My WorksThe basis for the made-for-television ESPN Original Entertainment movie “Code Breakers” (premiered at 9 P.M Eastern Time on 10 December 2005), and now on a DVD which includes the ESPN documentary, “Brave Old Army Team,” A Return to Glory is the first book to bring readers behind closed doors at West Point during the unprecedented, widely controversial, tragic cheating episode of 1951. Told with great precision and keen insight, A Return to Glory fuses the intertwined struggles for officers and cadets to maintain honorable conduct on the athletic field with the challenges to officers and enlisted men on the battlefields of Korea, the Cold War’s first frustrating and deadly “limited war.” The parallels and corollaries are astounding and often profound. The book also tells one of the great, never-before-told collegiate football stories of the twentieth century, namely the inspiring true story of how the vaunted Army football team—nationally dominant during much of the decade preceding the incident—recovered from losing 37 players in the devastating cheating scandal of 1951. Timeless and compelling, A Return to Glory is as surprising and meaningful for today's readers as it will be for those who lived the events of a half century ago. Both a period history and lively true story, the book tells of authentic and unsung heroes and young men attempting to live up to the extraordinarily high standards demanded by the Academy and its Honor Code. While the work accurately portrays the joys, rewards, and tragedies of life in the military, it also tells thought-provoking, often humorous, uplifting stories about people and institutions, “warts and all,” woven into a larger story and theme, with deliberately broad appeal intended to reach the general public. Most importantly, in a new age of desperate battles that challenge the integrity of military leaders on and off today’s battlefields, A Return to Glory tells the inspirational story of some of their Army forebears who selflessly chose the harder right over the easier wrong...and prevailed. 5 maps, 62 photos, 1,144 pages BOOKS AVAILABLE at Aegis Consulting Group/Aberjona Press in Bedford, PA and their distributors; and Warwick House Publishing in Lynchburg, VA. www.aberjonapress.com/aberjona.html and whp720@aol.com TELEVISION MOVIE: Based upon A Return to Glory, the ESPN Original Entertainment, made for television movie, “Code Breakers,” aired on 10 December 2005, four days after ESPN aired the documentary, “Brave Old Army Team,” which was in part based upon the book. DVD AVAILABLE: ESPN released “Code Breakers” on DVD, 11 July 2006. Available through ESPN’s distributor, Hart Sharp Video, and their vendors – including Aegis Consulting Group/Aberjona Press. www.hartsharpvideo.com and www.aberjonapress.com/aberjona.html  ©ESPN All Rights Reserved "Code Breakers" DVD Based on the first three chapters and selected excerpts from A Return to Glory, “Code Breakers” dramatizes the disclosure, undercover and formal investigations of organized cheating at West Point in the spring and summer of 1951, which resulted in less than honorable discharges for 83 cadets, including 37 football players from Army’s greatly admired, nationally ranked team – while the nation was at war in Korea. What the critics said: Washington Post: “Smart and compelling.” Hollywood Reporter: “What makes this film so special is that it captures the unique situation even as it distills universal truths. G. Ross Parker’s brilliant script reveals a set of circumstances that was neither black nor white but mostly shades of gray…the film is far less about football than difficult ethical questions involving loyalty, friendship, integrity and honor.” An ESPN Original Entertainment production. Executive Producer: Orly Adelson; Co-executive Producer: Jon Eskenas; Producer: Frank Siracusa; Director: Rod Holcomb; Teleplay: G. Ross Parker; Based on the Book: A Return to Glory by Bill McWilliams Cast: Legendary Army football coach Earl H. “Red” Blaik, Scott Glenn; football player George Holbrook: Jeff Roop; Holbrook’s roommate, Brian Nolan: Zachery Bryan; Bob Blaik: Corey Sevier; DeSantis: Theo Rossi; Straub: Jake Busey; Assistant coach Vince Lombardi: Richard Zippieri; Colonel Paul D. Harkins, the Commandant: Jude Ciccolella; Trager: Robin Dunne; Culpepper: Adam Grimes. The author’s role in the production was as a voluntary, unpaid consultant, whom the producers, writer, and director graciously granted unprecedented access, participating in three script reviews, providing copies of period research documents and loan of photographs, and answering numerous questions on a wide variety of subjects from nearly every discipline in the production process - all to assist in recreating the unique mission of the Military Academy and the era of the story, while portraying the event’s fundamental truths and reality. “Code Breakers” DVD Extras: Among the DVD extras is the documentary “Brave Old Army Team,” a history of Army football of that era, produced for ESPN by Winnercomm, Tulsa, OK, and based in part on A Return to Glory. The author’s role in the documentary was as a provider of background information and facts concerning the 1951 honor incident at West Point, an on-screen interviewee, and a voluntary fact checker during the final editing process. ON HALLOWED GROUND, The Last Battle for PORK CHOP HILL
