Commandery celebrates ANZAC Day in Hawaii, 2022

By Companion Manny Manchester,

The Hawaii Commandery took part in ANZAC Day observations, a tradition that we have striven to sustain over the pandemic in small ceremonies we co-organized with MOWW. I was invited to attend the sunrise ceremony, the presentation of wreaths at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, and the social hour aboard the USS Missouri at the end of the day. The morning ceremony was held in one of the remaining WWII 8 inch gun parapet on the Southeast outer slope of Diamondhead, once known as the Rock of Gibraltar of the Pacific for all its fortifications. We entered through an access tunnel from the inside of the crater in the darkness of the early morning, prior to entering we were all provided a poppy flower pin and a sprig of rosemary to remember the bitterness of loss. The historic site is still used by the Hawai’i National Guard and was made available for ANZAC ceremony. I heard several of the Australian and New Zealand uniformed participants, the true ANZACs, who had visited the battlefield of Gallipoli commented on how the terrain was reminiscent of the battle site with its steep ridges topped with bunkers, approaches laced with barbed wire, and only a short section of coastline to perform an amphibious landing. We have a term here in Hawai’i, “chicken-skin,” like “goosebumps” in the mainland it’s that feeling you get when we feel the presence of those who have passed profoundly amongst us. This was that kind of profound ceremony, with traditional presentations by Aotearoa Maori and Australian first nations people, readings of the poem of Flanders Field, Anthems of those nations present, and other events to honor those who had passed over a hundred years ago at the Battlefield of Gallipoli in World War One, which cemented a spiritual alliance between Australia and New Zealand. At the end of the ceremony, we were provided with the traditional ANZAC cookies and had our choice of coffee or a dark and stormy with rum! I was most honored to have been invited and hope we will be able to continue to send a companion of our order to future ANZAC sunrise remembrance events. Next, MOFW presented a wreath for the ANZAC fallen at a midmorning open remembrance ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Puowaina Crater attended by the Governor of Hawai’i. In the afternoon, those who have worked with the Australian and New Zealand Allies were invited to a official ANZAC reception about the aft deck of the USS Missouri, complete with catered meals, open bar and pure comradery, the kind of thing so many of us thought about doing when we return home from our deployments, celebrations of the living and the fallen.

Above: the morning ceremony overlooking the waters south of

Diamond Head Crater on old Fort Ruger. Above: the Hawaii Commandery, MOFW wreath at the NMCP. Below: The social reception aboard the USS Missouri.