Narooma RSL president Paul Naylor used his Remembrance Day tribute to make the point that the words "war" and "heroes" are used very loosely these days.
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"I wonder if people really know what war is like.
"They refer to sportsmen as heroes but the real heroes are buried under the ground."
Mr Naylor said that one in five Australians who served in WWI died in service "and many more were injured in mind and body".
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The thing to do
Ken Burrows, aged 90, grew up during WWII, so signing up to the forces "was the thing to do".
He tried enlisting at the age of 16 and was told to come back when he was 18.
The Navy however accepted 17-year-olds, which was how he came to serve in the Korean War as a gunner aboard a ship for nine months.
"I was 19. You think you are immortal and that nothing can happen to you."
However three of ship's pilots conducting combat air patrol lost their lives.
One was buried at sea.
The other two bodies were never found.
His wife's older brother was killed in WWII in 1942.
"They got the telegram on Christmas Eve and they wonder why we hate war.
"The stupid thing is when you meet the enemy like we did in Japan they are all decent people," Mr Burrows said.
Lack of support
Des Burridge's family had served in both World Wars and he was 15 when his father signed him up to the Navy in 1964.
During the Vietnam War he did four trips on HMAS Sydney transporting troops and then 12 years in submarines.
Back then signing up was a 12-year commitment.
His father and uncle served overseas for five years and Mr Burridge remembers "they drank a bit and were moody".
"When they came back they couldn't see a psychiatrist, they just went to work the next day."
Their one lifeline was the RSL to drink with other ex-servicemen.
Speaking from his own experience, "when you have been in a situation like that you can talk to them but not to other people because they don't know what you have been through.
"If governments want to send people to war they should look after them when they come back or not send them to war.
"The Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide should have been done 50 or 60 years ago," Mr Burridge said.
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