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ANZAC DAY 2014
Wollongong's Angela Paulo will observe Anzac Day in Afghanistan during her first deployment with the Australian Defence Force.
Although she misses home, the 21-year-old feels honoured to be serving in the army and attending a dawn service in Kandahar province.
"Being deployed overseas on warlike operations in Afghanistan on Anzac Day is going to be a lasting personal and professional memory," she told the Mercury by telephone on Thursday.
"I'll be up at 3.30am to help set up ... to commemorate all the fallen soldiers.
"Now that I'm a part of the army, I have even more respect for them.
"What I'm doing [logistics] is nothing compared to them."
Meeting people from different cultures had been the biggest eye-opener in the army, she said.
The Figtree High School graduate joined the military in 2012, three months after her elder brother.
"I thought if he can do it, so can I," she said.
Private Paulo had been bored with studying at university and decided to try something different.
She has become an army supply co-ordinator, handling dangerous goods, covering warehousing and liaising with coalition forces.
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