Anton Myrer's "Once An Eagle"

[Smitten Eagle]

Once an Eagle is the best piece of military fiction written. I read it during a CAX a few years back and had that been the only thing I accomplished in the entire exercise, it would still have been probably the best exercise I conducted in terms of leadership value.

I particularly thought the "career path" of Sam Damon(a term that both I find and Damon would find repugnant) was interesting. Damon spent his time being an observer, a reader of the classics, history, political science, manuals, and of foreign languages. He didn't mess around with the EWS correspondence course so he could make Major. He made himself an expert, which is actually the bare minimum.

Many Marines quote John LeJeune when they speak of the relationship between the officer and the enlisted needs to parallel that of the scholar and student.

Well, my fellow warriors, it would seem that for officers to hold up their end of the bargain, they themselves must be scholars. Anything less is criminal negligence of our obligations.

[Ski]

My favorite military fiction book of all time. Should be mandatory reading for all first year cadets and OCS candidates.