April 20-27, 2008
Melbourne, Australia
Last week I had the honor and privilege of accompanying six World War II veterans to Melbourne, Australia to photo document their experiences leading up to and on ANZAC Day on Friday, April 25. ANZAC Day is Australia and New Zealand’s version of our Memorial Day (and perhaps, Veteran’s Day) commemorating those killed in Gallipoli in WWI (over 10,000 between the two countries). The trip was sponsored by a group called The Greatest Generations Foundation whose main mission is to celebrate and commemorate the sacrifices of our countries soldiers and to take them back to the battlefields where they fought. They have taken WWII veterans back to all the major European theater battlefields and are planning to begin tours of the major Pacific theater battle fields as well. Timothy Davis, an Aussie, is the founder of TGGF and hence the Australian connection. Tim worked tirelessly to pull off the most fulfilling, action packed journey that I could have ever imagined. What amazed me most was that the vets, all of whom were around 85 years old, NEVER complained about the pace. If anyone, the four “youngins” on the trip (me, Tim Davis, Doug Fulton of the Denver Nuggets organization and Steffan Tubbs, radio news morning show host for KOA radio in Denver) were the ones struggling to maintain the hectic pace. Of course, while the Greatest Generation was safely tucked away in their cozy beds at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, we were busily planning the next day’s schedule… over pints of Crown at Young and Jackson’s.
Our “official” visit included several talks at local schools, a visit to Royal Melbourne Hospital, attending the Essendon Football Club’s Anzac Day luncheon, our own private commemoration ceremony at the Shrine of Rememberance, attendance at the Anzac Day Dawn Service and marching in the Anzac Day parade. We were guests at the Essendon Bombers vs. the Collingwood Magpies footy match (that’s Australian Rules Football) at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG), where MANY meat pies and Carlton Draughts were consumed. The game wasn’t a close one (Collingwood won by 73 points! BOO!), but I must say it did spark a new and keen interest in the sport. We even managed to get in a little Texas Hold’em at the Crown Casino. For a MUCH more complete accounting of our trip be sure to check out Steffan’s blog. I also would be remiss if I didn’t put in a plug for Quantas Airlines. Those guys ROCK! They were kind enough to donate TEN business class round trip tickets (at nearly $20k a piece!!!) to the organization. I don’t know if I can ever fly 15 hours in coach after that one. Between the wine, the fold flat beds, the PJ’s they give you, and a tiny little Lunesta, that was the fastest, most pleasurable flight of my life. Thanks Quantas!!!
What follows is a short photo documentary of our trip. I hope you enjoy the photos…
Steffan Tubbs takes full advantage of the Quantas business class lounge while waiting for our flight at LAX
WWII veterans Bob Ball and Bill Brunger enjoying the comfort of their “pods”…
The veterans share their WWII experiences with the children of Toorak Primary School…
You wouldn’t believe the intelligent and relevant questions these kids would ask…
Class photo…
Steffan interviews the kids for his Denver radio show…
Doug Fulton, a member of the Denver Nuggets community relations team, shows his mad skills to the kids…
Here we are enjoying a little R&R at our 31st floor HQ of the Melbourne Grand Hyatt. As a side note, take notice of the gorgeous lighting coming from the right hand side of frame in the shot below courtesy of my new Radio Poppers wireless radio flash triggers. They were a HUGE help throughout the week and made several shots possible that you simply could NOT do with out them. Thanks so much to Kevin King for rushing me my Poppers before I left. To learn more about them or to purchase your own (sorry Vanessa, none in Oz yet!) click here.
A beautiful Melbourne sunset to end our first day…
TGGF founder, Timothy Davis, arranges our CRAZY schedule for Day Two…
Below is WWII veteran and original member of Easy Company from Band of Brothers, Ed Tipper sharing war stories with one of Australia’s finest at the Essendon Football Club’s Anzac Day luncheon…
Steffan Tubbs moderates as Bob Ball tells of his experience in a Nazi war prisoner camp…
Two old warriors swap tales…
The guys pose with rookie members of the Essendon Football Club…
Clayton Nattier gets “footy” tips from the Essendon head coach…
Day Two the vets shared more stories with the young men of St. Bernard’s College. It’s hard to believe that our veterans were just four or five years older than these kids when they were asked to possibly make the ultimate sacrifice for their country…
Australian hospitality was in full force at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (get it, “hospital-ity”). This hospital was the home for MANY WWII veterans wounded while fighting in the Pacific theater. It was also our first exposure to meat pies (mmmm… meat pies….aaaaghhhh….)
