Les Cook and his father tweaked their ages to enlist to fight in World War II.
Les wasn't old enough to sign up, while his father, Ernest Cook, lied to say he was younger than he was — he, too, would not have been allowed to serve.
"My father was three years in the first war and six years in the second," Mr Cook told the ABC.
"He was five years too old but I was five years too young.
"Because the minimum age in those days was 21."
Saturday was the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day.
On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied forces, ending the deadliest conflict in history, World War II.
'We were just ordinary people'
Mr Cook, now aged 97 and living in Canberra, enlisted in 1940 in the Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) and was deployed to the Middle East as a signaller before serving in the Western Desert, Greece and Crete.
He then returned home for a short time before he was deployed to New Guinea, serving several tours there, then Borneo and, ultimately, Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupational Force.
The father of three, grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of eight said enlisting as a teenager was a simple decision.
"It was the thing to do — simple as that … It would have taken more courage not to go," he said.
"We were just ordinary people. We just happened to be the generation that was alive then."
The war effort was a family affair. Mr Cook's mother sewed camouflage nets and both of his sisters volunteered in a military hospital.
Mr Cook spent Saturday reflecting on the conflict without taking part in a public ceremony — he is isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A nation mobilised and 40,000 never returned
Australia's society and economy had barely recovered from World War I and the Great Depression when the global conflict began.
The Australian War Memorial's head of military history, Karl James, said the nation's armed forces were "tiny" in 1939.
"We had a very small army — the Militia — we had a very small navy and we had a tiny air force," Dr James said.
"So when the war broke out, one of the things that Australia did contribute to this global effort was men."
The soldiers of the 2nd AIF were deployed across Europe, Africa and the Middle East — and closer to home as Japanese forces launched direct attacks on Australia's mainland.
"They were all volunteers, and they volunteered to serve anywhere in the world for the duration of the war," Dr James said.
More than 1 million Australian men and women served in the war.
About 40,000 of those never returned home, killed or dying as war prisoners.
Globally, more than 50 million soldiers and civilians were killed — just a generation after the so-called "war to end all wars", World War I.
'A great victory won at great cost to all'
The coronavirus pandemic prevented the memorial from hosting a large public commemoration.
However, a small ceremony of invited guests, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison and a handful of surviving veterans, was broadcast live.
The Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, reflected on the moment when the terrible conflict finally ended.
Seventy-five years ago, a weary Australia laid down its arms and felt the first, joyous stirrings of peace.
In the forests of Borneo, the soldiers finally laid their arms and had pause to listen to the songbirds in the trees.
Ships across the Pacific spliced the mainbrace and an extra ration of rum warmed a sailor's heart.
The engines of Kittyhawks, Boomerangs and Beaufighters were quiet, even if their crews were not.
At home, telegrams bearing the saddest of news slowed to a trickle and eventually stopped.
An entire country had been called to serve what was right and good.
A great victory had been won at great cost to all.
Fewer than 3,000 Australian veterans of the war are alive today.
