\u201cThat might look like joining the parade, wearing a loved one\u2019s medals on the right side of the chest, and hearing the names of those who served, or the campaigns they were part of, reflected in the service,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Penk said the changes were \u201cwell overdue\u201d and 2026 would be the first time New Zealand\u2019s national commemoration formally recognises all those who served the country in times of war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will remember them.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Hesketh joined the army in 1987 after leaving Hastings Boys\u2019 High School.<\/p>\n
His grandfather was part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in World War II, who fought through North Africa and Europe, and his father was also in the Army.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sort of just flowed to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
John Hesketh and his wife Shiree at the Anzac Day breakfast at the New Zealand High Commission in Singapore in 2019.<\/p>\n
Hesketh toured Bosnia Herzegovina, Bougainville and East Timor with the Army before leaving in 2007 and working for private contractors in Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d regularly attended Anzac Day services, except for the last couple of years because he no longer felt comfortable.<\/p>\n
But Hesketh said the new legislation is \u201creally good\u201d and a \u201cgood first step\u201d into addressing some of the issues that challenge modern veterans.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it should be nowhere near the last step.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019d been frustrated at some Anzac services where politicians spoke of their relatives who fought in World War II, while living veterans sat right in front of them.<\/p>\n
Hesketh said veterans should be remembered not only on April 25 but on the other 364 days of the year.<\/p>\n
Hesketh said he was unsure if he would attend an Anzac service this year but said if he did, he would rather spend the time holding his grandchildren\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
Born in the UK, Mike Cannon completed over 10 years in the Royal Air Force before emigrating to New Zealand, where he would go on to become the base commander of RNZAF Base Auckland Whenuapai.<\/p>\n
Group Captain (Rtd) Mike Cannon NZBM, DSD. Helicopter Loadmaster Officer.<\/p>\n
Cannon said despite the technicality of the legislation, he had always felt he could march on Anzac Day alongside his \u201cbrothers and sisters\u201d.<\/p>\n
An old boss of Cannon\u2019s described military medals as the diary of a soldier.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother soldier will look at your chest and go, yes, you\u2019ve been somewhere and you\u2019ve done something that we all now have a shared experience in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel that bond when you\u2019re standing out on Anzac Day.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said before this year\u2019s legislative change, veterans may\u2019ve felt the law \u201cin some way\u201d didn\u2019t recognise their acts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s now a formal acknowledgment that we are all in it together and it is a shared experience, but now it\u2019s recognised under the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s important to me, that everybody feels now as though it is that shared experience and it\u2019s inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cannon said Anzac Day is a difficult day for him now.<\/p>\n
He was marching in Feilding on the morning of Anzac Day 2010 when his phone rang to tell him an Iroquois helicopter was lost.<\/p>\n