It will serve as a particularly poignant reminder to Private Gary Wilson,who lost 2½ months of his life to a coma following the crash. He sustained a brain injury and damage to most of the left side of his body. His left foot was crushed completely,also injured was his left knee,pelvis,ribs,forearm,nose and jaw.
Speaking at the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park,he said:''My last memory was running to my room to grab my equipment and then past the phone to call home. I thought,'No,it's a quick mission. I'll call her when I get back'. My next memory was at the rehabilitation centre[in Hornsby]. I have no memory of the flight in the helicopter at all. It's my brain's way of looking after itself by saying,'Hey,trust me,you don't want to remember this'.''
His wife,Renee,28,abandoned her work to be at his bedside,but for some time the chance of him emerging from the coma seemed slim.
''When I said goodnight to him one night I gave him a kiss on the lips,''she said.''He kissed back. That was pretty nice because that was only about four weeks after his return to Australia … It then became,like,what was he going to do next.''