Customer Reviews

Once An Eagle : A Novel

5 star:		(114)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Anton Myrer, a former U.S. Marine, has written the all-time greatest novel of a soldier's life of service. The protagonist, Sam Damon, was commissioned on the battlefield but never forgot his simple and honorable roots as a citizen and enlisted man. He lived a life of dedicated service, loyal to his subordinates, leaders, the Army, and the nation, and rose to two-star General officer rank. His nemesis was a West Point graduate, Courtney Massengale, who was never a soldier at heart, but merely a careerist... out for himself. On one level, these two characters provide contrasting types of military officers, one noble and self-sacrificing, and and the other obsessed with personal aggrandizement. On a more intimate level, these two characters represent the struggle within every soldier's heart between the allure of promotion and prestige, and the call to duty and humble loyalty to his men and profession. Myrer died of cancer on Robert E. Lee's birthday in January 1996. I read the book before I was commissioned at West Point in 1976 and the story stuck with me throughout my own humble 20+ year career as a constant conscience and counselor against self-promotion. This is a character-building tale

I first read this book as a high school student in the late 1960s. Vietnam was reaching it's peak and the Armed Forces was never out of the headlines. Since that time, I've taken it dwon from the shelf and re-read it. I have found it of value in my military career as a reference on leadership and personalities. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest or need to know about positive and negative leadership traits. The lead charecter starts his military career in the desert and scrub of Mexico searching for Pancho Villa. Sam Damon is not in the branches that might have a little dash or adventure such as the cavalry or air service. He is a ground pounder in the infantry as a private who's biggest concern is learning water discipline. He moves on through ranks and gains a commission during World War I and manages to retain it following the war. The inter-war years and Damon's adjustment to both married life and military life on officers row is insightful. World War II is Damon's moment to shine; he does but not without personal costs both within his immediate family and his service family. His end is both moving and I felt, almost inevitable. This book is not a quick read, nor is it one that is good for only one time. It's value is from rereading it and learning something new each time. I highly recommend this book. My only criticism is that it is rather high priced; I wish the publisher could get it down to where more people would be able to purchase the hard bound edition and not the paperback.

You've had Total Quality Management. You've read Sun Tzu and Musashi on business as war. You've been to Outward Bound and you've undergone Team Building exercises until you're blue in the face. Now read the novel that has more to say about the qualities a real leader should have than any text written by a management guru--Anton Myrer's classic "Once an Eagle."

The book is a youth-to-death story of "Sad" Sam Damon, a midwestern boy who steeps himself in military history and a code of honor that requires him to step forward and take the lead in almost every situation. Myrer has tapped into a simple truth. That's what real leaders do; they lead.

While Sam Damon is a military hero, he's no marble monument. Myrer shows us that real world leaders are assailed with doubts, real fears, and insecurities that can lead them to cave in to expediency under extreme pressure. But in Sam Damon, Myrer shows us that true leadership can consist of recognizing your mistakes, swallowing hard, and stepping up to the plate again to do the right thing.

Such a strong protagonist clearly needs a strong opponent. Myrer delivers with Courtney Massengale, a supremely brilliant and ruthless adversary whose weakness, as Sam Damon realizes, is that he does not love any man. It is the byplay between these two characters that Myrer uses to telling effect in illustrating how love is a key element in leadership.<b> I know of half a dozen executives who have patterned their management styles on Sam Damon's lessons. They are the best bosses I ever had. This is a book that should be required reading in our service academies, and as part of every MBA program and civil service exam in the country. Fortunately, it's also a wonderful read.

When you sit down to read this book by Anton Myrer, you may realize that you are reading one of the most memorable books of your lifetime, even though I found the beginning almost a different, less polished writing style from the rest of the book.

Myrer introduces us to a night clerk who has a gift for leadership and a photographic memory. He joins the infantry in time to search for a Mexican raider, with little realization that he is about to be caught up in the most turbulent decades of the century where he will succeed and also fail.

Through combat, a battlefield commission and being awarded the Medal of Honor, "Sad Sam" Damon, "the night clerk," experiences the excruciating trials of war and the loss of a best friend just before war's end in 1918. Determined to learn from the lessons and losses of war, Damon prepares himself for the next one while marrying and raising a family in the peacetime army of the 20's and 30's.

Courtney Massengale is his nemesis, an ambitious and heartless West Point graduate who is a veteran of many staff assignments. His personal success is more important than the lives of men, duty, honor, or country. He is always one rank ahead of Damon who is his counterweight. Massengale's ambition depends on Damon, and Damon and his troops will depend on Massengale.

Thirty years of checking and blocking are put to the test as Major General Sam Damon finds himself subordinate to Corps Commander Lieutenant General Massengale who masks the real purpose of his operations order to his generals, except Damon sees what his true purpose is. Massengale is after one of the most singular achievements of the Pacific in World War II. Damon exacts a promise from him. A promise kept will save Damon's division, or if broken, be the cause of its annihilation.

Will he succeed?

From the pursuit of Pancho Villa to the escalation of hostilities in a small Asian country called Khotiane in the 60's, we see through Sam Damon the struggle of one man to maintain honor and loyalty, prepare his country for war, and endure the revulsion and tragedy that war brings.

