The Lords of Discipline, by Pat Conroy

 Great book! Yes, I'm military. Yes, I like military books. This is different. This is about a horrible school that people to choose to attend, and then are proud of attending. I had a boss who was so Citadel he installed an image of it above the door to his office and he tapped it (with his ring, of course). He was so Citadel that the Air Force wasn't tough enough for him so he left the Air Force and went Army!

For those not in the know, the Citadel is one of six Senior Military Colleges in America. These are not the service academies. These are colleges with special status in U.S. legal code. In order to be a SMC, the school must have a Corps of Cadets. This is different from ROTC. Every student in the Corps of Cadets are required to wear military uniform, be physically fit, and be subject to military discipline. Additionally, cadets at SMC do not have to commission into the service upon completion of their four years. Finally, unlike other ROTC programs throughout the U.S., if there is a full or total mobilization of forces, the services are prohibited from closing or reducing personnel at SMCs. Second finally, all graduates of a SMC who desire a commission are guaranteed an active duty commission. 

That's a big deal. There are folks out there who went through four years of ROTC at another school and at the end of their academic career, turns out the services were full, so these cadets couldn't get a commission or were pushed to the Reserves or Guard. 

For those interested, the six SMCs in the U.S. are: University of North Georgia; Norwich University; Texas A&M; The Citadel; Virginia Military Institute; and Virginia Tech. 

And there is The Citadel. In The Lords of Discipline, "the Institute" is The Citadel. I read through this book not knowing it was a true story. Until I got to the end (a particular line by the narrator) and read the author's speech to the graduating class of 2001 from The Citadel. 

I don't want to provide you any spoilers. It's just too good of a book. If you haven't seen the movie, good. It won't reveal anything. If you have, and it's been a while, you're still good. Frankly, all I could remember from the movie were the actors who played three of the characters. And a tiny bit of the story. So the book was still very suspenseful. I will read more from this author, probably The Great Santini next. 

Next up, watching the movie.