A friendship ignited by the story of a lost soldier is bringing a colonel with a 35-year career to lead Warrnambool's Anzac Day commemorations.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Queensland-raised Colonel Catherine McGregor enlisted in the Australian Army in 1974. Despite her decorated career, it was the search for a lost soldier which brought her to the attention of Warrnambool's veterans.
"I have a connection with the veteran community here firstly through Vietnam veteran Doug Heazlewood who I met at the 50th anniversary of Long Tan," she said.
"I'd stumbled across a story of a soldier called Phil Norris who they mistakenly thought had been killed in action the night before the battle of Long Tan.
"He'd been evacuated and they found him 30 years later and reunited him with his daughter.
"It was quite an epic story and Doug said 'we must get you to Warrnambool sometime'. The plan was I'd come in 2020 but it didn't materialise due to COVID-19.
"I eventually made the journey here in 2022 and fell in love with Warrnambool so when the opportunity arose to attend this year's service - here I am."
Col McGregor - who is still actively serving - said she'd share some of her experiences with the audience during the commemorative address on Thursday, April 25, 2024, including three deployments to East Timor.
"It's challenging to find words to express the gravity of sacrifice, if you look back through history Abraham Lincoln gave an address at Gettysburg for which he's remembered," she said.
"He said words can neither add nor detract from the nobility of human sacrifice in war, so I'll make some brief remarks about the Anzac legacy and our peacekeeping operations as well, because three of my deployments were essentially peacekeeping operations.
"It's a chapter of our military history which is sometimes overlooked."
