Duty First

by Ruggero, Ed

• ISBN13: 9780060931339
• ISBN10: 0060931337
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-31
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Duty First is a penetrating account of a year inside one of America's premier schools for leadership -- the United States Military Academy -- as it celebrates the bicentennial of its founding. Ed Ruggero, a former West Point cadet and professor, takes an incisive look at how this elite school builds the "leaders of character" who will command the nation's military. Writing with deep insight and superb narrative skill, Ruggero follows the cadet's tumultuous lives: the initial grueling training; the strict student hierarchy and intense classroom work; and the interaction between the lowly first-year plebes and the upper-class cadets who train them. Duty First also shows the role played by the majors, captains, and sergeants, who oversee everything that happens at this unique institution.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(7)
Day One: We're Not in Kansas Anymore	8	(33)
Beast	41	(34)
Prepare for Combat	75	(21)
The End of the Beginning	96	(26)
Learning to Follow	122	(20)
Crucible	142	(27)
The Front Rank	169	(31)
Trust Between Leader and Led	200	(23)
Every Cadet an Athlete	223	(20)
The Harder Right	243	(17)
We've Not Much Longer	260	(36)
The Way He Should Go	296	(31)
Graduation Day	327	(11)
Epilogue: Summer 2000	338	(3)
Acknowledgments	341