Keith Hopkins, second from left, marches with the Outer Eastern and Yarra Valley division. 53614
By Mara Pattison-Sowden
A DELEGATION from the Yarra Valley’s Servicemen attended the dedication of a memorial for National Servicemen in Canberra recently.
Yarra Junction’s Keith Hopkins, treasurer of the Outer Eastern and Yarra Valley sub-branch of the National Servicemen’s Association, said more than 50 members made their way to Canberra on 7 September for the official dedication of a National Service memorial.
The memorial is dedicated to all Australian National Servicemen.
Mr Hopkins said they marched up Anzac Parade to the new memorial, which included an honour roll of 212 conscripted men who were killed in active service in Borneo and Vietnam.
“At the memorial, there would have been 5000 marching and people were there from all over Australia,” he said.
Mr Hopkins said he was lucky to go to the Great Hall at Parliament House the night before and meet the newly sworn-in Prime Minister.
“She was walking down the corridor, shaking people’s hands on the right and I was on the left, so I stepped out and shook hands, and told her congratulations just half an hour after she was sworn in,” he said.
Between 1951 and 1972 more than 290,000 young men were called up for National Service and underwent compulsory training.
Mr Hopkins was called up for three months of training in 1954, and was then in the reserves for five years before building bridges and doing demolition in the engineer’s department.
“We read you were still eligible to go to war until you were 60-years-old if they needed you, and that’s only 15 years ago,” he said.
The Australian War Memorial in Canberra offered the site at the right-hand side of the main entrance as part of its redeveloped eastern precinct.
