TWENTY-EIGHT new names have been added to the Nelson Bay war memorial, which now reflects all conflicts up to Afghanistan and Iraq that Tomaree Peninsula soldiers have fought and died in.
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The Nelson Bay RSL sub-branch was granted $2948 in funding under the Australian Government's Saluting Their Service grants program to update an existing name panel on the Apex Park memorial.
Sub-branch secretary Tony Minchin said the memorial had now been updated from the Gulf War through to East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. "When I was doing the list I got three new names that weren't on the Vietnam one," he said.
Mr Minchin said the last time the memorial was updated was in 1985.
When work on moving the war memorial from the top of Apex Park to its current location near the visitor information centre was under way in July last year, the sub-branch put the call out for all Port soldiers without their name on the memorial to get in contact with them.
A host of people put forward their names to be added to the memorial. However, Mr Minchin believes there are still many more who have been left off.
The sub-branch applied for Saluting Their Service funding to update the panel after it was revealed the work was not included in the Port Stephens Council's $240,000 relocation and upgrade of the memorial.
The sub-branch's project was one of 81 which received money in the latest funding round.
Additions to the list of Vietnam War veterans are Chris Courtney, William Harvey and Steve Ward. Shoal Bay's Aaron Davis has his name engraved on the memorial three times for time he spent in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.
