Army veteran Helen Brown says Anzac Day is a time to ‘reflect’
With almost 16 years serving Australia in the army, Macquarie Links resident Helen Brown has seen the world through a lens many would never get to look through
Macarthur
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With almost 16 years serving Australia in the army, Macquarie Links resident Helen Brown has seen the world through a lens many would never get to look through.
Now 42, Mrs Brown joined the army at age 17 in 1993.
Her father wouldn’t let her enlist and her mum only signed the papers believing she wouldn’t get in but she was soon accepted as an apprentice electronics technician.
Mrs Brown’s career took her across the world to conflict zones in Afghanistan, East Timor and Iraq.
“My first deployment was to Afghanistan as part of the reconstruction taskforce in 1996,” she said.
“That’s when they first went in so our job was to do all the pit and piping, put up all the satellite dishes, ran all the cables with optic fibre and set up the communications towers.
“With the project management behind it, there’s no other job in the world like that, you have to be so precise in your planning.”
Mrs Brown said the camaraderie she experienced in the army had helped her make lifelong friends who she keeps in contact with to this day.
“It’s a big family, all the people in your unit are like your brothers and sisters,” she said.
“When we deployed I was the only female and they gave me the option to stay with the females in the American camp but the Aussies said ‘no, you’re staying here with us’.”
Each year Mrs Brown attends the Anzac Day services at Ingleburn RSL with her husband and two children.
“Anzac Day to me is a time when we can stop and reflect on the sacrifices made by our past and present soldiers, sailors and airmen and women,” she said.
“I encourage everyone, especially children, to attend a service so that they can understand what our service men and women have sacrificed for our freedom.”
SERVICE TIMES
Campbelltown RSL Sub-branch will hold a dawn service at Mawson Park from 5.40am. The main march will form up at the corner of Queen and Dumaresq St from 8.30am. A service will be held immediately following the march at Mawson Park.
Ingleburn RSL Sub-branch will hold a dawn service in the Memorial Garden a Ingleburn RSL Club, at 70 Chester Rd, Ingleburn at 5am.
Breakfast will be served afterwards in the RSL.
A further service will be held at Denham Court Anglican Church from 10am.
The popular Anzac Day tradition of Two Up will be held at several venues including Campbelltown RSL Club from 10am. Ingleburn RSL Club’s Two Up activities start from 7am.