CARLISLE, PA -- At 5:45 a.m., USAWC International Fellows, US students, faculty and staff gathered outside of Root Hall for the annual Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Day Dawn Service. The Australian and New Zealand fellows from the AWC student body invited colleagues from the US and other partner nations.
ANZAC Day is celebrated annually by service members from Australia and New Zealand on April 25, which marks the anniversary of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli during WWI. A national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, this day commemorates all countrymen who served and died in the conflict.
“We remember them wherever they are, wherever they fell because they, like many of you, have performed a duty their nation asked of them,” said Australian Fellow Col. Jason Groat during his remarks.
Groat is one of 80 international officers in the USAWC class of 2022. These “international fellows” are integrated into the student body, and offer regional insights to their U.S. counterparts during the course of the yearlong graduate program in Strategic Studies.
“The great turn out at the dawn service really did speak to the close relationships we have at the college,” said New Zealand Fellow Lt. Col. Aidan Shattock, who provided the opening and closing remarks.
On April 25, 1915, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps set out to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul) on the Gallipoli peninsula. Landing on Gallipoli the Anzacs were met with fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders and what had been planned as a bold strike to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate.
More than 8,000 Australians and 2,500 New Zealand Soldiers were killed during the Gallipoli campaign. The events of Gallipoli had a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders, and 25 April soon became a national day of remembrance to those soldiers. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, a term which now denotes national pride in those countries.
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