Following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather, and great-uncle by joining the military was something veteran Brad Copelin felt “programmed” to do.
Having served nearly 25 years in the Australian Army, including deployments to Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands, the 56-year-old believes the spirit of Remembrance Day should extend beyond an annual pause.
On November 11, people nationwide will attend services honouring those who served their country in all wars and armed conflicts, stopping for a minute’s silence at 11am.
It marks 108 years since the armistice that ended four years of continuous warfare on Europe’s Western Front, the main battleground of World War I, where more than 60,000 Australians died.
“Remembrance Day brings up a lot of memories,” Mr Copelin told AAP.
“As much as we have some really great memories from our service, and some really great people that we worked with … there’s also the negative memories of our service that we will carry with us all the time.”
Mr Copelin had no intention of doing anything other than continuing the family legacy, and received his parents’ permission to enlist aged 17.
His father had been in the navy on HMAS Melbourne when it crashed with the USS Frank E Evans, cutting it in two.
It was not until after he joined that his grandfather, a Japanese prisoner of war on the Burma Railway, began telling his grandson of his experience.
“He never spoke about the war to anyone,” the veteran said.
A tattoo of a red poppy on Mr Copelin’s arm serves as a daily reminder of the sacrifices of others.
President of the Engadine RSL sub-branch near Sydney, he aims to help fellow veterans and their families know they are not alone in their struggles.
The sub-branch is making an effort to educate primary school children on intergenerational remembrance, to ensure Remembrance Day is not “assigned to history”.
The moment the guns fell silent more than a century ago signified hope that “the world would never again know such horror”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
“It is a hope we are yet to realise, but we hold on to it with every fibre of our being,” he said.
“And as we think of all who have served, we think of all who serve now …Lest we forget.”
Remembrance Day in 2026 coincides with the opening of the Australian War Memorial 85 years ago in the nation’s capital in 1941.
Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson said the day was about paying tribute to all those who served and those who never made it back to Australian shores.
“We need to acknowledge the horrendous nature of war and what we ask our men and women to do,” he said.
Governor-General Sam Mostyn will lay a scarlet poppy wreath, first laid in 1934 on the memorial’s construction site, to symbolise the continuity of tradition.
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