"On Hallowed Ground is an extraordinarily powerful, true story and fresh Korean War history. Drawing on official records, letters, and written and oral recollections, it places readers in the middle of wrenching crosscurrents of emotion, as American soldiers fight one of the crucial last battles of a stalemated war." -Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, USA (Ret) chief of staff, US Army, 1991-95 president, Association of the U.S. Army “Gerald B. Whiterock, All-American Hero: Valor Forever”
Based on the book On Hallowed Ground, The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill, and additional research completed after the book was published, the article tells the tragic but inspiring true story of the only Nevada soldier killed in action on Pork Chop Hill, during the 6-11 July 1953 final battle for the outpost. Gerald Whiterock was an 18-year old Western Shoshone Indian from the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, astride the Nevada-Idaho border, northeast of Elko. He enlisted in the Army one day after his 18th birthday in October 1952, and was killed in action on Pork Chop Hill the morning of 9 July, less than three weeks prior to the Korean War armistice. “Vince Lombardi at West Point: The Early Days of a Football Legend”
Vince Lombardi’s exciting, tumultuous, roller coaster, five seasons, from 1949 through 1953 under the head coach Vince most admired and whom Vince credited as his greatest gridiron teacher, Army’s Earl H. “Red” Blaik. “The 1st Hilltoppers: Birth of a Winning Tradition”
Tells the delightful, inspiring, true story of the first three seasons of interscholastic football competition, 1946-48, at Los Alamos High School, as the home of the World War II Manhattan Project – Project Y - was coming out from under its tightly-held cloak of secrecy. "The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill"
The article briefly describes the initial assault on Pork Chop Hill the night of 6 July 1953 by units of the 200th Regiment, Chinese Communist 67th Division, against A Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, to begin the five day battle for the outpost. “The 1951 Honor Incident: Myths, Facts, and Lessons”
Using research material from A Return to Glory, the piece summarizes the never-publicly-told story of behind the scenes events associated with the 1951 honor incident at West Point, and responds to an error-filled article, “Code Breakers,” written by well-known sports writer Frank Deford and published in Sports Illustrated magazine’s 13 November 2000 issue. “The 1953 Battles for Pork Chop Hill”
Based on the book, On Hallowed Ground, The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill, the article summarizes the events leading to the final, bloody 6-11 July 1953 battle for the outpost, and the roles Military Academy graduates played in the battle. “Once More Into the Fire”
A true story from the West Point class of 1950’s baptism in battle early in the Korean War. Lt. David R. Hughes, who like many of his classmates, was ordered to report as a platoon leader in a front line unit – without benefit of up-to-date infantry branch school training – joins King Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regimentt of George Armstrong Custer fame, near the Yalu River, and fights beside and leads his men as a platoon leader, and then company commander, until the 1st Cavalry Division is replaced on the line in November 1951, near Pork Chop Hill and what became the DMZ. “Army – Duke 1953, A Football Game Never to Be Forgotten”
The inspiring, true story of the Army football team’s turnaround game in the turnaround season of 1953. In two grueling football seasons following the disastrous honor incident announced 3 August 1951, Army went 2-7 and 4-4-1, equaling the total losses under Coach Earl H. “Red” Blaik in his previous ten seasons. Called by many sports writers “the college game of the year,” the victory set Army’s team and the Corps of Cadets afire, inspiring them to remain undefeated the remainder of a 7-1-1 season, and a return to the national rankings. “The 1951 Honor Incident, Lessons from an Avoidable Tragedy”
The author explains the purposes and practical value of officer candidates taking action when violations of the cadet honor code are observed, and relates the cadet honor code to the officer code and leadership. |
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