My Story - General Peter Cosgrove
Harper Collins
468 pages, $49.99

Volume 11, No. 52, September 21, 2006

AT LAST, the much-anticipated personal memoirs from arguably Australia’s most popular contemporary military leader.

His personal story takes us “from boyhood to battlefield” as he shares his extraordinary life-journey from cadet to the top – CA, CDF and Australian of the Year in 2001.

Son of an Armoured Corps RSM, and from humble beginnings in the working-class Sydney suburb of Paddington in the late 1940s, GEN Cosgrove takes us through the good and bad times as he revisits his 40-year career from Vietnam through to CDF and retirement.

Part memoirs, part rollicking adventure, his tales from the Vietnam war include some great ‘warries’, such as his first contact and subsequent battles – during which he served with distinction and was awarded the Military Cross.

But his thoughts on the two years he spent as the Task Force Commander for InterFET are of particular interest and make up the bulk of the book.

Of special interest are his recollections of the delicate negotiations with the Indonesian military to avoid any conflict in the early stages of the operation.

A private audience with the Queen, a mid-air emergency, his thoughts on the War on Terror, Abu Ghraib and the challenges of holding the offices of CA and CDF are among some of the more unexpected treats in this great read.

 By SGT Damian Griffin

We have six copies of Gen Cosgrove’s autobiography to give away. Email your name and address to simone.heyer@defencenews.gov.au (not the DRN) with the answer to this question: In what year was GEN Cosgrove Australian of the Year?