"The 20th Century was a period of major international political, economic, social, and scientifc advances and dramatic changes that moved the United States, and indeed the world, in ways that most people cannot imagine or comprehend.  If we take time to review history, however, we can discover how and why these changes evolved during that period.  Lyle Rishell, who lived through three quarters of that century, and who was very much a part of them, has woven a story of people and places and experiences that bring life to these happenings.  His story, while not unique, is compelling in that he has recalled in detail many of the changes that brought this country and the world to where we find it today. He freely admits that his acomplishments were little, and his involvement during the period minimal when one looks at the total picture.  Yet, he is able to take the reader into this panorama of his life in a way that makes us voyeurs, traveling where he has traveled, seeing what he has seen, and meeting the men and women who were a very real part of his odyssey. His accounts of growing up in a small Pennsylvania village during the Depression, of the war that descended upon us, the Cold War and the continuing Wars of Liberation, are real.  His picture of a young soldier serving in the Occupation Armies in both Japan and Germany following WW II, and his combat tour in the Korean War, are moving. He describes his failures and a few successes with both sadness and exhilaration. But above all, as he travels throughout the world, he finds adventure in far-flung places, capturing the essence of life and culture in many lands, and the people who make his odyssey alive and exciting.  And when he writes of what he considers to be the Pillars of Life--Faith, Family, and Friends--you will laugh and cry with him, and get a feeling of his love of life that is a gift for all of us."