I have not read before or since an author who can bring the fear, and peril of battle and make it seem so threatening and so intense. You almost expect to smell the death, and feel the heartache of personal loss and grief. This is an anti-war story; it is not one of patriotism. It is a reminder that in the heat of battle, soldiers are not fighting for a cause, a flag, their honor, or pride. They are fighting for their friends and for their lives.

Although I read this story thirty years ago, the characters and the story stay fresh in my mind. The book is still on my shelf, and I don't plan on parting with it for any reason.

The story remains a moving experience.

Literally the only non text book I read in four years of college...I've probably read it 5 times since. I've since worn out that first copy and I continue on another. Myrer has written, quite simply, the finest modern American war novel.

Damon's (Myrer's) prayer for strength in leadership ("...let me not fail them...") was on my desk or wall or wallet in every leadership or staff position I had for all my years of military service, as was his statement that a man must be prepared for the awful shrieking moment when he knows he may die on a lonely hilltop 10,000 miles from home.

I made my lieutenants read and discuss the book, named my tank 'Sad Sam' after Damon (my XO's tank was 'The Wolverine' after Ben Krisler)and had it been in print in the late '80s would have had my students buy it as their leadership primer. When he is old enough, I will ask my son to read it.

Composed of the traits of fine American officers and sergeants, Sam Damon's life is a rich tapestry filled with great success and great failure. That is the magic of Anton Myrer, he created a character who was truly believable.

His protagonist, Massengale, is just as real - and he exists today in one or more arm chair senior officers. I've met him, as have others.

A must read for all leaders, military or civilian...truly one of the finest examples of modern tragedy that anyone could write.

I salute the memory of Anton Myrer...it was an honor to have read his work and known him through Sam Damon!

As a young man in a USMC commissioning program, I can say that Once an Eagle is the finest leadership lesson I have been exposed to. It should be instituted in all officer ascension programs. Unlike some of the clinical, and impersonal leadership training I have recieved, Once an Eagle humanizes leadership. Myrer artfully shows how Damon becomes a great leader. To put it simply, he cares about his men. This book has helped me clarify my goals for my future military career. The excerpt from when he is preparing for an amphibious assault is especially moving. "Sad Sam" prays: "Help me be wise and full of courage and sound judgement. Harden my heart to the sights that I must see so soon again, grant me only the power to think clearly, boldly, resolutely, no matter how unnerving the peril. Let me not fail them." I suggest reading Once an Eagle if you want to serve in the armed forces of this great land. God help us that we can all be like the "Night Clerk."

Many years ago, my father, a captain at the Battle of the Bulge who was tremendously proud of his service, but never spoke of it, found me examining his copy of ONCE AN EAGLE. The book vanished -- his way of sparing me. I did not wish to be spared.

A visit to the US Army War College and a recommendation by MG Edward Atkeson inspired me to buy ONCE AN EAGLE and to realize that this was the same book I had investigated as a teen.

Coming to it as an adult, a writer, and a civilian scholar, I know what I'm reading: one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, possibly in the English language. It's an extravagant claim to compare it to WAR AND PEACE, but I think it's a claim that may stand the test of time.

Here is a whole world: not just the men who fought and fight, but the men and women who support or oppose them. Here are not just nations in conflict, but values. And here is what we all want and need: a clear moral choice as exemplified by Sam Damon, mustang, straight-arrow, MOH winner, who made not war, but duty, honor, and country his career (though he never went to West Point) before entering his last war.

I am grateful to the War College for reprinting ONCE AN EAGLE and hope that, once again, civilians will also read it as they did upon its initial printing. At a time when an immense, post-Vietnam gap exists between US military and US civilians, the work of Anton Myrer, the Harvard man who was a gentlemen ranker on Guam, is very necessary.

And I would like to thank the other reviewers here on Amazon (whose work I found very moving) for their reviews, certainly, but -- much more important -- for their service to our country.

My review of Once an Eagle is from the point of view of a Marine rifleman who participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I would like to note that Anton Myrer was also a Marine rifleman at one point of his life. . .

Once an Eagle's characters are inhuman. No man can match the dignity and sense of duty of Sam Damon. Few men can match the evil of Courtney Massengale, and none of those have worn the uniform of our country. The situations in Once an Eagle are preposterous; each one is form-fitted to provide the reader with the most insight into the characters.

All these alledged flaws (which other reviwers have used to justify their low marks given) are the very things that make Once an Eagle such an outstanding book. By making the world of Once an Eagle such a high-contrast and black-and-white place, Anton Myrer gives military leaders the perfect yardstick to measure their actions. Each new lieutenant aspires to be a Sam Damon, and wishes to God that he does not become a Courtney Masengale. The qualities of Sam Damon- integrity, a sense of duty, the deep parental feelings towards his men- are the qualities that make armies strong. These qualities, above technology or resources, are the qualities we hope that our military possesses. To paraphrase a former Marine Corps Commandant: while the circumstances of war change, the essence remains timeless: war is a struggle of will. Once an Eagle is the perfection that our military leadership aspires to, because the qualities of Sam Damon ensure victory in that "struggle of will."

