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Duty First: West Point and the Making of American Leaders
Duty First is a penetrating account of a year inside one of America's premier schools for leadership-the United States Military Academy at West Point. Ed Ruggero, a former West Point cadet and professor, takes an incisive look at how this elite school builds the "leaders of character" who will command the nation's military. Ruggero details the struggles of young men and women who will lead the American soldiers of the future. Writing with deep insight and superb narrative skill, he follows their tumultuous the initial, grueling training, the strict student hierarchy and intense classroom work, and the interaction between the lowly first-year plebes and the upper-class cadets who train them. Duty First also shows the role played by the majors, captains, and sergeants, who oversee everything that happens at this unique institution. By taking a close, critical look at the Academy's standards and traditions, Ruggero examines the changes in West Point's approach to leadership training that have sparked controversy among its alumni. While all West Pointers would agree with one graduate's claim that "steel is forged in fire," many worry that the fire has been allowed to cool too much. Does today's Academy produce leaders with the inner steel to fight and win the nation's wars, or are today's cadets being coddled in the interest of political correctness, retention, and diversity? Above the Hudson River to the hot and humid barracks rooms where the nation's future captains struggle, Ruggero combines objective reporting with the emotional perspective of memoir to take readers on a guided tour through the jarring, overwhelming, inspiring leadership school that is West Point. The stories in Duty First widely reverberate far beyond West Point, because while the specific goals and methods of developing leaders differ, the fundamental values courage, commitment, selfless sacrifice - are the same for all leaders, from the parents of small children to the CEOs of major corporations.
Hardcover
First published January 23, 2001
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About the author
Ed Ruggero
14 books105 followersEd Ruggero remembers very clearly two ambitions he had early on: he wanted to be a soldier and he wanted to be a writer.
Ruggero graduated from West Point in 1980, fulfilling one of his professional dreams. He served as an infantry officer in the Army and later returned to West Point to teach literature and writing. While he was on the faculty at West Point that Ruggero got the idea that it would be great to invite a newly famous author named Tom Clancy for a visit.
“I knew Clancy was fascinated by all things military, and West Point is a great draw. I had no travel budget to offer him, but I cheekily wrote that if he made his way to New York, I’d let him talk to my upperclass cadets.”
Clancy’s visit became a big event for the Academy, and the author was a houseguest of the Superintendent, the three-star general who is essentially the president of a university. Ruggero made good on his promise and brought Clancy to class to speak to cadets in a writing course.
“He told the cadets that he’d waited until he was forty years old to even try writing, something he’d always wanted to do. He told them not to wait.”
Ruggero took Clancy’s advice to heart and got to work on a manuscript that would become his first novel, 38 North Yankee.
“I got up at 4:30—oh-dark-thirty in Army jargon—and wrote until it was time to leave for work at six. I had two young children at the time and didn’t want to sacrifice my time in the evenings with them.”
Ruggero has written fiction, military history and several titles on leadership; and has built a business running retreats for business executives to places like Normandy and Gettysburg.
“We use the history of these battles and the challenges facing the commanders, to figure out how we can better lead our modern organizations.”
On one visit to West Point Ruggero met a graduate of the Class of 1941, who became a guide for two of his books, both non-fiction accounts of American paratroopers in World War Two. Some of the hundred and fifty or so former paratroopers Ruggero interviewed fought in six major campaigns.
“Getting to know those men and capturing their stories for later generations has been a highlight of my professional career.”
While visiting Sicily to research his non-fiction Combat Jump, about the 1943 Allied invasion, Ruggero became intrigued by the question, ”What happens after the fighting moves on?”
“The Allies had somehow to restore law and order and recreate a civil society and all its functioning parts immediately in the wake of the most violent and chaotic of human endeavors: modern war. That must have been incredibly difficult.”
That musing led Ruggero to a new fiction series that kicks off in 2019 with Blame the Dead.
“The protagonist is a former Philadelphia beat cop, Eddie Harkins, who winds up investigating the murder of a US Army surgeon. Among other problems, Harkins learns that many of the victim’s colleagues think that the dead man—who was something of a low-life—pretty much got what he deserved.”
“But, as Harkins says, you can hardly blame the dead guy for his own murder.”
Ruggero and his wife, Marcia Noa, divide their time between Media, Pennsylvania and Lewes, Delaware. Ruggero spent seven years as a trustee of the Philadelphia Outward Bound School.
“I often think of Tom Clancy’s advice to my cadets, which helped me in no small way to find a job I love.”
