Mr Gill spent four and a half months serving as a special forces communication specialist in Afghanistan in 2001.

Two years later he was over in Iraq so he has a fair idea of what it’s like to be involved on the front line.

Mr Gill believes Anzac Day has become more inclusive over the years.

Instead of a sole focus on Gallipoli and World War I and II, all returned servicemen and the battles they fought in are now being commemorated with a similar level of respect.

“I think we’ve got to go that way because I don’t think there’s anyone left from Australia that served at Gallipoli anymore and the Vietnam guys are getting on now,” he said.

“Now we need to get the younger guys to start stepping up which is starting to happen.”

Sixteen years on and the memory of war remains as raw as it was soon after he headed overseas after the September 11 terror attacks.

The memory of what he was confronted with over the four and a half month deployment is easily triggered.

“It can be something as simple as seeing a white Toyota Hilux driving down the road,” he said.

“Over there they used them as their vehicle of choice where they’d pack a whole bunch of blokes in and strap heavy weapons to them.

“We had a number of contacts with those sorts of vehicles and now you come home and see a white Toyota Hilux and you think for a second “woah”.”

Mr Gill described the Afghan experience as “pretty much the wild west”.

“Every kid older than 12 has an AK47 strapped to his back and that’s just life over there,” he said.

“It’s a different world, but does give you a window into what our servicemen and women were thinking and feeling on that first day going in.

“I had that same feeling when we were going into Iraq. You’re just about to cross the border and you’re sitting there waiting for your turn and waiting for the bullets to start flying.”

He didn’t have time to warm to his task.

“The first time the sirens went off and everybody was up on the outside wall of the perimeter and bullets started flying I knew it was real,” he said.

“That was my second day in Afghanistan and we were there defending a compound in the middle of Afghanistan. It then suddenly became very real, very quickly.”

Mr Gill said it was an Australian way of life to “want to follow in the Anzac tradition.”

“The table has been laid bare by the Anzacs in the second world war and first world war and every defence force member knows they have a lot to live up to,” he said.

“They try to deliver on that as best they can.”