Fellow petitioners This is to advise that on Tuesday last, I presented Dr Brendan Nelson OA with the petition signed by more than 13,200 individuals seeking the release of all documentation relating to the 2nd D&E Platoon. Fellow veteran of the war, Ian Ramadge of Bundoora (who also served with me in the 4th and 9th Battalions as well as the 2nd D&E Platoon) was present at the meeting. Dr Nelson received us very warmly, and the scheduled 30 minute meeting lasted more than an hour. He was an absolute gentleman and was empathetic to our situation- though he did argue the case for the difficulty the memorial had in accepting an argument where 'official' documentation was lacking. I did ask him why the word of senior ADF officers (Pratt and Parkin) carried no weight in such investigations. I also presented him with additional material and asked him to explain the instances of glaring deceit that had been highlighted during the battle to validate this platoon. He acknowledged that he isn't a military man nor from a military background, and therefore had some trouble in understanding the detail of the matter, but has asked for a personal copy of 'Anzacs Betrayed' which contains all the evidence so that he can better understand the issues. The meeting was entirely amicable- and I apologised to him for comments made about him during this process. He laughed them off saying he has had much, much worse in his time. He was an absolute gentleman- and a far cry from his forelock-tugging predecessor General Steve Gower who was very much a prisoner of the ADF 'generals club' and could see no point of view other than his own myopic one. I continue to place evidence on the Facebook page, 'the 2nd D&E Platoon' for your interest. You might appreciate the ABC interview done with Captain Tom Arrowsmith the day after the ambush at Thua Tich......??? It is at: https://www.facebook.com/The-2nd-DE-Platoon-1638701263085542/?fref=ts