The Golden Fleece

High-Risk Adventure at West Point

By: Tom Carhart, Wesley K. Clark

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

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

The US forces in Vietnam were then at 200,000 and growing, 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 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 the war in Vietnam.

©2017 Tom Carhart (P)2017 Tantor

A fun part of West Point lore

This is a fun retelling of apart of West Point legend. There may be some embellishments but that is a part of stories like this. If you are interested in USMA history or just want to hear a great story you should check it out.

Phony and unrealistic

Would you try another book from Tom Carhart and Wesley K. Clark and/or Tom Perkins?

not sure

Has The Golden Fleece turned you off from other books in this genre?

NO.

Have you listened to any of Tom Perkins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

As a fellow West Point graduate, I know that this book is mostly fiction