Overview

For Army's players, their 1964 football game against a Navy team led by its Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Roger Staubach, was a do-or-die battle. Army had lost to Navy five years in a row. This time a stunning victory by Army changed the Cadets' fortunes and made headlines across the country. With five of its starters playing offense and defense, Army rallied to an 11-8 triumph. The win was the beginning of an even greater challenge for West Point's players. Soon they were in Vietnam, fighting a war that did not end as they or America expected. In Every Army Man Is with You Nicolaus Mills tells the story of that unforgettable Army team by focusing on the lives of seven of its players as they go from the football field, to the Vietnam battlefield, and back again to the States. Mills sheds light not just on what that the players' experiences meant to them personally but on what their experiences say about the ways the Vietnam era shaped our nation.

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9781442239852

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Nicolaus Mills has penned an insightful recounting of a classic football game that was far more than an athletic contest; it marked a turning point for our country, about to be torn apart by Vietnam, and a turning point for the athletes who played the game, about to be immersed in the Vietnam cauldron. Mills movingly captures the impact of these events on West Point emerging leaders, inspirational former players who returned to help heal a fractured nation and who never forgot the core values instilled by their alma mater. -- Daniel W. Christman, Lieutenant General (Retired), USA; 55th Superintendent, West Point Nicholas Mills has written a fascinating portrait of the U.S. Army's officer corps. West Point football players from 1964 may not constitute a scientific sample, but their stories, as retold by Mills, provide a revealing account of loyalty, camaraderie, frustration, and anger in the age of Vietnam. -- Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University In telling the story of the 1964 Army football team and its experience in Vietnam, Nicolaus Mills has movingly captured a period in history I know firsthand. We lost a tough game to that Army team, but I had the chance to become close friends with their great quarterback, Rollie Stichweh. -- Roger Staubach, Vietnam veteran, Navy and Dallas Cowboy quarterback From the victories on the fields of friendly strife to the ravages of the jungles of Vietnam, Nicolaus Mills has written a spellbinding chronicle of the triumphs and travails of the stars of the 1964 West Point football team. This is a riveting personal tale of young men who journey through the days of football glory to days of wartime heroism, confusion, bitterness and death-young men who were truly the best and the brightest that this great nation had to offer. -- Jack Ford, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist, and author of The Walls of Jericho

Nicolaus Mills has penned an insightful recounting of a classic football game that was far more than an athletic contest; it marked a turning point for our country, about to be torn apart by Vietnam, and a turning point for the athletes who played the game, about to be immersed in the Vietnam cauldron. Mills movingly captures the impact of these events on West Point emerging leaders, inspirational former players who returned to help heal a fractured nation and who never forgot the core values instilled by their alma mater. -- Daniel W. Christman, Lieutenant General (Retired), USA; 55th Superintendent, West Point

Author Information

Nicolaus Mills is an historian, author, and journalist, and is a professor at Sarah Lawrence College.

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