Mark of the Lion by Kenneth Sandford is a must-have biography for any self-respecting military library, for it documents the life and times of Charles Upham VC and Bar, the only combat soldier ever to have been awarded the Victoria Cross twice.
The story of my copy of the book has a peculiar American twist to it, which I'd like to share with you on the FRee Republic.
You see, in September 2006 I was traveling to Honolulu from Auckland to attend the Guardian Angels conference there. It is a long, long flight, and I needed a good book to read. And so it was that I went into the airport bookstore and bought a copy of "The Mark of The Lion" -- it looked interesting, and I had never read it before.
Upon my arrival in Honolulu the book was half-read, so I put it into my flight bag to be finished on the way home.
It was a great conference, held over a weekend. I stayed an extra day, then caught one of the many shuttle buses from the hotel I was staying at to the airport, early in the morning.
A few stops into the ride, an American soldier got onto the bus and sat down beside me. He was in uniform, and he had a good look at me with some amusement, as I was in our gleaming crimson Guardian Angels uniform (we always wear our uniforms when we fly). And so we got into a conversation. He was a very well-presented soldier, a young man of his mid-twenties, and he was heading back to Iraq to rejoin his unit.
As we neared the airport I offered to drop him an e-mail if he'd give me his address. He agreed and, as I didn't have anything else to write on, I got him to write his details into the back of my copy of "The Mark of The Lion".
It seemed like an appropriate place for this soldier to write.
About a month later I wrote to him, thanking him for his service and wishing him good luck. By now he was in Iraq with his unit, and my e-mail came as a pleasant surprise. He passed it around his unit, and then wrote back.
We've exchanged e-mails a few times since. He's been honorably discharged and has now married the girl that he had proposed to in Honolulu, during that trip where we had met. They are expecting their first child.
And for as long as "The Mark of the Lion" remains in my library, his contact details will be there, too.