Veteran’s Anzac Day message for young people

The public perception of Anzac Day is shifting and young people need to be reminded what it is about, a veteran has said.

The first time infantry soldier Adrian Sutter stepped outside the wire of his military base in Afghanistan back in 2009, he had never been so terrified in his life.

“When you first get there, it is the most nervous you have ever been,” he said.

“As soon as you go outside the wire, you are sh —ting yourself.”

That feeling wore off over time after he settled into the job of helping train the Afghan people to build their own army to defend themselves against the Taliban. But the day-to-day was never nearly as glamorous as movies would have the general public believe.

“That is not really reality. It is gritty and it is dirty and it’s dusty and you don’t shower often and you’re away for all the people that you love,” he said.

“We were training the Afghan army so they could protect their people. We weren’t over there to fight against Afghans.”

Adrian Sutter at the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Goldstein Reserve Coogee on Sunday, 25 April 2021. Monique Harmer

The dawn service at Coogee. Picture: Monique Harmer

The dusty desert landscape of Uruzgan province was a world away from Coogee Beach at dawn when the 35-year-old delivered a speech in his capacity as the founder of Swiss 8, an organisation devoted to helping veterans after they enter civilian life.

“Dawn Service numbers have been shrinking, national respect is shifting. Not by those here today, but by many,” he told those gathered.

“In recent times the media, social media, and shifting global political values have seen changes in the public perception of military and Anzac values.”

Over beers at the Coogee Diggers club with dozens of current and former Navy, Army and Air force personnel after the dawn service, he says a lot of young people mistakenly view the day as a glorification of war.

“The message I was trying to push was that nobody joins the military because they love the idea of going to war,” he said.

Coogee – Randwick – Clovelly RSL sub branch Anzac March in Coogee on Sunday, 25 April 2021. Monique Harmer

L-R Ben Jones, Adrian Sutter, Anthony Meixner and Stephen Hobday at Coogee on Sunday, 25 April 2021. Monique Harmer

“Some sections of the media and social media are leading a lot of younger people to believe that Anzac Day is a glorification of war and it is definitely not. It is the opposite.”

After leaving the army in 2012, he set up Swiss 8 to help ex-service personnel with their mental health and assist them in accessing the support they need to adapt to civilian life.

While a lot of soldiers suffer post traumatic stress disorder, he said the sense of disconnection from mates with whom you have such a strong bond with and loss of military discipline can be far more debilitating.

Matt Ferndale, Ben Jones and Nathan Herbert. Picture: Monique Harmer

“When you live and breathe the military and you’re so close and so tight and you see your mates every day, when you leave and you don’t see them again for five years, you’re completely cut off and disconnected,” he said.

“But Anzac Day is that day. It is the one day of the year where you say ‘I’m going to put everything else in my life and I am going to catch up with the boys’.”

Mr Sutter is also the treasurer of Coogee Randwick Clovelly RSL sub-Branch — which this year relaunched a local march down Bream St to raise the profile of the day.

After marching from the Diggers Club back to Coogee Beach, they headed to the Clovelly Hotel for two-up where Mr Sutter led the two-up.

Swiss 8 Adrian Sutter pictured tossing the coins for Anzac Day Two up at the Clovelly Hotel. Picture: Monique Harmer

For Iraq veteran Ben Jones who served in the Army in The Corps of Royal Australian Engineers, he said friends in the military are friends for life.

“I have just met a guy I haven’t seen in 10 years and we just picked up like we’d seen each other yesterday,” he said.

“I am in a civilian job now and even your mates at work are different to the mates you have in the military. They’re not there with you with the blood, sweat and tears and the training. It is hard.”

Anzac Day Two up at the Clovelly Hotel on Sunday, 25 April 2021. Monique Harmer