By ALESHA CAPONE
ON ANZAC Day, World War II veteran John Jennings will celebrate with his mates at the Sunshine RSL – and a nice chilled beer.
The sprightly senior citizen said he would prefer to bring his bed to the RSL and sleep there overnight, rather than risk missing Thursday’s ANZAC dawn service – or the opportunity to have a VB afterwards.
“I’ll be down here with a stubby,” he said.
“You would have to shoot me to stop me from having a beer or going to the dawn service.”
On Thursday, Mr Jennings will also celebrate his 93rd birthday.
In contrast, the Sunshine West resident spent his 21st birthday on the Kokoda Trail in 1942.
“There was nothing special up there – there was too much lead flying around,” Mr Jennings said.
“The worst part was I had four sisters, and I got no bloody birthday cake.”
Instead, Mr Jennings and his fellow soldiers in the 39th Battalion ate “dog biscuits, bully beef and diced carrots”.
Although more than seven decades have passed since Kokoda, Me Jennings still bears the physical marks of the notorious battle.
“I have scar down my leg which is 6.5 inches and three-quarters of an inch deep,” he said.
“On my left foot, I have only three toes, I lost two due to shrapnel.”
Mr Jennings said he was proud to be a member of the Australian Light Horse Brigade prior to WWII.
“I cheated – I put my age up when I was 17 so I could join. I figured by the time the papers went up and through parliament, what could they do?” he said.
“I met a lot of friends, one boy after he enlisted and finished training, I lost him. He got cleaned up,” Mr Jennings said.
“Les Morgan, he was a good mate. I’ve still got his photo in my bedroom.”
After he was discharged in 1946, Mr Jennings married and had two children, three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
“I just take every day as it comes now,” he said.
Sunshine RSL in Dickson St will hold a dawn service on Thursday at 7am.