Other reviewers have disparaged Mr. Myrer's military experience; how can a mere corporal speak of leadership? I believe that a corporal in charge of three other men in a fire team has the most tangible grasp on leadership- the results are always in front of him. As a corollary, it can also be said that as one rises in rank, the more difficult is becomes to grasp the principles of leadership that a corporal plainly sees. The qualities of leadership necessary to be a corporal are magnified proportionally as one commands more men, but the requirements are the same: integrity, a sense of duty, and a parental attitude towards the men he commands. Perhaps that is why Mr. Myrer has written such a magnificent work.

During the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I was told to take nothing but the most essential items. I skimped on the extra underwear and put my copy of Once an Eagle in my pack instead. I wasn't afraid of running out of clean underwear- I was afraid that I would not live up to the example of Sam Damon if and when the moment of truth came. I think Once an Eagle is THE moral compass of fighting men.

Having last read OAE when I was in junior high, reading it again in my 30s was a real treat. All of the innuendos and references to common cultural icons as well as being in the U.S. Army for about 2 decades made the book come alive like new.

To fully understand OAE you need to be in the military or a veteran. Just to understand the lingo of such things like "TO and E". If you are not Army, get that way!

When I first OAE I was desperately looking for heroes. Today, I see myself in the book. The reason is that if you care about the mission and the men certain inevitable conclusions will follow. Sam Damon is concerned about saving lives and he is a technotactical wizard who sees the connection between cargo net construction and wasting valuable time at sea exposed to enemy fire. As a military professional, I am able to read the book and vicariously live the experiences of WWI/WWII Army life as Myrer knew that life was.

I reread the book to try to understand Courtney Massengale and why he is such a monster and how many today are like him. Clearly the answer is that Massengale believes in nothing. Life is what you can get for yourself and he goes through the motions of life in his own mental caccoon not loving anyone least of all himself.

Massengale got this way by losing daily contact with lower ranking people in the Army. In contrast, Sam stays close to the men and can handle the truth unvarnished whereas Massengale wants it sanitized. Interestingly Myrer has Damon meet General MacArthur and shows him in a good light as anguished over leaving his men in the Philipines yet employing creative bypass tactics saving lives.

OAE is a very clever book full of hidden meanings and connections if you look for them. I even found Damon advocating the speed march as a way to "maneuver warfare" and collapse enemies, as his gamble at Moapora did. The insights into how the Germans failed to take Gibralter to control the Med were very interesting..I suggest reading the book with a highlight pen, making your own notes in the margins the next time you read OAE.

If you get a chance to see the TV mini-series, the U.S. Army and Armed Forces Radio-TV is said to be showing the series overseas in a few months and perhaps you could get a serviceman to tape it for you.

Sam Damon is making a big comeback in the U.S. military!

I think its time we write a sequel to OAE. I like the 1976 TV mini-series cover and wish to see it on a new version of the book in paperback. The TV mini-series has a better ending than the book, but the book's ending is designed to trouble you.

SAM DAMON LIVES!

Anton Myrer's "Once An Eagle" is a magnficantly written novel, on an epic scale, of life in the United States Army from World War I to Vietnam. In it, Myrer, a World War II Marine Corps veteran, describes the highs and lows of the life of a soldier, from the adrenaline rush and awful fear of close combat to the dreary routine of dilapidated peacetime army posts between the World Wars. Myrer manages to capture the awful truth known to all professional soldiers, that war is both a fearful waste of individual human life and the final abritrator of the destiny of nations and ideologies.

Myrer's narrative is built around the life of one Sam Damon, a farmboy from Nebraska with character, common sense, and a determination to make a difference in the world. Damon enlists in the Army, gains a battlefield commission in the First World War, survives the long tedium and glacial promotions of the interwar period, and goes on to make Major General in the Second World War before his final service in the beginning throes of a thinly disguised Vietnam War. Damon is the epitome of the professional soldier, dedicated to his soldiers and to the ideals of his profession. His nemisis throughout his journey is Courtney Massengale, the ambitious, successful, and selfishly cynical staff officer, who dreams of personal glory on the scale of a Caesar. Their paths will repeatedly cross, Damon a believer in the possibilities of men's souls, Massengale just as firm a believer that "neither grace nor nobility nor love existed in this world."

Myrer has populated the novel with a richly developed cast of supporting characters, most notably Sam Damon's wife Tommy, a fiery officer's daughter who will dutifully follow Sam through a succession of assignments and deployments while raising their children. Myrer deftly captures the tug of war between the call of duty and the demands of home, and the painful compromises and deferred hopes that result.

Myrer has also a gift for capturing a sense of time and place, whether the small Nebraska hotel where Damon earns his nickname, "the Night Clerk"; a chateau in wartime France; or a muddy line of rifle pits in the Southwest Pacific.

This book is highly recommended to the reader looking to understand in fiction what often gets hidden by the facts about armies and about wars. It is a long book at around 900 pages, and it pulls few punches, but the dedicated reader will be well rewarded by the effort.