The more than 200 senior citizens who took part in the annual Aged Care Anzac Day wreath-laying ceremony at the Australian War Memorial on Wednesday found themselves the centre of attention.
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AWM director Dr Brendan Nelson said they were the most magnificent generation Australia had produced.
"Your generation that has come here today, from the nursing homes, the aged-care facilities and retirement villages come from the most remarkable generation," he said.
"Born in the aftermath of the war that was, growing up through the Great Depression, coming to adulthood under the shadows of the war that was coming; a million of you mobilised in a war that was no mere extension of World War I," he said.
"Forty-thousand of your friends and countrymen gave their lives and [afterwards] you set about the economic and social reconstruction of our country.
"[You are] a generation that regarded its responsibilities more important than its rights, values more important than value, and your commitment to one another, our nation and its future transcended everything else."
Dr Nelson said it was a privilege to host the ceremony in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs at a place of paradox.
"This is called the Australian War Memorial, but it is not about war," he said. "It is about love and friendship; love of one another, and families and country."
Peter Ellerman, who attended with his 97-year-old father, Lloyd Ellerman, of Garran, said the former 8th Division signaller and Japanese prisoner of war enjoyed turning out for the occasion.
The elder Ellerman, now a resident in a Canberra nursing home, was resplendent in a full set of campaign medals.
"Dad marched [in the main Canberra ceremony] until he was 92," Mr Ellerman said. "When he couldn't march any more, he didn't want to ride in a Jeep."
Dr Nelson's "greatest generation" continues to serve.
Jack Sealey, the 92-year-old former Coastal Command Short Sunderland wireless operator and rear gunner who laid a wreath on behalf of Queanbeyan's Legacy Village, won't be able to attend this year's AWM Anzac Day service. He will be too busy organising Queanbeyan's dawn service.
