FOR Ipswich veteran Doug Young, Anzac Day is more than a date on the calendar – it’s a deeply personal day of remembrance, pride, and reflection.
Now 88 years old and living at Carinity Colthup Manor aged care community, his eyes still light up when he speaks of the Royal Australian Air Force – the service that shaped his life and took him across the world.
“I loved the challenge,” Mr Young said, his voice steady and proud.
“Working on the engines of fighter jets and helicopters … that was where I belonged.”
Mr Young and his identical twin brother Allan enlisted in the Air Force in 1953 as teenage apprentice engine fitters.
The brothers completed six-year apprenticeships in Wagga, laying the foundations for lives dedicated to service.
Over the next five decades, his career in the Air Force took him around Australia and to countries including Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Hong Kong, Pakistan, India and Thailand.
Mr Young served in the Vietnam War as what he humbly calls a “jack-of-all-trades”, supporting transport operations for the Australian armed services.
But the reality was far from simple.
“We loaded freight, we loaded munitions, we loaded money, we loaded people. We loaded all sorts of things,” he said. “I became a tradesman one day and a flight attendant the next.”
There were moments of danger, too. In one terrifying incident, he narrowly escaped injury when enemy troops opened fire on his aircraft.
“A piece of shrapnel blew a hole in the side of the plane – just near where I was sitting,” he said.
“That could’ve been it.”
For his children, Brian and Janette, and his grandson Ryan, Anzac Day carries deep meaning – a chance to honour their father and grandfather’s service.
“There’s so much pride in our family,” daughter Janette said. “I loved going to Anzac Day events with dad because I saw that brotherhood.”
