height of the Korean War when 21-year-old air force drill sergeant Shirley McLaren met the love of her life.

The year was 1953 and Ms Mclaren had three years earlier been one of the first women recruited into the Women’s Royal Australian Air Force (WRAAF), which had been newly formed to support Australian forces sent to fight in Korea.

At Canberra’s Albert Hall, all the women from the RAAF base in Fairburn would sit in chairs littered around the hall waiting for the airmen, who were outside drinking beer to ask them to dance.
Airframe fitter Roy McLaren singled her out immediately.

“We were there every Saturday night and I was the only girl he ever danced with until he was posted in Korea,” Ms McLaren said.

Shirley McLaren, a 91-year-old former Women's Royal Australian Air Force drill sergeant. Picture: Richard Dobson

“He asked me to marry him just before he left.”

Mr McLaren joined over 17,000 other Australian servicemen sent to fight against Soviet-backed North Korea in the first open conflict of the Cold War.
On June 25 1950 North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel into US-backed South Korea with the intention of unifying the peninsula by force.

Days later Australian servicemen joined 21 other countries including Britain and the US to push back the communist armies of North Korea and China. The war claimed the lives of an estimated four million Korean and Chinese people.
Australia lost 339 lives with 1216 wounded.

The fighting lasted three years and only ended with a truce of suspended hostilities, which continues to this day.

Ms McLaren at RSL Anzac Village at Narrabeen. Picture: Richard Dobson

Mr McLaren made it back home to his fiance but when he died 17 years later on Christmas Eve while in military service in Australia at the age of 39.

His wife and three young children found themselves homeless without any support from the RAAF.

Two days after the funeral, the head of the home for married air force families where they had been living told Ms McLaren her family was taking up space and needed to pack their bags.

“I bundled three children and a dog into the car and came north to try and find somewhere to live,” she said.

“We slept in sleeping bags under friends’ dining room tables.”

Even 70 years later, the thought of her husband brings Ms McLaren to tears.

“No matter how long it‘s been, I’ll never ever stop loving him,” she said.

“I know he’s up there waiting for me.”

HOW SPECIAL FORCES VET FOUND HOPE IN THE RSL

There was a time when Afghanistan veteran Peter Rudland couldn’t see himself joining his local Returned Services Leagues club.

But now the former Special Forces operator is calling on his fellow defence force colleagues to reach out to their local RSL branches, as well as calling for more volunteers from the wider community to help out this Anzac Day.

The former soldier is well-placed to make the call, after first joining the army at 17.

He rose up the ranks, passing Special Forces training for the elite Special Air Services, before transferring to fellow top-tier defence force faction the Commandos.

Peter Rudland, an Afghanistan veteran who was seriously injured in a helicopter crash, at The Anzac Memorial. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

He was serving with the Commandos in 2010 when the incident that triggered his departure from the military happened. Travelling on a Black Hawk helicopter in Afghanistan as part of a mission seeking out Taliban insurgents, Rudland was severely injured when the chopper plunged to the ground, killing four others.

He had to contend with a long list of injuries – including a broken lower leg, his rifle embedding into his thigh (“it looks like a shark bite”), multiple breaks in his back and three breaks in his face. It hastened his exit from the defence force.

Joining the RSL was another step in his post-military life.

“When I was first asked to go to the RSL, I didn’t think it was the type of thing for me,” he said.

“Eventually I gave in, I realised there was a whole bunch of dudes there like me – plenty of young fellas. That really helped.”