Well before 11am every Remembrance Day you'll find Vietnam veteran Ian Taylor preparing for the ceremony held at the Lakeside Memorial Park at Kanahooka.
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It's not a cenotaph, but for the members and friends of the Dapto-Port Kembla RSL sub-branch, it has something especially sacred - many of their members, and predecessors, are laid to rest there.
"Lakeside has been doing it for 27 years," said Mr Taylor, 69, the sub-branch president.
"We feel the respect there.
"A lot of our members are buried up there too - so it's a good way of doing Remembrance Day, but it's a good way to pay your respects to those that are there.
"My dad's there, he was in World War II, and so are a lot of other fathers, friends and mates, from the period since 1962."
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It's the numbers of attendees above the ground which the sub-branch and its friends are keen to build on, and they've extended the invitation to anyone in the community to spend their Remembrance Day ceremony with them.
And if the truth be told, with veterans ageing, it's a matter of necessity - with an important national tradition at stake.
"We'd love to see more people come along - the more the better," Mr Taylor said.
"Anzac Day is getting very, very big now, and we'd like to see Remembrance Day go the same way.
"A lot of the time it's school time and children can't go. Even the Vietnam vets now are in their 70s and 80s.
"So we need the young vets of today to come join the RSL and take over what we do, keep it going, keep it going forward.
"Because if the young ones don't come in, I'll be honest, the RSL will only last another 20 years. We need the young fellows - we'll take them with open arms.
"They don't need to be a returned [overseas] service person to be a member of the RSL - any ex-serviceperson whatsoever."
Mr Taylor was a medic at the field hospital in Vung Tau, Vietnam. And he said there was a proud record.
"We were the ones they brought the dust-off [medical evacuation] to," he said.
"And in the five years of the field hospital, we only lost one patient. Everyone did their job."
Lakeside's family service manager Shirley Wilson said the event was a vital tradition.
"Remembrance Day is more than a memorial. It is also a celebration of our beautiful and distinguished nation, which is sustained by the men and women who bravely serve this country," Ms Wilson said.
"It's an important occasion to ensure their memory and gratitude for their service lives on, in this generation and the next."
Ben Langford
Senior journalist writing on the environment. Opinion columnist, independent. We rely on your news tips so please, don't be shy to let us know what's going on.
Senior journalist writing on the environment. Opinion columnist, independent. We rely on your news tips so please, don't be shy to let us know what's going on.
