At dawn on Friday, almost 20 people gathered at the park on the corner of Church and River streets to commemorate Australian and New Zealand soldiers who have died in and after war. The day is recognized in Saranac Lake, New York in honor of Australian Army Capt. Paul McKay, 31, from Adelaide, who died by suicide by hypothermia on Scarface Mountain on New Years Eve in 2013.

Ever since McKay’s death, village officials here have recognized Anzac Day, the Australian equivalent of Memorial Day or Veterans Day in the U.S. Each year, representatives from the Australian military hike with village officials up near the summit of Scarface Mountain on April 25. They visit a memorial left for McKay hidden off the trail in the woods, marking where he died and where his ashes were spread.

“It’s quite a touching moment that people on the other side of the world commemorate Australian New Zealand Army Corps Day,” said Australian Defence Force Commander Tyson Nicholas, who traveled here from his station in New York City for the ceremony.

He called his trip to Saranac Lake a “pilgrimage.” He has wanted to attend an Anzac Day ceremony in McKay’s honor here ever since the village started doing them — for McKay, for his family and to thank the villagers who keep the tradition personally.

Australian Defence Force Commander Tyson Nicholas and Saranac Lake Mayor Jimmy Williams place a wreath in front of a cross for Australian Army Capt. Paul McKay at the Saranac Lake World War I Veterans Memorial Park on Anzac Day, Friday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“It means the world to me,” Nicholas said. “I knew Paul.”

They were introduced in Townsville City, Australia through a mutual friend and had shared beers together.

As he spoke, Nicholas worked through tears. He said it was hard to talk about. His wife, Theresa Blissing, came up and stood by his side.

“Paul was the embodiment of what it meant to be a military professional,” Nicholas said. “He was dedicated, he was hard-working, he was passionate, he was physically fit and he was an amazing human. … He would have gone on to do amazing things, because he had changed so much already in such a short life.”

Village Mayor Jimmy Williams, a U.S. Navy veteran, said most people who were at the ceremony were in the military, and that they all have lost someone to war.

Rev. Eric Olsen speaks at an Anzac Day ceremony in Saranac Lake on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“I am hopeful that the empty places they have left might once more be full in the next life,” Williams said.

He said the annual commemoration of Anzac Day in Saranac Lake means a lot to McKay’s mother Angela.

Nicholas said they would save a poppy from the wreath they laid at the memorial to preserve in resin and give to Angela. He said ANZAC is an acronym, but that it’s also a noun and a spirit — a spirit of enduring hardship, resilience and looking out for your mates.

The U.S. and ANZAC forces have fought together in every conflict since WWI.

“We remember all those who have given their lives, not only in battle, but in the aftermath of battle,” Rev. Eric Olsen said in his prayer.

Australian Defence Force Commander Tyson Nicholas, Saranac Lake Mayor Jimmy Williams and Rev. Eric Olsen toast to the ANZAC soldiers who died in and after war with a “gunfire breakfast.” (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Olsen said the number-one killer of veterans is suicide. They venture into the “ugliness of our world.”

“There are a lot of hidden wounds out there,” Olsen said.

Olsen said the military gives purpose, belonging and friends. When soldiers come home, they have to find a new sense of purpose and self. So many give so much to the military, he said, that they lose a part of themselves. He said a chaplain at West Point once told him to give the military his time, energy and love, but not his soul, because that belongs to God. He said he was thankful for veteran organizations who give people purpose and community after they return to civilian life.

“We lose more veterans by suicide than we’ve lost in combat operations since the second world war,” Nicholas said.

He said the ADF recently finished a royal commission on veteran suicide and produced a lengthy report with several recommendations for the government. McKay’s death is often cited as a catalyst for the ADF taking veteran suicide more seriously.

Australian Defence Force Commander Tyson Nicholas holds a bottle of Pusser’s Rum — a rum issued to the Royal Australian Navy at an Anzac Day ceremony in Saranac Lake on Friday. The small crowd gathered there had a “gunfire breakfast” of rum with a toast to the ANZAC soldiers who died in and after war. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Nicholas got the opportunity to attend a Saranac Lake Anzac Day after being stationed in New York in 2023 as the Strategic Military Advisor for UN Women. Blissing said he told her if they ever had a chance to commemorate the day in Saranac Lake, he wanted to do it. They had planned to come here on one April 25 anyway, and he said he was honored to do so on behalf of the ADF.

Near the end of the ceremony, Nicholas broke out a bottle of Pusser’s Rum — a rum issued to the Royal Australian Navy, which is used in the traditional “gunfire breakfast.” The gunfire breakfast — a shot of rum, sometimes with coffee — was served to troops in WWI on the mornings of a major attack, Nicholas said, to prepare them to go over the top, reduce their sense of self-preservation and be more willing to go that extra length.

“Here’s to us and those like us,” he said in a toast before the crowd drank.

Later in the day, a smaller group took the annual hike up Scarface Mountain to a cairn left in McKay’s memory. They brought with them several tokens, including a hand-made cross of white oak, which ADF Major Mathew Stevens created and left to Williams to deliver up the mountain. Stevens had been the Australian representative sent here for the annual ceremony for the past two years and brought the cross when he visited Saranac Lake last Christmas. To read more about this cross, go to tinyurl.com/32767pc7.