[piece-itpete]

I FINALLY finished Over There with the Australians, been a bit busy.

The 1st 1/2 was interesting, but a bit slow. The second half started with a description of his Ranger days. Awesome stuff, crossing no mans land in ones or twos, going behind enemy lines to reconner and destroy. Crawling across the putrifying dead to do so. Talking about the stone cold rush, the thrill of danger.

Near the end, he writes this gem:

'What a splendid opportunity it is for us to be able to personally pay the price of liberty. How easy to forget that freedom has either to be earned for ourselves or enjoyed because some one else has paid the price for us. Had we not forgotten in our countries that the democracy that we boast of is no credit to us because it was won by the blood of other men? Men died that we might be able to govern ourselves! Women carried heartache and loneliness to the grave that we might make our own laws!

Liberty! Such an easy word to mouth, but how precious in the sight of God! Liberty is one of the treasures of heaven and only committed to men at great cost, lest they should undervalue it.

In these great and wonderful times there has been given to us the glorious opportunity to earn our own liberty, to prove our own right to citizenship in a free country."

He goes on. It was a good book.

Pete