[Soterik]

To the Australians on the board and others...

My dad shipped out of California, they didn't know where they were going except they knew it was warm as they were issued "suntans" for their uniforms.

They ended up in Australia, and though they spent some time in both Melbourne and Sydney, they were based when in Australia in Rockhampton.

I've been fortunate to visit Australia with my father (he's been back many times), and we did the tour of the locations he was based in. We enjoyed many beers with the very amicable and friendly Australians though they did take us Americans to task for killing their racehorse Phar Lap. This engendered quite a few discussions in that my fathers is a former racehorse owner and the Australians consider horseracing the national sport (Melbourne Cup day is a holiday in the Melbourne area, and practically a national holiday).

We had a beer in the same bar my father was in when he missed the boat from Sydney to Melbourne...essentially "jumping ship". They MP's threw him into a little jail they had. Same night 2 lieutenants in my fathers company started to turn themselves in to the MP's as they had missed the ship as well, but they saw my dad in there, so they came in and told the MP's that they were "there to pick up Linden" and escort him back to his company. The MP's believed them, so my dad got out of that pickle! They ended up taking the train instead to Melbourne...fortunately! The ship my father was to have been on encountered a severe storm at sea, and took 2 days to get to Melbourne. His buddies told him they were playing cards on the table on the ship with the vomit sloshing back and forth on the table.... It's a much funnier story when my dad tells it..... Dad made enough money running card games while stationed overseas to come back and buy a near mint LaSalle convertible, though he wished he had bought a Jag instead. I've got quite a few stories from him memorized, but I let him tell them to my kids, and hopefully I'll get the chance to tell his tales to my grandchildren someday.

Thanks to the Austalians for the significant hospitality my father and I received...