ANZAC Day reflections – Moving from Darkness to Light

My last article reflected on what we might be able to expect in 2025 and how we veterans can contribute to a better future for our veteran community following the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide (RCDVS). This reflection expands on that in practical ways.

I've just returned from Timor where our 31st Timor Awakening program celebrated a dawn service in collaboration with the Australian and New Zealand Embassy staff, uniformed members of our Defence and Police Cooperation Programs, other Aussie and Kiwi veterans, and many interested Timorese. The venue was the new headquarters for the Timorese veterans association, co-incidentally the location of the Australian led UN hospital from 2000-2004 and proximate to where our 2/2nd Commando Coy resisted the Japanese invasion in 1942. In our ANZAC gathering, the Timorese veterans are fascinated by the “Togetherness” we have – their word is HAMUTUK – and the friendly and mutually supportive sense of purpose that we share in not only getting our own veterans healthier, but at the same time helping their poor and most needy people in the extensive humanitarian work we do. 

My contribution to the Dawn Service as the Padre, was to reflect upon the movement from darkness to light; from the eerie sadness of the Last Post, to the up-beat rousing of Reveille, and for us to both ponder and honour the death, suffering and sacrifice of those gone before us, and then go out from the service with a renewed passion for living life to the full, in practical acts of ongoing service. (As a demonstration of that, after coffee and breakfast on site, our group then headed out to the mountains to the WW2 Commando HQ location of Same, where we spent two days refurbishing the Veterans Education and Training School that we have built and operate for children of Timorese veterans and the rural poor.)

2025 needs to be a year of action, now that the RCDVS recommendations have been approved. But I wish to reinforce that it’s not just Defence and DVA that need to be active. We veterans need to proactively take our part. Indeed, with a potential volunteer workforce of up to 500,000 we have much to offer, and have many complementary contributions that can be merged with the offerings by DVA and Defence. 

Quite a lot of us in the veteran community have had the expectation that DVA or Defence have total responsibility for putting us back together. Clearly they have a responsibility in this space, but as I have reflected on this after over 48 years in uniform and 30 years in chaplaincy, I’ve come to realise that we as veterans have co- responsibility with government agencies to address the needs that we have. 

Moreover, I have come to see that the most dramatic improvement in any veteran’s health and wellbeing, has come from veterans, as individuals and in groups, using their own initiative and taking a lead in helping their mates get healthier. Clinicians and clinical treatments certainly play a part, but invariably they are reactive – not proactive -and only accessed when the veteran is in crisis or acutely ill. 

Up until now, disease prevention and early intervention has had little funding and little attention. In response to these gaps, and the reluctance of veterans to engage in health and wellbeing, in recent years a plethora of groups like Disaster Relief Australia, Trojans Trek, PTSD Resurrected have got moving and have saved the lives of many veterans and got them engaged in a journey of healing. These results are backed up by solid psychometric evidence. 

The Timor Awakening program that my veteran son Michael Stone has developed and delivered, with very little government support, has seen dramatic improvement in the lives of 1,000 veterans and their families, many of whom were previously suicidal, but now engaged in purposeful mentoring and leadership roles in ex-service and community organisations. The bottom line is that all of us can play a part in this space. We don’t need to be passively waiting for others to do something for us. Embracing a life-giving purpose is life giving in so many ways. 

Broadly, in the past, veteran activity has been at arms length from Defence and DVA. In many cases, we have had adversarial relationships. But this year I have seen a shift from the institutional responses we have had in the past. In the past few months I have had positive and encouraging dialogue with Repatriation Commissioner Kahlil Fegan DSC AM, Deputy Repatriation Commissioner Mark Brewer AM CSC, and ADF lead in veteran matters, Brig Mel Cochbain CSC, all very experienced veterans themselves. They are absolutely committed to open and engaged dialogue, into how we may all move forward together. 

The year has commenced well with DVA staff facilitating stakeholder workshops in a “co -design” approach over the establishment of a Veterans Well-being agency. Work is also progressing in the development of a transition program for veterans upon discharge from full-time service. A DVA / Veteran assembly is planned for late May. An offering of co-responsibility is now on the table. 

But we veterans must let go of past grievances with our institutions- as justifiable as they were in the past - and move forward by an attitude of co-responsibility and HAMUTUK – togetherness. We need to trust and be open to dialogue. We also need to be realistic. There will not be massive additional government financial injections into DVA. But we can engage collaboratively in how we can better use the funding that DVA does get. For example, DVA are spending “gazillions” of dollars on acute care in psychiatric hospitals. Investment in much cheaper veteran led health and wellbeing programs could see many fewer people needing hospitalisation. Together, with a unified purpose of improving veteran health and wellbeing, we can improve the lot of our veteran community. 

There are many Issues in the veterans space needing action. I honour those that are addressing matters relating to entitlements, compensation and pensions. My own experience and expertise is in the health and well-being space, and my final point in this article is on how we veterans, individually can do life better. 

Like most of our readers I’ve had my own battles with disease, injury and disability and the bureaucratic processes that accompany these areas. But after too many battles with post-traumatic stress, cancer and peritonitis, in 2012 I realised that I needed to take more responsibility for promoting my own health and well-being in a holistic way, and not relying on others to fix my problems.

I also came to realise that I had become focused on my problems, rather than contributing my energies to finding solutions. We will all do better to shed identities of being victims, of being broken, of having to be fixed by someone else. Then we can embrace the reality that we can get healthier, by education in holistic health, and get more involved in the wonderful quest of helping others get healthier at the same time.

There will continue to be those who whinge and gripe about the past, but a new day has dawned. Continuing to drink the poison of resentment will only keep us in the darkness. 

In the last 10 years I have witnessed massive personal transformations when veterans decide to LET GO of their past traumas and resentments and  choose to move forward into the light. Even better if we do that TOGETHER–HAMUTUK. St Paul once said, “Only three things abide forever - faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love”. May we all be agents of love for our veterans and families in need. 

Kind regards, your Padre, Gary

Padre Gary Stone OAM