Rod grew up near Sydney’s Mascot airport. So the history of flight became a major interest, combined with his father’s and, later, his father-in-law’s war stories from the RAAF. Visits to family in Canberra led to the Australian War Memorial. Later, personal study of both ancient history, including the Roman Army’s record, and 2500 years of naval history led to George Santayana, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. War poetry is also part of ancient history: Homer’s Iliad (the Trojan War) some 3000 years ago; Ancient Rome’s Horace, ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ from 2100 years ago.
