Alan Buxton is the epitome of the Anzac spirit and legend.
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The Shoalhaven is being graced by 102-year-old-year World War Two veteran's presence and his beaming Anzac spirit.
Words like courage, ingenuity, mateship, humility and humour come to mind when we think of the Anzac spirit.
Those words, and many more, can all be associated with Mr Buxton who is currently staying with his daughter Marilyn Schoonderwoerd and son-in-law Paul at their Lake Conjola home.
He was a long-term RSL LifeCare resident in the Rowland Village Retirement Village, Galston before coming to the Shoalhaven.
Mr Buxton will also attend the Milton Anzac Day event on Tuesday.
The Milton Ulladulla RSL-Sub Branch is honoured to have Mr Buxton as one of their guests.
Anzac Day is an event he always considers important - a day he and the rest of the community remember the fallen.
A special chair will await Mr Buxton who will be surrounded by family members at the service.
"I will sit at the cenotaph and wait for everyone else to arrive," he said about not being able to march.
"I don't mind going to Anzac Day events - I always went to the one in Galston."
His sister Judy is coming over from England to be with Mr Buxton on Anzac Day as are other family members including a half-brother and grandchildren.
"I have got about nine great great children - I lose track - I have lost count," he said with a chuckle.
He was born in Parramatta on December 4, 1920 and this year will turn 103-years-of-age.
Mrs Schoonderwoerd says her dad is an extremely generous person - as indicated by the time he gave the Milton Ulladulla Times for this interview.
This is what we talked about during our interview.
A sense of dedication
There was a bit of silence when Mr Buxton was asked if he was proud and humble about his service.
"Put it this way - I don't regret it at all. I met many good friends during my service period and I had both army and airforce experience," he said.
"I just felt it [signing up] was the right thing to do at the time."
He also wanted to serve his King and country.
"I am a monarchist - I like the Royal Family and I am an old traditionalist," he said.
His father John served in World War One and his son was always going to enlist when Australia entered WWII.
Mr Buxton joined the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on June 5, 1940 and then transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force in 1942.
He served in the Middle East with the AIF, participating in the Syrian Campaign and trained at Edmonton Canada, graduating as a navigator.
Mr Buxton then served in England on Bomber Commands 617 Squadron [the Dam Busters] from their base in Lincolnshire, England.
Mr Buxton, at the end of the European war, transferred to the Tiger Air Forces 467 Squadron and was about to go to Okinawa to assist with the attack on Japan, but the dropping of the atom bombs ended the war.
He was discharged on February 20, 1946 and his highest rank was Flying Officer in the RAAF.
A true gentleman
What strikes you straight away shortly after meeting Mr Buxton is his humour and spark - he is a very nice man.
His respect for others is shown by the Ode of Remembrance Book he used to be in charge of at the retirement village in Galston.
When one of the residents passed away, Mr Buxton would mark their passing in a respectful manner.
"I have a young friend - he is only 80-years-of-age who has taken over that job," he said.
Mr Buxton, when his time comes, would like to be remembered as a happy and a gentle man.
His daughter Marilyn agreed with that appraisal.
"I would also say dad had a big sense of duty," she said.
She explained that her father left school early to get a job to help support his family.
The young Mr Buxton was a student at the academically selective Fort Street High School during the Depression.
Mr Buxton's big academic strength was mathematics and he became an accountant.
"He left school because their family was poor and dad felt he need to try to earn some money - it was 1935 so you appreciate the period of time," she said.
Mrs Schoonderwoerd said her father's sense of duty and loyalty was strong again when WWII started.
"My grandfather - dad's dad - put his age up to go to WWI and put his age down to go to WWII and dad put his age up to enlist in WWII because he felt it was the right thing to do," she said.
Mr Buxton later had a distinguished career with the Shell Company.
He is always up for a laugh
"I've never been down or out or anything like that - even though things might have been grim. I always tried to see the funny side [more on that humour below]," he said.
You don't get much grimmer than fighting in a war, but Mr Buxton, as mentioned, always likes to see the funny side of things.
Speaking of funny, not many people would consider having to bail out a crashing airplane, being unconscious after jumping out of the said plane and ending up safely landing [just] in the potato patch, as being funny but Mr Buxton does.
This is his story about the night during final training in a four-engine Stirling bomber when they had to bail out because of engine trouble due to a fire.
He calmly explained a "powerful Stirling" could fly on one engine.
"So you have plenty of time to get out of the plane," he said about the ditching incident.
"At the time it was pretty traumatic - I can tell you that."
However, then that funny side of things comes in.
The crew headed to the escape hatch and it was all open and ready.
The idea was that they would "tumble" out and fall safely to ground, but these things never go to plan.
"We looked at the hatch with our big parachutes on and thought - how can we get out this little hole," Mr Buxton said.
Tumbling out was not an option and so the first crew member decided he would just "jump straight out".
However, the slipstream got him, he hit his head on the side of the escape hatch and he was out cold and split his head open.
"I thought 'gee I am not going to get my head split open' and so I decided to reverse out and jump facing the tail," he said.
"Of course, the slipstream got me and KOed me as well and I split my head open.
"I was unconscious for a while - until I heard a voice telling me to pull the ripcord."
It was a close call but he landed safely in a nice soft potato patch.
"A well-grown potato patch, which was quite a nice soft landing," he added.
So there he was, luckily on English soil in a potato patch, in darkness and he used a search whistle to blow to locate one of his mates.
He joined up with one of his crewmates and they headed off into the dark in an attempt to get back to base.
They saw a house and went up to it.
"We went up to the house, knocked on the door and the farmer opened the door and he had a double-barrel shotgun pointing straight at us," he said.
"He said 'you so-and-so Huns' he thought we were Germans."
They quickly explained to the armed farmer that they were Aussies - not Germans.
"Yes, it was a bit of a funny experience, but it was not funny at the time," Mr Buxton said.
He has a card and a gold caterpillar badge, from the parachute manufacturers, to record his survival.
"I used to wear the badge on my uniform - just to show off," he said.
The caterpillar relates to the parachute being made of silk.
Sadly only of the lads did not make it - one went down with the plane.
Mr Buxton will remember those who did not return from war on Tuesday as well as passed family members and mates.
Lest we forget