ALTHOUGH he is limping badly and may shortly have to undergo a hip replacement, former private Mr Alfred Claude Westray will be present at the Dandenong Cenotaph Pillars of Freedom for Remembrance Day on Thursday.

Mr Westray, who served in the 2nd Australian Imperial Force from 1941 to 1945, will silently remember the soldiers' courage, fortitude and strength under enemy fire. He will also remember the good things, the mateship, the lasting friendships forged in the heat of the desert or the steamy jungles of New Guinea.

"I put my age up to 21 from 18, I lied to get in the AIF. I joined for the adventure, but war is no joke. It is sad, useless, an unnecessary waste of. young life," he said.

Mr Westray, 76 has long links with the Dandenong district, as, during the Great Depression, his late parents, Alf and Flo, cans to Carrum Downs to a poultry farm and part of his schooling was at the 'Downs'.

When Mr Westray joined the Army in South Melbourne, because he wasn't a 'chocco' and had not done his national training, he was sent to Ocean Grove to join an engineering group building pontoon bridges over the Barwon River. He was later called to the AIF and went to Puckapunyal for training in artillery as part of reinforcement units to the 2nd/12th Field Regiment.

He was sent on the Queen Mary to the Middle East leaving Sydney on September 3, 1941. He served mostly in Palestine and then transferred to a signal unit the 2^nd/lst Air Support Control.

From there the troops pushed into Libya and Mr Westray served as part of the contingent with the British 8th Army.