The Golden Fleece - by Tom Carhart (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The true story of how six cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point set out to steal the billy goat mascot from their rival, the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, interwoven with a narrative about the private lives of West Point cadets in the early 1960s."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

In the fall of 1965 West Point cadet Tom Carhart and five of his classmates from the U.S. Military Academy pulled off a feat of extraordinary ingenuity, precision, and raw guts: the theft of the billy goat mascot from their rival, the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, just before the biggest football game of the year.

The U.S. forces in Vietnam were then at two hundred thousand and growing, with casualties spiking, and the men in West Point's class of 1966 were well aware that they would serve, and quite possibly die, in that far-off war. But West Point's motto, "Duty, Honor, Country," affirms that its graduates will always obey the decisions of our elected government, and the men of '66 were dutiful: of the 579 who graduated, 30 died in Vietnam and roughly five times that number were wounded. Since this would be the men's last Army-Navy football game as cadets, they wanted to go out with a bang, not a whimper.

Carhart tells the incredible true story of how, in stealing that Navy goat, the cadets unknowingly reenacted the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece from Greek mythology. The caper is interwoven with an insider's narrative about the private lives of six West Point cadets in the early 1960s, who, against all odds, hurled their last hurrah of triumph to America before flying off to fight its wretched war in Vietnam.

For more information about The Golden Fleece visit carhartthegoldenfleece.com.

Review Quotes

"A high-spirited, poignant story of brotherhood, sacrifice, and eternal youth. Tom Carhart takes us to the lost world of West Point more than a half century ago, and brings it back to life."--Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966
-- (3/7/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"A true, bittersweet account of boys learning to be officers at West Point. Their immediate future is the war in Vietnam; their recreation is to steal Navy's goat just before the Army-Navy game. Required reading for those who wish to wear the Army's gray."--Bruce Lee, coauthor of Pearl Harbor: Final Judgement -- (3/7/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"Carhart, a West Point graduate (1966), left the Army after several tours in Vietnam, and is now an attorney and the author of numerous books on men at war. In this rather amusing book, he reaches back to his academy days and one of the more notable pranks in its long rivalry with Annapolis; the kidnapping of the Navy's goat mascot on November 21, 1965, as planned and successfully executed by six cadets, including himself."--Strategy Page

"The tension, risk, and reward, are almost tangible. The Golden Fleece also captures, and so reminds us all of, the very high character qualities of honor, intelligence, commitment, and raw courage that are so routinely displayed by the young men and women who graduate from our national service academies every year."--Duncan L. Hunter, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives (R-California)
-- (3/28/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"Think Catch-22 meets The West Point Story as cadets kidnap the Navy football mascot, a billy goat, by infiltrating a high-security area one night before the annual Army-Navy game. The problems overcome and the bittersweet results make for high drama."--Julian M. Olejniczak, author of To Be a Soldier: A Selective American Military History-- (3/2/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"This is a fascinating firsthand portrait of an impressive group of men who attended West Point during a tragic period in our country's history."--Lucien N. Nedzi, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-Michigan)-- (3/7/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"This lively account of the caper by six West Point cadets to nab the U.S. Naval Academy's goat mascot before the Army-Navy football game in 1965 is infused with humor as well as drama. The book also offers acute insights into life at the U.S. Military Academy during the years that American forces were escalating their commitment to the Vietnam War."--James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters
-- (3/8/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"Tom Carhart has given us another entertaining read that I had difficulty putting down and very much hated to see come to an end. . . . He captures a great deal about the cadet cultures at the various military academies--the rigor and discipline of day-to-day cadet life, the lifelong friendships that develop through the sharing of difficult demands few young people ever experience, the culture of 'Duty, Honor, Country' that undergirds the ethos of the profession of arms, and the humor that is also very much a part of the lives of young military academy cadets."--Gen. Ronald H. Griffith, U.S. Army (Ret.) and former vice chief of staff-Army
-- (3/20/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"West Point graduate (1966) Carhart . . . reaches back to his academy days and one of the more notable pranks in its long rivalry with Annapolis; the kidnapping of the Navy's goat mascot on November 21, 1965, by six cadets, including himself. Carhart gives us a very detailed account of the "mission", a risky undertaking punctuated by some funny moments, taking us through its genesis, planning and execution. . . . This amusing yet informative tale makes for good reading."--NYMAS Review

About the Author

​Tom Carhart is a West Point graduate and a twice-wounded Vietnam veteran. He earned a law degree from the University of Michigan and a PhD in American and military history from Princeton University and has lived and worked in Paris, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Brussels, and Washington DC. The author of eight previous books on military history, Carhart lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Jan. Wesley Clark is a retired U.S. Army four-star general, Vietnam War veteran, and valedictorian of the West Point class of '66.