Remembering comrades: Past Red Roosters lay wreath at the memorial at Seymour Health to pay respects and remember fallen veterans. Photo: Betty Thornley
The Royal Hotel in Seymour was packed with men in blue on Saturday, November 11, for the 21 Construction Squadron’s reunion.
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Bill Thornley was a field engineer and transport driver in the 1970s with the 21 Construction Squadron, known as the Red Roosters.
Bill and his wife, Betty, have been organising the reunions since 2017 and they said it got bigger every year.
“We’ve done this in 2017, there was eight of us,” Mr Thornley said.
“Two of them have passed on, and so we went from eight people to 534.
“We’re very proud of what we’ve done.”
Men in blue: Puckapunyal's 21 Construction Squadron gathered at the Royal Hotel on the night of Remembrance Day for its reunion. Photo: Faith Macale
Photo by
Faith Macale
The 21 Construction Squadron was a group of engineers that worked on explosives and built bridges and roads for the army. It was based in Seymour from the mid-1950s to the end of the 1980s.
The squadron was disbanded and integrated as the 17 Construction Squadron, then moved its base to Queensland.
The Red Roosters’ last reunion was in 2019 at the Royal Hotel, which they call their old stomping ground.
This year’s reunion was a long time coming, as it had to be postponed three times because of the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s floods.
On Saturday morning at 11am, the group gathered at the gates of Seymour Health to lay a wreath for fallen veterans.
At 6pm, veterans from all over Australia gathered at the pub’s dining hall to raise a toast to their fallen comrades and celebrate everyone in the squadron.
One by one, the veterans mentioned names of people they wanted to remember this Remembrance Day.
Grateful for family: Red Rooster veteran David Moore got emotional talking about how the 21 Construction Squadron impacted his life. Photo: Faith Macale
Photo by
Faith Macale
The number of people at the reunion made David Moore, one of the veterans who organised the event, emotional.
“It’s been incredible because these people are a lot different than people outside of the army,” he said.
“We’re a big family and always will be.”
He said the bond he had with all his Red Roosters comrades was a special kind that couldn’t be replicated.
“It was the greatest bunch of people I’ve ever worked with and been involved with,” he said.
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