Arrows drawn in blue pen across a world map mark the voyages of able seaman Harold Wilkes; India, Colombo, Java, the Phillipines, Aden, and Japan are all connected.
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The World War II veteran's service is documented in a scrapbook, in which he features as a spirited young man far from his home port of Williamstown.
One photo is of H.M.S Renown, captioned: "Returning to England with Mr Churchill on board after meeting President Roosevelt off Nova Scotia."
Mr Wilkes, who soon turns 100, documented history and is now among few still alive who can recall it.
"To my children and grandchildren, it was an adventure. God forbid they ever have to go through it," he said.
"I've only told the truth once, to my last great-grandson. You're only told what you're supposed to know."
Mr Wilkes trained with the Royal Australian Navy with his brothers in 1938.
"I had to change my birth certificate, add years to my life - I happened to be 19.
"It was similar to YMCA, you would go on Tuesday and Thursday, and occasionally taken out onto a sailboat in Port Phillip bay."
As part of the Eastern Fleet, Mr Wilkes went to India, and he later joined the H.M.A.S Quickmatch, supporting the British Eastern Fleet.
"Once thing that I can remember vividly, when we got within about 24 hours of Colombo, two ships had been sunk," he said.
"So we went up the west coast, we had a three day journey, and got a train across India.
"The entire train used to go onto this ferry. I believe in a monsoon in the late '60s it was wiped out."
During leave in 1944, Mr Wilkes met his to-be-wife Lesley "by sheer fluke" back in Australia.
"She worked in the Naval intelligence department in Defence in St Kilda Road, and I happened to come back off a minesweeper and they put me on shore duties and these two young ladies were coming down the stairs," he said.
"One said to other, 'I bet he's married', and I lifted my hat and talked to them.
"I rang up her office, I knew which one it was because I saw her go into it, and said 'Can I speak to the lady in the blue frock and the pink scarf?' and that was it.
"I had a saying with Lesley, relax don't panic, you could send telegrams and get through sentences through that, and the wedding arrangements were made.
"I had the occasion to visit Solomon Islands, and came alongside a major ship, the H.M.A.S. Australia, it had been hit and 13 chaps came off that ship and said will you take a letter home back to Williamstown?
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"I came home from India at the time to be married."
Mr Wilkes, who received an OAM last year, was discharged in 1945 and worked as a sign-writer for most of his life.
He still lives independently at home with Lesley, and while they won't be making the trip to the Howlong RSL services this year, Mr Wilkes will contemplate his service.
"Come Anzac Day, my memory will be with the only bloke I saw killed during the war, on the Quickmatch, and it was an accident. [A gun on the ship] didn't function correctly ... it killed him.
"He was an only son and came from Western Australia. I always think of him on Anzac Day.
"I had good fortune in my service life."
