Saranac Lake may be one of the few places in the United States that also holds a ceremony. Under a cloudy, gray sky that dripped rain on the soldiers’ uniforms and the women’s hats, a solemn gathering of townsfolk, veterans, students, military personnel and local dignitaries marked Anzac Day with speeches, poetry and the laying of a wreath at the World War I memorial.

Ceremonies were emceed by Mayor Clyde Rabideau, and the Saranac Lake Police Department Color Guard opened by raising the U.S. flag. Two soldiers from the Australian Army raised their country’s colors, and Helen Demong sang the national anthems of the two countries.

Anzac Day observances here began four years ago with a tragedy, when young Australian Army Capt. Paul McKay was found dead on Scarface Mountain in January 2014. McKay suffered from post-traumatic stress after a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2011. A model student and athlete, he had completed law school and passed the bar exam when he decided on a military career instead.

Friends said he was never the same after he came back from the war. The conscientious, focused young soldier became withdrawn. He lost weight and tried harder than ever to do everything perfectly. Newspapers later reported that McKay may have anticipated being discharged from the Army, since that was the standard practice once a soldier had been unable to return to active duty for two years.

The Saranac Lake Police Department Color Guard — from left, Chief Chuck Potthast, Sgt. John Gay and Sgt. James Joyce — stands at attention in dress uniform during an Anzac Day ceremony in April 2018 at the village’s World War I monument. (Enterprise photo — Glynis Hart)

McKay told no one where he was going, and it remains a mystery why he flew to the other side of the world to walk into these mountains in the dead of winter. McKay hiked up Scarface Mountain on New Year’s Eve, 2013, left the trail before reaching the peak, and dug a shallow grave with a plastic shovel before laying down next to it. Temperatures reached 15 below zero that night, and he died of hypothermia.

After searchers found his body after a nearly two-week search, local people reached out to McKay’s family to share their sympathy and sorrow.

McKay’s parents returned his ashes to the mountain, to a humble memorial of piled rocks locals had placed in the spot where he died.

And Anzac Day in Saranac Lake became a thing. On Wednesday morning, a group of Saranac Lakers and Australians climbed Scarface to McKay’s final resting place.

Sam Hall, director of the veterans’ program at St. Joseph’s Addiction and Recovery Centers, recalled his own combat experience when he spoke. “Bravery is a word we hear a lot today,” he said. “I don’t recall being exceptionally brave. Truthfully, I was scared. I was scared I wouldn’t make it, I was scared that I or my friends would be wounded, but mostly I was scared that I would fail. … I remember thinking, maybe I can do something that will make it so we succeed.”

Capt. Paul McKay (Photo provided)

Hall and others spoke about the effects of PTS and a program St. Joseph’s is launching, the Veterans Vanguard, to reach out to veterans with PTS.

Tameka Patch, an Australian student attending North Country Community College, took the podium to explain Anzac Day and its meaning for Australians. Maj. Ben Williams of the Australian Army told the history of Anzac Day.

ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and April 25 is the day a combined contingent of Australians and New Zealanders stormed the beach at Gallipoli. The ill-fated gambit to take Istanbul, authored by then-First Lord Admiral Winston Churchill, resulted in wholesale slaughter of the troops by the defending Turks. Gallipoli is remembered in song and story as an example of the heroism of the soldiers, as well as the folly and waste of war.

For Australians, it was their first action as a united country, although they had not yet separated from the United Kingdom. “Anzac spirit” has come to mean the rough and rowdy, loyal and brave, spirit of the fallen soldiers.

“The sole focus of Anzac Day is to show our respect for those gave their lives,” said Patch.

Retired U.S. Army Col. Mike Derrick of Peru, New York, and Capt. Tom Hines of the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C., also addressed the gathering.

“Like many of us, Paul McKay served in Afghanistan,” Derrick said. “And like many of us, he carried his wounds unseen. We did not know they were so deep and so grievous to be fatal.

“I can only imagine that Paul McKay would want his legacy to be helping those who suffer from these invisible wounds,” Hines added. “He would be touched that this town has wrapped their arms around him and made him one of their own.”

Derrick concluded by charging each person in the crowd to reach out to a veteran. “Some things in life won’t wait,” he said.

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(Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed Derrick’s quotes to Hines, and also said McKay was given a “low-stress desk job” after returning from Afghanistan, which his mother says was not true. The Enterprise regrets the errors.)