Veteran Clayton Nattier presents a friendship pin to one of the patients…
This whole trip, the central theme seemed to be about making connections…
I think one of the highlights of the trip for Tim Davis was our private commemoration ceremony at the Shrine of Remembrance. I don’t think there were many dry eyes (Doug) as Tim presented all the vets (and the young guys) with Anzac pins.
Another Radio Popper moment below. This shot would have been virtually impossible to pull off the way I did below shooting at F 2.0 @ 1/2000th of a second with an 85 mm lens probably 60-80 feet between me and the flash unit. The RP’s allowed me to maintain high speed sync (can’t do that with a Pocket Wizard) and transmit over a greater distance than the built in Canon wireless system could possibly do outdoors…
Bill Brunger contemplates the Anzac eternal flame…
The Anzac Day dawn service is something you have to experience to understand. 40,000 people (including MANY young children) gathered at the Shrine by 5am to commemorate the men and women who have lost their lives serving Australia and New Zealand. Sadly, I just don’t think we Americans honor our veterans with the same passion and reverance…
Our vets were a favorite for the local news stations (their reporters were rather easy on the eye, don’t you think?)…
Some of the 40,000 making their way into the Shrine of Remembrance…
Even the young ones wanted to connect with our veterans…
Aussie-based photographer extraordinaire, Vanessa Hall, took this photo of me with our vets. I will cherish this photo forever…
More sharing of stories with an Aussie “Digger”…
The Melbourne Cricket Grounds, or MCG, as seen from our hotel…
The hotel staff was incredibly courteous (yeah, that’s it, courteous!)…
Heck, who am I kidding, she was freakin’ gorgeous! Just as Lucky McGinty (with possibly the biggest smile we got out of him the whole trip)…
Another highlight for me and I think everyone on the trip was the opportunity to meet another American war hero, Dale Dye. In addition to his decorated military career, Dale has either been in, or military advisor to, nearly every war movie made in Hollywood for the last twenty or so years. He is currently in Melbourne working on The Pacific, Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg’s companion piece to Band of Brothers (due out on HBO in a year or two)…
If you’ve ever heard the term “fruit salad” here it is. Check out the Purple Heart medal. The two stars on it mean he has earned a total of THREE of these…
Steffan and Bill share a moment before the start of the parade…
I’m just glad Captain Dye is on OUR side…
Our guys took the parade VERY seriously…
Captain Dye kept the guys in line and marching in sync…
The crowd was UN-believeable. They cheered like CRAZY for our guys the whole way. It gave me goosebumps…
Here’s the whole group after our last lunch (taken again by Vanessa Hall) with the gorgeous Melbourne skyline in the background (and again, thank you Radio Poppers!)…
Okay, this was just silly…
The street performers at Flinder’s Station were pretty wacky, too…
This is shot is a bit of a recreation of what it might have been like when the WWII veterans exited from Flinders Street Station to be greeted with the VERY welcome view across the street of Melbourne’s most famous bar, Young and Jacksons…
Inside the bar is a painting called, “Chloe”. Legend has it that the vets would all touch Chloe’s %$#@ for good luck…
Steffan after a few too many Crown’s…
Our last night we were invited to have dinner in the historic home of Maureen and Peter McKeon (and their son, James), who we met (Maureen) on the Quantas flight over. Maureen is a PHENOMENAL hostess/chef and has even published a chocolate cookbook called “Crave”. The dinner was the absolute perfect exclamation point to a phenomenal trip…
That’s Vanessa Hall on the bottom left…
If, by some miracle, after this EPIC blog post (sorry for my lack of brevity) you’d like to see more or would like to purchase any of these photos, go to this page. Press inquiries please go to www.tggf.us.
