2/2nd Commando Squadron (Australia) - Legacy

Legacy

There are around 28 surviving members of the nearly 400 men who served in the 2/2nd. 14 of those are based in Western Australia from where 70% of the original squadron originated. Since the end of the war, the 2/2nd Commando Association has operated a trust fund to benefit the Timorese people. Also some of its members have become advocates for the rights of Timorese, recognising the contribution that they had made during the war.

One member, John Patrick "Paddy" Kenneally, who died in March 2009 at the age of 93, said they would "...not have lasted a week had the Timorese not protected them". Kenneally visited East Timor four times after World War II; once in 1990 and a further three times after independence from Indonesia was achieved in 1999. In 2005, he appeared in TV ads promoting a fair deal for the people of East Timor in negotiations over Timor Sea gas and oil and was instrumental in securing a fair share of the gas field for the Timorese people. On 25 April 2008 Kenneally, two of his sons and one of his grandsons attended an ANZAC day service in East Timor, at a memorial overlooking Dili and built by veterans from the 2/2nd.

Two other original members of the Timor Campaign, Alan Luby (Medic) and John Hartley NX78025, visited East Timor during September 1995 with Gordon Hart (2/4 Australian Independent Company) and made efforts to travel extensively through the mountain tracks and villages they had occupied in 1942. The occupying Indonesian Army turned them back in many places, but these men, who were in their late 70s, managed to reunite with creados who had given such vital support in 1942. They were also recognised and welcomed by many Timorese villagers as the famous men of 1942 as oral histories were passed on to younger generations. John Hartley came home to Australia and lamented that the Timorese had fared worse under Indonesian occupation than all the Japanese dished out between 1942-1945.