and, unfortunately, both my uncle and jack brister were, lost their lives in the process. by may germany had declared defeat in north africa and moved back into italy to get ready for the next, the next round so to speak. so in conclusion then, i'd like to, um, talk about the motivation of my uncle in the going to war. this was one of the subjects that fascinated me when as i began to learn about him, him and the four other americans, they didn't have to go when they went. but they believed it was the right thing to do. and there were other reasons, too, which i will lee -- leave to you. i hope you'll read the book and draw your own conclusions. they each had their own reasons. but i'll read you what my uncle had to say on the subject. after he was killed, my grandmother received his personal possessions back again all the way from north africa, and among them was a letter he had written to her when he was in capetown waiting to go to egypt and go into action. a letter to be opened in the event of my death, he called it. so i'll read you what he said about -- i'll read you

jack brister joined the first battalion and went down to the southern end of the line with the armored division which was the story of the desert, the very famous part of the british army. they were sent off with the second battalion and went up to the north end of the line so between them, between the two groups they pretty much saw most of the battle when it finally came october 23rd. i'm going to take a little digression since we are in vermont and we are hearing that hurricanes to read to read you something i wrote about my uncle's trip from his training from the front line it's really what i try to do as i thought about this is kind of trying to get inside of his mind as he drives across the egyptian desert in october of 1942. when the great day came to join the second battalion, he and harrington every british officer has a kind of servant they call for reasons i don't know he and harrington loaded their possessions and settled very early on the road towards cairo it was the first trip that he had driven in along while. the morning air was cool and the sky slowly brightened to a