In early 1939, a twenty-year-old man quits the university he is attending after near completion and boards a freighter out of San Francisco to travel the world-starting with the South Pacific and then, to beyond. War is looming and by beginning of the next year, he is in Egypt; joining the Kiwi army in Cairo as a newly minted lieutenant. From there it is the North Africa Campaign New Zealand Second Division's Expeditionary Force against the forces of Rommel; operating with the legendary LRDG and the SAS as a driver and gunner.