"A FULL MEASURE" TRILOGY
“From the first chapter of ‘West Point,’ I was hooked”
J.M. Patton
Following two years of college at NMMI (New Mexico Military Institute) in Roswell, New Mexico, J.M. Patton attended the United States Military Academy at West Point with the Class of 1973 for two years. A shoulder injury and an unsuccessful surgery yielded a medical discharge at the end of his second year at West Point. His departure from West Point was devastating to him, but he continued his education and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics at Baylor University. After graduation, he entered the workplace while starting work on a novel based on and correlating with his experiences at West Point.
About The Trilogy
West Point, Book I in the trilogy, follows the main character, John Paul “Jake” Jacobs, as a cadet entering the United States Military Academy at West Point to the end of the Army-Navy game in his third year at school. The author also introduces characters who endear themselves to the reader, and those who the reader finds reviling.
Drums of War, Book II of the trilogy follows the established themes of Book I and its characters. The reader will accompany Jake Jacobs through the last eighteen months of his days at West Point for a rematch with Cruikshank at the Brigade Boxing Championship, the transition from follower to leader through cadet command positions, an up-close view of the Cadet Honor Code in action, and Mobilization Day. Heartbreak comes in the final days running up to graduation, and Jake learns a valuable lesson from the words of Admiral Hollifield. Following graduation, the reader will follow Jake Jacobs through Special Forces training, accompany him as his team thwarts a terrorist hijacking of an American Airliner, and tag along with him to South Vietnam to escort a VIP out of the country on the last day of America’s presence in the Vietnam War. While most terrorist organizations of this period were underwritten and trained by the Soviet Union to sabotage and impair nations in order to expand a Communist world order, the means to do so was to mingle the illegal drug trade and terrorism to destabilize the West. It is from this opportunity that the book’s antagonist connects the reader to the funding of terrorism by means of drug trafficking and money laundering. Jake is assigned to track it down, find out who and how, and to organize the mitigation of the national threat. Meanwhile, the reader’s anticipation grows as to whether a number of near misses of reconnection between Jake and Sara will lead to a mended relationship.
Thundering White Crosses, Book III of the trilogy is soon to be published. It reveals a set of complex themes with contemporary repercussions. With an assignment back at West Point as an instructor, Jake finds that the institution of his affection is changing its historically successful officer training and development methods as academy policy is increasingly driven by the winds of political whims and a shifting national culture. Jake questions if the future of West Point can remain true to its mission and provide the nation with the same continuity of military leadership as it has in the past or will all the academies become a casualty of the Capital Beltway. Rumors have circled for years of a high-level Soviet mole that, if true, is the most dangerous traitor the nation has experienced. A compulsion to find this mole is forced upon Jake. It is a duty, and it has become personal. Running parallel to the search, someone is vetting and assassinating corrupt politicians, labeling them as domestic enemies. Jake’s search for the mole takes him to Afghanistan, Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, and the most dangerous environment —- the halls of Capital Hill.
BLOG
And the Story Continues… Keep up with J.M. Patton’s latest blogs.
The Blog is an ongoing collection of J.M. Patton’s short composition on a variety of subjects: part postulation and part muse. The reader is welcome to comment…
It is humorous. It is uplifting. It is a fun read
J. M. Patton and I were plebes together at West Point in the summer of 1969 with the Class of 1973. It was then called
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