the sad thing is that here we are, 20 years or so on, and the newchums are already doing their utmost to forget/ignore the lessons learned
john-tullamarine, a distressingly accurate observation.
Reading some of the almost virulent "get over it!" comments here on Pprune from younger Australian pilots who weren't involved in the events we speak of here, I sometimes find myself wondering if these people haven't been unduly influenced, (perhaps even unconsciously), by hearing only the (to be not too unkind, let's call it 'self-serving') version of events of those days from those stalwart individuals who 'remained behind'. Or, to put it another way, whose heroic deeds 'left them in possession of the battlefield'.
I certainly would not be the person I am today had I remained in my safe little coocoon flying domesticly in Australia, as I was content to do until I was forced to look elsewhere. I say 'forced', because even today, knowing what the decision not to 'get all heroic' cost me (and even moreso, my wife and family) both emotionally and financially, I don't think I could have made that journey into head office to sign on the dotted line.
I can't begin to comprehend what that journey must have cost the individuals who made it in what must have been a dreadful loss of self esteem.
Even those who make light of what they did, like the Americans and Brits who flew half way around the world to take up the Australian jobs (in circumstances that even the most insular and ill-informed of them must have known without a shadow of a doubt were dodgy in the extreme) must have their moments of introspection, perhaps late at night.
However, as others have said, to the younger ones, the main message remains: learn from the mistakes we made - and don't make similar ones yourself. I fear there are too many out there who haven't taken this message in.