ANZAC Day commemorations marked 110 years since the Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed on the Turkish coastline at Gallipoli.
In Forbes thousands gathered to mark the day on Friday at the mid-morning march and service at the Cenotaph in Victoria Park.
The service saw Forbes High School captain Annaliese Green who was both honoured and humbled to deliver the ANZAC Day address.
"ANZAC Day is a day for service personnel and the nation to reconnect with our past, understand the present, and look to our future," Annaliese said.
Annaliese reflected on why we gather on 25 April every year to remember those who have served to defend Australia during her commemoration address.
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"We do this because it is the anniversary of the day when Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed on the beach at Gallipoli in Turkey on 25 April 1915.
"This was the first major military campaign for soldiers from Australia and New Zealand.
"The Australians at Gallipoli came from all sorts of backgrounds, but they shared the terrible experience of war. Ever since then, for more than one hundred years, the men and women in our navy, army and air force have honoured the memory of our original Anzacs."
Annaliese's ANZAC Day address was made even more special as she took time to speak with her grandmother to research greater depth and detail into her own family history.
"My family has had four generations serve overseas and domestically and I have two cousins serving currently."
Both of Annaliese's great grandfathers on her mother's side enlisted and her grandfather's father served as a royal engineer and served in Papua New Guinea.
"My grandmother's father served in the AIF in the transport division. If he was still alive today I would ask him so many things but I think the first would be how his legs felt when his feet hit unsteady ground. What the smoke felt like but I don't think I could bring myself to ask him what it looked like and never would I want him to think again of what it must have sounded like.
"It pains me to know how those memories would forever follow him long after the dust had settled.
"Each and every one of my family members chose to enlist, and I am so proud of the bravery and commitment they have made for our country," Annaliese said.
To Annaliese ANZAC Day is a reminder of the power and perseverance of Australians and our allies in New Zealand from the men in the front lines and the nurses healing and consoling their friends and family oceans away.
"On ANZAC Day I am reminded of this strength because I am also reminded of the fear that they all had to face. The men and women, so many close in age to myself, lost so much during World War One and throughout all subsequent wars, conflicts and peacekeeping missions."
Annaliese has marched on ANZAC Day every year she has been at school and before that she would either be standing beside her grandmother or in the arms of her mother.
"From our place of peace and comfort, we can only imagine the atrocities of what our service men and women have seen and experienced. Those who did return can never unsee the brutality and the horrors of war. We must remain grateful for their sacrifice," she concluded.
