Good book on West Point; not so hot for careerists

Book review: 'Duty First' --
biz a distant second

By Porter Anderson
CNN Career

"Duty First"
By Ed Ruggero
HarperCollins, 342 pages, February

(CNN) -- Marketing being what it is in the publishing world today, it's never surprising when a book is sold for a wider mission than it's written to perform. This may be the case in Ed Ruggero's "Duty First: West Point and the Making of American Leaders."

Ruggero is a West Point graduate and coauthor of a U.S. Army manual, "Army Leadership." After his own graduation in 1980, he was commissioned in the infantry, became a parachutist in 1981, went through the Army's leadership school and U.S. Army Ranger course and eventually led a 140-man company. He later served on the West Point faculty, before leaving the service in 1991 to work as a writer and public speaker.

The move in 1991 is good news for readers of "Duty First." His five novels -- "38 North Yankee," "The Domon Defense," "Firefall," "Breaking Ranks" and "The Academy" -- have helped him become a fine storyteller. From the opening chapter, "Day One: We're Not in Kansas Anymore," you get the effects of this in "Duty First." Ruggero is describing the moment that new cadets at West Point suddenly are separated from the family members who have delivered them to the campus. A "firstie," or senior cadet, is talking to the crowd.

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"We urge the families here to enjoy your visit today." Then he addresses the candidates directly. "At this time, I'd like to ask the candidates to prepare to move down the stadium steps with your baggage. ... You will form a single file directly in front of the cadet you see standing there," he says, pointing. Then he turns back to the crowd. No more "please," no more "I'd like to ask ... ." This time it's just, "You have 90 seconds to say your goodbyes." A little ripple of shock rolls up the bleachers.

In "Duty First," Ruggero's writing is always tinged with drama, but rarely goes over the top. He follows several cadets and builds his book on anecdotal pictures of the challenges faced by cadets and administrators. The term "challenges" is a euphemism in the case of this arduous training.

Basic training (too basic for business)

Cadet Basic Training, called "Beast" by the plebes, is the six-week summer of fun (not) that takes newcomers to their freshman year. From that through the tossing of hats at graduation, West Pointers are herded, hounded, bored, badgered, bucked up but more often beaten down, turned over, turned around, turned out at the end as something many of them (not all) and the military understand as something superior to what they were.

But for all these hundreds of pages of field exercises and brass-buckle polishing, one of the few broadly illuminating passages comes when Ruggero discusses a bit of his own experience.

Ed Ruggero

"By the end of my second year at West Point," he writes, "I was, by all objective standards, a successful cadet. ... For my summer assignment, I chose the U.S. Army Ranger course, which was then available to cadets. Only a few cadets got to wear the black and gold tab; it was a significant achievement and would, I was certain, make a fine addition to my growing list of accomplishments. Cocky and under-prepared, I went to Fort Benning and promptly flunked out. ...

"In failing, I learned my own limitations and thus became more understanding of other people, critical lessons that I could never have learned in a classroom. Two years later I went back to Ranger School and not only completed the course, but I was able to help others get through."

This nice passage, unfortunately, is the closest Ruggero gets to giving you a specific point of insight into broader leadership, his experience of it or the West Point contribution to it. Not a bad concept, if hardly revelatory: Many of us have seen a confrontation with our own shortcomings lead us to help -- and lead -- others.

But Ruggero spends the rest of his good book avoiding such conclusions. "The Making of American Leaders" part of the book's subtitle is never fulfilled in any but the most snapshot format. Sharp snapshots -- this is an engaging read if you want a strong inside look at the mind and body under this famous training.

But if you're looking for something you can easily pack into your mental duffel bag and haul to the office, ready to deploy it among the staffers, you're not likely to find it here.

The book is about "Duty First." A fine topic, aptly rendered. But nothing much follows. And that wouldn't be a problem if HarperCollins' marketing program hadn't put the author's notes about civilian leadership on the dust cover: "Many people assume that military leadership has nothing to do with leadership in the civilian world." What follows is a strong suggestion that this training -- and the military in peacekeeping missions, in particular -- have application to the civilian career world with "an unprecedented degree of independent decision-making and flexibility."

Now, clearly there are many corollaries between the work worlds of the Army, its showcase training program and the civilian career scene. You just won't find them here.

So "Duty First" turns out to be a worthwhile read, but perhaps not the next book you'll want to add to your career shelf.

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Ed Ruggero
HarperCollins

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