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Voluntary Force
The Catch-22 of the Sexual Revolution!
The title “Voluntary Force" is an oxymoron that captures the essence of military duty. The novel Voluntary Force is a character-driven story that will give millions of military women, yesterday's and today's, their own fictional heroine. A military novel, Voluntary Force plunges the reader into the harrowing plight of a female Army officer who struggles for acceptance in the peacetime military at a time when the military gave women no respect. The female protagonist and her WAC peers are transformed into Army officers in three months instead of four years at West Point. The character-driven story focuses on a single mother as she copes with her own transformation to Army officer and with the demands of a military in the throes of transition. Her external conflict to compete with men on macho-male turf drives a greater internal conflict within herself to overcome her feelings of endless exclusion. The military allows her to compete with men only because of her sex and draws her into a professional and personal trap. Inside the unforgiving hierarchy of the 1970s Army, the novel follows a very liberal female junior Army officer who has a sexual affair with a disciplined senior Army officer. What begins as a casual affair quickly deepens into something far more complicated when he falls in love with her. As the sexual revolution reshapes expectations around identity, desire, and power, their romance becomes a flashpoint where personal longing collides with institutional control, forcing them to choose between duty and desire. Blending the grit of military duty with the emotional sweep of a historical romance, the novel delivers an intimate, character‑driven love story set against one of the most transformative cultural shifts of the twentieth century. The story blends the grit of military duty with the emotional intensity of a romance, creating a unique narrative that is both intimate and epic. If you have any interest in the sexual revolution and its effect on military history, then this military novel will capture your attention and take you back through a unique American experience.
The title “Voluntary Force" is an oxymoron that captures the essence of military duty. The novel Voluntary Force is a character-driven story that will give millions of military women, yesterday's and today's, their own fictional heroine. A military novel, Voluntary Force plunges the reader into the harrowing plight of a female Army officer who struggles for acceptance in the peacetime military at a time when the military gave women no respect. The female protagonist and her WAC peers are transformed into Army officers in three months instead of four years at West Point. The character-driven story focuses on a single mother as she copes with her own transformation to Army officer and with the demands of a military in the throes of transition. Her external conflict to compete with men on macho-male turf drives a greater internal conflict within herself to overcome her feelings of endless exclusion. The military allows her to compete with men only because of her sex and draws her into a professional and personal trap. Inside the unforgiving hierarchy of the 1970s Army, the novel follows a very liberal female junior Army officer who has a sexual affair with a disciplined senior Army officer. What begins as a casual affair quickly deepens into something far more complicated when he falls in love with her. As the sexual revolution reshapes expectations around identity, desire, and power, their romance becomes a flashpoint where personal longing collides with institutional control, forcing them to choose between duty and desire. Blending the grit of military duty with the emotional sweep of a historical romance, the novel delivers an intimate, character‑driven love story set against one of the most transformative cultural shifts of the twentieth century. The story blends the grit of military duty with the emotional intensity of a romance, creating a unique narrative that is both intimate and epic. If you have any interest in the sexual revolution and its effect on military history, then this military novel will capture your attention and take you back through a unique American experience.
342 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1999
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