I think this is one of the best military novels ever written. It brings life to the love/hate relationship that so many Marines and sailors have toward their service. I first read this book as a 19 year old Marine. I don't really remember what I liked about it back then, but it was probably the hard core nature of guys like Fogarty. Now in my 40s, this book resonates for different reasons, chief among them are the bitter-sweet nature of gaining life experience and having to work within a system. Webb does a superb job of showing how that gung-ho spirit sweeps into a person's psyche. ( )

I was reflecting on this book, which I read back when I was at the Naval Academy (I think all the plebes in 2nd co. were ordered to read it, certainly our youngsters talked about it with us, but I think the 2nd classmen, class of '90, were the ones who were really big on the book for some reason. I think that the book was published in 86, which is when they would have started plebe summer...). I told my manager at that there was nothing for me to learn from the USNA experience and she told me to think about it some more. Well, I see that she was right. But it's only just coming into being, this lesson. It needs to finish germinating but I can already see the seed of an idea, the lessons to be learned. Amazing that it can take 20 years almost to learn these lessons. My own sense of honor back at that time demanded that I stand up to several upperclassmen telling me to be gung-ho about unneccessry killing and singing cadences about napalm sticking to kids. The upperclassmen decided that I was too squeemish to be in 'their' navy.
Anyway, thinking on this book I read back then, "A Sense of Honor" brought me to some comments about honor, and this one was particularly interesting. He feels honor is a 'better' man's morality, but I see that as a bit snobbish personally. I prefer to see honor as a way of living that upholds the dignity of all.

(This LJ post was made back in 2008. Twenty years after I left Annapolis. Now 28 yrs...
Looking back, now I see that much of the criticisms of the upperclassmen and my classmates regarding my brain-dumping was a result of my then undiagnosed PTSD, which I'd still like to know whether all those psych tests we took on Induction Day showed in any way...)
Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
22 February, 12016 HE
( )

I was reflecting on this book, which I read back when I was at the Naval Academy (I think all the plebes in 2nd co. were ordered to read it, certainly our youngsters talked about it with us, but I think the 2nd classmen, class of '90, were the ones who were really big on the book for some reason. I think that the book was published in 86, which is when they would have started plebe summer...). I told my manager at that there was nothing for me to learn from the USNA experience and she told me to think about it some more. Well, I see that she was right. But it's only just coming into being, this lesson. It needs to finish germinating but I can already see the seed of an idea, the lessons to be learned. Amazing that it can take 20 years almost to learn these lessons. My own sense of honor back at that time demanded that I stand up to several upperclassmen telling me to be gung-ho about unneccessry killing and singing cadences about napalm sticking to kids. The upperclassmen decided that I was too squeemish to be in 'their' navy.
Anyway, thinking on this book I read back then, "A Sense of Honor" brought me to some comments about honor, and this one was particularly interesting. He feels honor is a 'better' man's morality, but I see that as a bit snobbish personally. I prefer to see honor as a way of living that upholds the dignity of all.

(This LJ post was made back in 2008. Twenty years after I left Annapolis. Now 28 yrs...
Looking back, now I see that much of the criticisms of the upperclassmen and my classmates regarding my brain-dumping was a result of my then undiagnosed PTSD, which I'd still like to know whether all those psych tests we took on Induction Day showed in any way...)
Read, Write, Dream, Teach !

ShiraDest
22 February, 12016 HE
( )

2422. A Sense of Honor, by James Webb (read Mar 20, 2001) This is Webb's second novel, and tells of four days at the Naval Academy in February of 1968. Webb is not the writer that Pat Conroy is, and so this book is not the literary feast that The Lords of Discipline (which does for The Citadel what this book does for the Naval Academy) is, but it is a powerful story, repulsive as the language and utter sexual amorality of the characters are. This book was easy to read and one did not want to stop reading, and it was a compelling story, albeit more approving of the "old discipline" which Conroy portrayed less favorably. ( )