PLAQUE OF BRAVERY OF AUSTRALIAN WAR VETERANS. Pangasinan Gov. Amado T. Espino, Jr. (right) shakes the hand of Les Kennedy (left), head delegate of Australian Navy World War II Veterans, immediately after the unveiling of the commemorative plaque installed at the Veteran’s Memorial Park inside the Capitol compound in Lingayen, Pangasinan on February 20, 2009. The plaque commemorates the death of Australian servicemen and civilians “who fought bravely against the Imperial Japanese Forces.” Kennedy who is president of the Naval Commemoration Committee of Victoria, Australia, was joined by four Australian WW II Veterans with their friends and wives and Australian Embassy Assistant Defense Attaché Gary L. Barnes, a lieutenant colonel of the Australian Army. Unknown to many, a fleet of 15 Australian warships figured in the 1945 US-led Allied Forces assault on the Lingayen Gulf to liberate Luzon from the Japanese Imperial Army. (PIO Photo by Emil Mari)