They have unbelievable stories to tell and have left an indelible mark in the pages of our history.
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Now our 14,000 living WWII veterans are invited by the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) to be part of WWII Reflections, one of the largest photography projects ever undertaken.
The aim is for AIPP-accredited professional photographers around Australia to donate their time and expertise to capture portraits of all of our remaining WWII veterans.
A print of these portraits will be donated to the family, and also form part of a mural to be displayed at the Australian War Memorial.
The photographers will also donate any money raised from additional prints to Legacy and the RSL Foundation.
Carmen Hickey of Forever Rose Photography, Cootamundra, said she was honoured to be invited to be part of the ambitious project.
“This is part of recording and maintaining our history, and providing a photographic record to reflect on for generations to come,” Ms Hickey said.
“Letters and printed photographs meant absolutely everything to our veterans back then, telling the story of their lives in their youth.
“It’s only fitting to contrast this with their senior years in the same way, in a timeless gift to them, their families and the nation.”
This morning Carmen met with local WWII veteran Ray Price for her first project portrait.
Mr Price, 92, enlisted in Armidale as part of the teachers corps and following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour he became a gunner and specialist gun layer.
His role took him around Australia including Port Kembla, Mareeba, Darwin and Milingimbi, defending places of industry and air force bases.
He remembers many incredible moments, including the sight of sunken ship funnels in Darwin Harbour at low tide.
“On Milingimbi there were no tents, so we built our own shelters and survived on bully beef biscuits and tomato juice for nine months.
“We would protect the supply ship as it unloaded on to invasion barges. There wasn’t a tree on that beach that didn’t have shrapnel in it.”
Given only one 44-gallon drum of clean water to last until the next shipment, the men would wash their clothes in salt water until they fell apart.
Mr Price says this project has given him another opportunity to reflect on his service.
“Until my unit broke up you didn’t have time to think about it, you just got on with it.
“I’d been trained to be a teacher, to build and construct, but when I look back on it I was taught to be destructive.”
After the war Mr Price returned to teaching in Gundagai and Muttama, and in 1963 he moved to Cootamundra and taught for 20 more years between the two primary schools before retiring.
The AIPP is now calling on other WWII veterans and their families to register their interest at aippveterans.com/veterans/
Anyone in the region can also contact Ms Hickey on 0408 414 063.
Portraits can take place wherever is convenient.
