Thousands of veterans will take part in ANZAC Day marches across the country tomorrow but there are others who will choose not to be part of the commemoration. One of the country's oldest living World War II veterans 106-year-old Colin Wagener is one of those who's never marched.
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00:00 In 1938, at just 20 years of age, Colin Waggoner joined the Army with his three best friends.
00:07 I knew a war was coming and I thought we'd win it before they came and got us sort of thing.
00:14 He would be the only one of the foursome to return home.
00:18 During his service, Mr Waggoner worked his way up the ranks to Sergeant, a promotion that took him on an unexpected journey.
00:26 It was very, very secret where we were going and we finished up in a convoy heading for Borneo.
00:33 As a keen photographer, Mr Waggoner knew he had to capture the moment of history.
00:37 He traded rationed cigarettes for darkroom equipment to develop film at night.
00:42 Those photos would later feature at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
00:47 That's the front line, that's just there.
00:49 He returned home at the end of the war in 1945, eventually boarding a train to Adelaide.
00:55 My father picked me up and brought me home.
00:58 It was a wonderful feeling to walk up to my front door knowing I'd never have to go away again.
01:04 The now 106-year-old describes Anzac Day as his holy day, but the veteran has never chosen to march.
01:12 I respect it all. I do what I have to do.
01:17 It's not my thing.
01:23 Some people finished their service life and they wanted to go back to their life.
01:26 They didn't see it as a continuation, they wanted to go back to something else.
01:30 And others, in my view, wrongly, treat their service differently from the way that other veterans treat their service.
01:39 Mr Waggoner considers the years after the end of the war as his bonus years and attributes his longevity to living an active lifestyle.
01:48 I think with health, I'm just lucky.
01:52 And so he marches on in his bonus years. He'll be 107 in December.
01:57 Remember.
01:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]