Every Army Man Is with You

For Army's players, their 1964 game with Navy was a due or die battle. For five straight years, Army teams had lost to Navy, and once again they faced Navy's future National Football League, Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach. A stunning upset victory by Army changed the Cadets' fortunes and made headlines across the country, but the victory was the start of an even greater challenge for West Point's players. Soon they were in Vietnam, looking once again to achieve victory. However, for the players and for America itself, the Vietnam did not go as planned. Victory never arrived in a war the country gave up on before it was over. This book by historian Nicolaus Mills links the biographies of players on that unforgettable Army team from the time they spent on the field together to the years they spent stationed around the country and the world, serving their country as best they could, for as long as they could. Tracing the lives of these former Army football players through shared periods of youthful optimism, their developing roles and responsibilities in Vietnam, and their illuminating life decisions after returning from the war, Mills sheds light not just on what that their experiences meant to them personally, but what they say about America itself, and the ways the Vietnam Era forever altered our nation's course. America's pathway through the 1960s and 70s to the present day is encapsulated by nothing better than a study of the lives these players lived, the challenges they faced both on and off the field, and the ways that struggle ultimately forged the men they became, and the America we know today.