Members of the Returned Soldiers and Ex-servicemen took yet once again to the streets of Suva in their ‘Remembrance Day’ March procession from the Suva Flea Market to the Sukuna Park to commemorate the lives of their fallen comrades on Saturday 11 November 2017.
Members of procession where then ushered to the war memorial site for the commencement of the wreath laying service led by His Excellency the President Major-General (Retired) Jioji Konrote , the acting Prime Minister Hon Jone Usamate and followed by Heads of Missions of the diplomatic core based in Suva.
At Exactly the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, Returned Soldiers and Ex-servicemen President Major (Ret’) Ratu Peni Volavola recited the citation from the Binyon lines from the poem ‘The Fallen’:
“They shall grow not old, as w e that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
The Remembrance Day commemorations is always an emotional day for the ever reducing strength of the last surviving Returned Soldiers of the then Royal Fiji Military Forces from both the Malayan and Solomon’s Campaign and their families and loved ones, who had selflessly and fearlessly fought for the freedom of our nation and region alongside our neighboring allies Australia and New Zealand.
Commander Republic of Fiji Military Forces Rear Admiral Viliame Naupoto after the completion of the formalities of the wreath laying ceremony wished all the troops serving nationwide and abroad in our various peacekeeping missions well and a heartfelt Remembrance Day.
