Today’s Remembrance Day ceremony will mark fifty years since the Australian Task Force in South Vietnam launched Operation Ivanhoe.

It was the last offensive operation by Australians before withdrawing from South Vietnam in December 1971, and saw the death of the last Australian to die on active service there, Ralph Niblett.

Delivering the Call to Remembrance in Kiama will be particularly poignant for Gary McKay, who was the platoon commander in the battle.

“Ralph died in my arms as we were winching him out,” says Gary.

“He was a third generation dairy farmer from Victoria, whose grandfather had fought at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, and his father won a military medal – and lost a leg – at Milne Bay.”

Lest we forget.

The Kiama/Jamberoo Sub Branch of the RSL will be holding the Remembrance Day service at the Memorial Arch from 10.40-11am. Members of the public are invited to attend and to lay wreaths if they wish.