IAN MaCue will wear his own ‘dog tags’ from nearly 50 years ago and his grandfather’s from 100 years ago when he attends the dawn service in Turkey this Anzac Day.
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The Bellata farmer and his wife Louise will be one of five couples and old friends who are reuniting to mark the landing at Gallipoli centenary, where it all took place.
“We get together every few years – this time it just happens to be in Turkey,” Mr MacCue said.
“We’ve known each other for 40 years, our kids grew up together.”
From playgroups and dinner parties around Gurley and Bellata, the families forged a bond which has remained even after some moved on.
But the journey will have special significance for Mr MacCue, whose grandfather served in the 7th Light Horse Regiment.
“It is an opportunity to show respect,” he said.
“To see where my grandfather fought and where thousands of his mates died so that we could live in the lucky country which we do now.”
Charles Rowley MacCue joined on September 15, 1915 and spent most of his service in North Africa, including postings in Cairo, Port Said and Alexandria.
He was hospitalised twice with gunshot wounds and once with appendicitis.
In 1918 Charles was sent to Gallipoli, two years after the end of the campaign there.
The following year he sailed home and was discharged from the military in November 1919. His grandson still has the papers.
“In another four years they will be 100-years-old,” Mr MacCue said.
The grain and cattle farmer served from 1968 to 1974 as an education officer in the RAAF.
He and the rest of the crew will attend a dawn ceremony near the place the Diggers landed a century ago.
Helen and Michael Meppem, who now live in Longreach, won the official ballot to attend the ceremony at Anzac Cove. The other couples are John and Mary-Ann McPherson, Michelle and Greg Tomlinson and Margaret and Michael Chamberlain.