Once in a generation, a novel captures the full scope and drama of the U. S. military experience, with characters and conflicts that come unforgettably to life. Now Ed Ruggero, who "writes about wars and warriors with the same I-have-been-there, no-nonsense authority as Hemingway" (Col. David H. Hackworth, USA [Ret.], New York Times bestselling author of About Face), draws from his twenty-year association with West Point, the U.S. Military Academy, too create a classic for our time: a tale of probing authenticity and unrelenting suspense that takes us behind the stone walls and into the inner sanctums of one of the Army's most revered institutions.
A bitter wind is blowing from Washington across West Point, and Major Tom Gates—a muddy-boots soldier ill at ease in a spit-and-polish world—is about to face a battle more brutal than any he has ever known. It began with an all-to-human mistake—Gates had too much to drink and pushed a cadet too far—and it will explode into a political firestorm that could leave careers, lives, and West Point itself, in ruins.
Senator Lamar Bruckner has his eye on the White House, but his target is West Point. He flagrantly condemns the Academy as a waste of taxpayer money, a military ivory tower—and Gates' momentary lapse in judgement is the first charge in a smear campaign that could propel Bruckner to the presidency. Caught in the middle of Bruckner's manhunt is Wayne Holder, a fourth-year cadet, whose golden surfer looks and reputation as a ladies' man are far from the pristine image of the Long Gray Line. But for Holder to join that line, he faces a private conflict between honor and desire—upon which the ultimate fate of the Academy rests. Now, enemy lines are drawn in a war of political motives and personal emotion that touches many lives...
Kathleen Gates, Tom's wife, is as calculating as her husband is bullheaded, and she will use any weapon to protect him. Bruckner's aide, Claude Braintree, has come to West Point to further the senator's career—and will exploit the Academy to do it. Alex Trainor, a cadet from the heartland, is trapped in a personal crisis that shatters his conservative ideals. And Brigadier General David Simon dreams of taking control of the Point to re-create it in his own image.
In The Academy, Ed Ruggero brilliantly captures the honor and the controversy, the glory and the human flaws of West Point and its people. With prose as crisp as a flag snapping in th wind, this thrilling portrayal will resonate long after the last page is turned.
Ed Ruggero, a 1980 graduate of West Point, was an infantry officer in the U.S. Army for eleven years and served as an assistant professor of English at West Point. His highly acclaimed novels 38 North Yankee, The Common Defense, Firefall, and Breaking Ranks were published by Pocket Books. Ruggero lives in suburban Philadelphia.
