When our grandchildren pass on, we and our times are lost to history. The same is true of popular culture, although that does not usually take two generations to fade away. How many under the age of forty in the year 2023 can recall anything about Henry Arnold, Mary Pickford, Neville Shute or Andrew Mellon? How about Tommy Dorsey, Charles Evans Hughes, the Cuban Missile Crisis, or Zimmerman telegram? All were prominent personalities or events in the pageant of American history. Lost, except for academic niches of inquiry.

​

The history of America is well reflected in the story of the United States Army officer corps. Not all Army officers graduated from West Point by any means, but the spirit of the officer corps from West Point and the history of the Army over two centuries has been captured by writers celebrated and obscure. West Point with its motto of “Duty, Honor, Country” established a spiritual and moral foundation for many literary efforts. In those novels and stories lay a wealth of history, psychology, the humanity of American soldiers, their families, and the times in which they lived.   This great literary wealth need not fade into oblivion.