On literary merit alone, this book would get about 3 stars. It is a competently written popular novel. Myrer did have an ambitious aim, to lay out the history of the US Army from WWI up to the 60s. His protagonist, Sam Damon, is a young Nebraska man who enlists in the US Army prior to WWI, receives a battlefield commission in France, and then becomes a career officer. Myrer uses Damon's career to show the development of the Army. Myrer does a good job of showing the relative amateurishness of the US Army during WWI, the very constrained interwar period, and the huge expansion of the military just before and during WWII. The battlefield scenes are said by many to be realistic and are the best parts of the book. Damon's character and career are contrasted with those of a unprincipled careerist officer whose actions through Damon's meritorious actions into high relief. This book is certainly not outstanding literature but is generally written competently. The themes are good ones. While the characters are reasonably well developed, the contrast between the hero and the bad guy are is too strong to be creditable. Damon is really too good to be true and his opponent is not only a callous careerist but also a coward, a sadist, and sexually inadequate.
This book has some sociological interest. It is very popular in the military and has been used in courses for officers. The edition I read was published by the Army War College Press. The hero is generally held up as an example for young officers. I suspect this book is going to experience another surge of popularity among the military. One of the hero's last acts is an attempt to forestall greater American involvement in a thinly disguised version of Vietnam, presented clearly as a principled act of leadership in opposition to powerful but uncritical political and military leaders. There appears to be quite a bit of disatisfaction among the officer corps about the complaisance of the military leadership in the runup to the invasion of Iraq. Myrer's Sam Damon is again going to be seen as role model for officers.

I could never do justice to the story by trying to describe it in a few words here. Suffice it to say that I read it right after Myrer's death while stationed overseas, and it enthralled me with it's powerful statement about duty and loyalty as opposed to power and its misuse. The book was lent to my buddies and I unfortunately forgot it when I flew back to the world, but have never forgotten its message. I've tried to instill the same values in my son while he is in Army ROTC in college. Even if you've never served; never plan on serving; or cannot serve anylonger, (as in my case), read this book for its story and characters. I will stand this book alongside any other for pure story telling and believability.

Anton Myrer's "Once An Eagle" is a magnficantly written novel, on an epic scale, of life in the United States Army from World War I to Vietnam. In it, Myrer, a World War II Marine Corps veteran, describes the highs and lows of the life of a soldier, from the adrenaline rush and awful fear of close combat to the dreary routine of dilapidated peacetime army posts between the World Wars. Myrer manages to capture the awful truth known to all professional soldiers, that war is both a fearful waste of individual human life and the final abritrator of the destiny of nations and ideologies.

Myrer's narrative is built around the life of one Sam Damon, a farmboy from Nebraska with character, common sense, and a determination to make a difference in the world. Damon enlists in the Army, gains a battlefield commission in the First World War, survives the long tedium and glacial promotions of the interwar period, and goes on to make Major General in the Second World War before his final service in the beginning throes of a thinly disguised Vietnam War. Damon is the epitome of the professional soldier, dedicated to his soldiers and to the ideals of his profession. His nemisis throughout his journey is Courtney Massengale, the ambitious, successful, and selfishly cynical staff officer, who dreams of personal glory on the scale of a Caesar. Their paths will repeatedly cross, Damon a believer in the possibilities of men's souls, Massengale just as firm a believer that "neither grace nor nobility nor love existed in this world."

Myrer has populated the novel with a richly developed cast of supporting characters, most notably Sam Damon's wife Tommy, a fiery officer's daughter who will dutifully follow Sam through a succession of assignments and deployments while raising their children. Myrer deftly captures the tug of war between the call of duty and the demands of home, and the painful compromises and deferred hopes that result.

Myrer has also a gift for capturing a sense of time and place, whether the small Nebraska hotel where Damon earns his nickname, "the Night Clerk"; a chateau in wartime France; or a muddy line of rifle pits in the Southwest Pacific.

This book is highly recommended to the reader looking to understand in fiction what often gets hidden by the facts about armies and about wars. It is a long book at around 900 pages, and it pulls few punches, but the dedicated reader will be well rewarded by the effort.

THIS IS THE CONSUMMATE BOOK ON LEADERSHIP. I AM A CAREER MARINE WHO IS A VETERAN OF THE GULF WAR, SOMALIA, AND IRAQ WARS. MYRER SUMS UP THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE IN LEADERSHIP LIKE NO AUTHOR HAS EVER DONE. THIS BOOK DOES NOT APPLY JUST TO THE MILITARY. CORPORATE AMERICA COULD STAND TO READ THIS BOOK ALSO. SAM DAMON IS THE OFFICER THAT MEN WOULD DIE FOR AND FOLLOW TO HELL AND BACK. MASSINGALE IS THE WORTHLESS SELF-PROMOTER WHO LEADS A HOLLOW LIFE AND DOESN'T TOUCH HIS MEN IN ANY POSITIVE LIFE-SHAPING MANNER. EVERY MILITARY OFFICER SHOULD READ THIS BOOK SO THAT THEY CAN LEARN HOW TO LEAD MEN THROUGH THE HELL OF WAR AND THE JOURNEY INTO MANHOOD THAT ALL YOUNG SERVICEMEN ARE FACED WITH. ANY MAN WHO HAS SEEN WAR WILL UNDERSTAND WHY DAMON IS A HERO TO ANYONE WHO SERVED UNDER HIM. THIS BOOK TOUCHED ME IN A WAY THAT NO OTHER MILITARY BOOK HAS SINCE JAMES WEBB'S FIELDS OF FIRE. WHAT A DEEP, THOROUGH CHARACTER STUDY OF THE LEADERSHIP QUALITIES THAT ALL MILITARY OFFICERS SHOULD STRIVE TO HAVE....AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE.

ONCE AN EAGLE HAS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN
AN UNBELIVABLE BOOK ,I FIRST READ YEARS AGO BEFORE THEY MADE THE MINI SERIES FOR TV I JUST KNEW THAT HAD TO BE SO WATCHABLE
AND OH BOY WAS IT FROM START TO FINISH SUPERB I WOULD LOVE TO GET MY HANDS ON A TAPE OR DVD TO BE ABLE TO SEE IT AGAIN

MR J PARKER