Ruggero graduated from West Point in 1980, fulfilling one of his professional dreams. He served as an infantry officer in the Army and later returned to West Point to teach literature and writing. While he was on the faculty at West Point that Ruggero got the idea that it would be great to invite a newly famous author named Tom Clancy for a visit.
“I knew Clancy was fascinated by all things military, and West Point is a great draw. I had no travel budget to offer him, but I cheekily wrote that if he made his way to New York, I’d let him talk to my upperclass cadets.”
Clancy’s visit became a big event for the Academy, and the author was a houseguest of the Superintendent, the three-star general who is essentially the president of a university. Ruggero made good on his promise and brought Clancy to class to speak to cadets in a writing course.
“He told the cadets that he’d waited until he was forty years old to even try writing, something he’d always wanted to do. He told them not to wait.”
Ruggero took Clancy’s advice to heart and got to work on a manuscript that would become his first novel, 38 North Yankee.
“I got up at 4:30—oh-dark-thirty in Army jargon—and wrote until it was time to leave for work at six. I had two young children at the time and didn’t want to sacrifice my time in the evenings with them.”
Ruggero has written fiction, military history and several titles on leadership; and has built a business running retreats for business executives to places like Normandy and Gettysburg.
“We use the history of these battles and the challenges facing the commanders, to figure out how we can better lead our modern organizations.”
On one visit to West Point Ruggero met a graduate of the Class of 1941, who became a guide for two of his books, both non-fiction accounts of American paratroopers in World War Two. Some of the hundred and fifty or so former paratroopers Ruggero interviewed fought in six major campaigns.
“Getting to know those men and capturing their stories for later generations has been a highlight of my professional career.”
While visiting Sicily to research his non-fiction Combat Jump, about the 1943 Allied invasion, Ruggero became intrigued by the question, ”What happens after the fighting moves on?”
“The Allies had somehow to restore law and order and recreate a civil society and all its functioning parts immediately in the wake of the most violent and chaotic of human endeavors: modern war. That must have been incredibly difficult.”
That musing led Ruggero to a new fiction series that kicks off in 2019 with Blame the Dead.
“The protagonist is a former Philadelphia beat cop, Eddie Harkins, who winds up investigating the murder of a US Army surgeon. Among other problems, Harkins learns that many of the victim’s colleagues think that the dead man—who was something of a low-life—pretty much got what he deserved.”
“But, as Harkins says, you can hardly blame the dead guy for his own murder.”
Ruggero and his wife, Marcia Noa, divide their time between Media, Pennsylvania and Lewes, Delaware. Ruggero spent seven years as a trustee of the Philadelphia Outward Bound School.
“I often think of Tom Clancy’s advice to my cadets, which helped me in no small way to find a job I love.”
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 22, 2019
West Point must have been on an open-the-doors-and-generate-some-good-publicity kick in the late 90s and early 2000s. Duty First covers a year in the lives of the class of 2002...but there's also Absolutely American, which covers four years in the same time period, and In a Time of War, which tracks some 2002 grads in the years after their time at West Point.
It's pretty fascinating material, and Ruggero works well with it. For all that he has ties to West Point, it's as balanced a perspective as I could hope for. It's the good and the bad: the ways in which West Point turns teenagers into capable leaders, and the ways in which it walks a very thin line between character development and abuse. Some of the cadets in the book are on fast tracks to success, while others question whether West Point is for them. (I'm used to parental pressure to go to an Ivy or Oxbridge, but to go to West Point—that seems like a whole different kind of pressure.)
I haven't read In a Time of War yet, but I've read Absolutely American multiple times, if not recently, and I remember it well. (I passed it on to my then-girlfriend a few years ago, actually, and she literally read it to pieces. Shoddy binding. Not up to USMA standards!) In many ways it feels very similar to Duty First. Ruggero has an advantage over Lipsky: he went to West Point himself and later taught there. He knows the system, he presumably knows many of the people involved, and on occasion he can drop his own experience into the mix. Lipsky makes up for it, though, as where Ruggero spent a year following cadets, Lipsky spent four years—which means seeing who did and didn't succeed in a way that isn't really possible from a year. I noticed this most at the end of Duty First, when Ruggero catches the reader up on some of the people profiled throughout the course of the book. There are some who had made impressions, whose stories I remembered, but just as many who were already vague phantoms in my memory. I'd have loved to have come away with more lasting impressions of the students and instructors. That said, I'm not sure of the circumstances in which Ruggero wrote Duty First; Lipsky was effectively able to embed himself for four years and focus on nothing else, which is a luxury most writers don't have.
