Myrer, Anton. Once an Eagle.

Myrer, Anton. Once an Eagle. New York: Harper Collins, 2001. Anton Myrer's Once an Eagle tells the tale of Samuel Damon, a young man from Nebraska who joins the U.S. army in 1916 on the cusp of America's entry into World War I. Sam Damon fights first in Mexico, then in France, where he receives a battlefield commission after serving nobly in action. While recovering from his injuries, Sam falls in love with the daughter of his commanding officer, a young woman with the masculine name of Tommy Caldwell.

After the war is over, Sam rejects going back to soft civilian life, despite being offered a plush job on Wall Street, during the boom years of the Roaring 20s. Tommy marries the soldier anyway, despite having vowed to escape army life. The book underlines the fact that Sam does not refuse the Wall Street job because he lacks the ability to thrive in business. When Sam is stationed near his uncle Ed Downing, Sam is given the chance to run Downing's manufacturing company.

Sam is shocked to discover that the company foreman is placing his own interests above the goals of the organization, its owner, and the workers. This is completely counterintuitive to the philosophy of the army. Sam's leadership skills win him the respect of his fellow employees, and Sam is able to turn the fortunes of the company around, winning back customers and getting the enterprise 'ship-shape' once again. But after his uncle, duly impressed, offers him a job, Sam rejects it.

He has proved to himself that he could 'make it' in the real world. Just as Sam had a premonition about the beginnings of the war, his experiences with the business community have given him the ability to anticipate the Depression. "He was afraid of this world. He feared it; not as an arena where he could not prove himself -- he had dispelled that qualm effectively enough…it was too ungoverned, too avaricious" (Myrer 539). Author Myrer thus creates a hero who is an American ideal.

If someone as noble as Sam could not succeed in business, this would be an indictment of capitalism. Sam can, but he prefers the purer nature of military service, even though it is less lucrative. His chosen life forces his wife to live in shabby barracks, and to travel around like the military 'brat' she once was. Myrer also encourages the reader to identify with Sam by giving the book's protagonist almost supernatural insight into world conditions.

Sam had a hunch that America will help the Allies fight World War I, just as he foresees the Great Depression. To Sam, living a 'real' life means 'taking the bull by the horns,' obeying his commanding officer, and serving with absolute selflessness. Tommy tries to persuade her husband to reconsider his decision to reject a life in business but Sam says: "that's no kind of life for a man. Hell, they [stocks and bonds] aren't even real" (Myrer 437).

After Pearl Harbor, Sam accuses American businessmen of selling the Japanese weapons before the war, just to make a profit. Unlike businessmen, Sam places his country first, above money but also above his family life, a decision which ultimately causes him great pain. Eventually, alienated from Tommy, Sam takes refuge in the arms of a mistress. Tommy grows especially embittered after the couple's son dies in combat.

Sam's plain-spoken quality and ability to rise through the ranks based upon his military insight and ability to bond with his troops is contrasted with his arch-rival Captain Massengale. Sam only has respect for men who fight, like Colonel Lin Tso-han, whom he meets with.