My Fourth of July.

While the United States celebrates its 250th year, July 4th also has special significance for me as an Australian.

Historically, in 1918, the Australians fought at the Battle of Hamel under the leadership of General Sir John Monash. The battle saw Monash’s plan of co-ordinating infantry, tanks, artillery and air power achieving all of its objectives in a little over an hour. It was also the first time that United States and Australian troops fought side by side. More personally, my father’s uncle, James Frederck, was killed in the battle and is now rests in French soil. Still, each year I reflect on the fourth of July for something even closer to home.

I first learned of the award of the Purple Heart to my father in the late 1980s but despite decades of writing letters, there was very little progress until I was given an official file which detailed the story. This file proved a key element when I came to publish his biography in 2016, titled “Without Precedent”. Fate then played its hand when the then Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin AC, read the book and delved much deeper into what had taken place. For that, I am forever grateful.

It was discovered that the award had been instigated by the Americans, complete with a Presidential Citation. but the authority to receive it had been halted in a bureaucratic maze. In the interceding sixty years, policies had changed and it was no longer possible for the Purple Heart to be granted to an Australian. However, the United States saw his actions on February 6th, 1952, worthy to receive a posthumous US Air Medal – his second.

On the fourth of July 2018, a formal event was held at the Australian War Memorial to mark a “Centenary of Mateship”, commemorating the 100 years Australians and Americans had fought together as allies. In an incredible honour, it was decided that my father’s Air Medal and Citation would be presented to me at this event. It was a long way from the snow blanketed hills of Korea in 1952, but I’d like to think that dad was looking down on us that night as his journey came to an end.

The fourth of July holds immense significance for the United States. For me, it provides a day when I reflect on something of a far smaller scale and yet also of immense significance.