I'd be really curious to read a similar account written about a different time period—now, for example, as I cannot imagine that nothing has changed in the two decades(!) since Ruggero did his research. West Point...? Is it time for another open-the-doors-and-generate-some-good-publicity kick?
It's pretty fascinating material, and Ruggero works well with it. For all that he has ties to West Point, it's as balanced a perspective as I could hope for. It's the good and the bad: the ways in which West Point turns teenagers into capable leaders, and the ways in which it walks a very thin line between character development and abuse. Some of the cadets in the book are on fast tracks to success, while others question whether West Point is for them. (I'm used to parental pressure to go to an Ivy or Oxbridge, but to go to West Point—that seems like a whole different kind of pressure.)
I haven't read In a Time of War yet, but I've read Absolutely American multiple times, if not recently, and I remember it well. (I passed it on to my then-girlfriend a few years ago, actually, and she literally read it to pieces. Shoddy binding. Not up to USMA standards!) In many ways it feels very similar to Duty First. Ruggero has an advantage over Lipsky: he went to West Point himself and later taught there. He knows the system, he presumably knows many of the people involved, and on occasion he can drop his own experience into the mix. Lipsky makes up for it, though, as where Ruggero spent a year following cadets, Lipsky spent four years—which means seeing who did and didn't succeed in a way that isn't really possible from a year. I noticed this most at the end of Duty First, when Ruggero catches the reader up on some of the people profiled throughout the course of the book. There are some who had made impressions, whose stories I remembered, but just as many who were already vague phantoms in my memory. I'd have loved to have come away with more lasting impressions of the students and instructors. That said, I'm not sure of the circumstances in which Ruggero wrote Duty First; Lipsky was effectively able to embed himself for four years and focus on nothing else, which is a luxury most writers don't have.
I'd be really curious to read a similar account written about a different time period—now, for example, as I cannot imagine that nothing has changed in the two decades(!) since Ruggero did his research. West Point...? Is it time for another open-the-doors-and-generate-some-good-publicity kick?
May 27, 2020
You’ll find several inside stories of these cadets as the institute forges them into leaders. It’s lacking in much at all about academics though.
February 12, 2019
This story follows West Point plebes through their first years at West Point and all the way through graduation. It is a tough school! I read this in 2003.
January 25, 2024
2.5 maybe? Not much gained from reading this
August 1, 2010
Since I live within 30 minutes of west point and this book was recommended as a good book on business leadership I took a gander. The book details life of the cadets. An underlying theme is the change in West point from demeaning cadets to building them up to now motivating the cadets and giving micro responsibilities with open feedback.
The author to alumni who had the harsh treatment as cadets and they argue the cruel treatment prepared them for the stresses of battle. A second theme is the balance of enforcing the honor code while helping mold cadets.
The book was challenging in trying to track a few students through the first year (like trying to catch characters on 24, they are always doing something) and I thought not well written, repetitive to the point that you can see the point the author is trying to make in 7 different ways.
The author to alumni who had the harsh treatment as cadets and they argue the cruel treatment prepared them for the stresses of battle. A second theme is the balance of enforcing the honor code while helping mold cadets.
The book was challenging in trying to track a few students through the first year (like trying to catch characters on 24, they are always doing something) and I thought not well written, repetitive to the point that you can see the point the author is trying to make in 7 different ways.
February 4, 2008
Ruggero looks into what a typical academic year is like at the United States Military Academy, also known as West Point. The book follows everyone from the first years to the seniors, to West Point grads who have returned to serve as Tacs for the next generation of West Point grads. While neither glorifying or vilifying the institution, Ruggero provides what I have heard is an accurate portrayal of a year at the Academy.
February 21, 2013
A good book that gives a look at the inside workings of West Point from the cadet's, TAC officer's, instructor's, and all the way to the Commandant and Superintendent's views. Good for anyone interested in the academy.. especially someone interested in attending as a cadet.
April 11, 2008
Another good book about West Point.
August 7, 2008
Ruggero Rocks!
Read
September 9, 2008great lessons that everyone needs to learn
February 23, 2018
Sometimes hilarious look at life at West Point.
May 6, 2021
One of three books published by authors shadowing cadets in the bicentennial years. A fine look into cadet life and military sacrifice.
February 3, 2013
My favorite book on leadership!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews