With fewer than 4,000 graduates over 92 years, Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois educated more than ten general officers, a governor of Illinois, Thomas Hart Benton the artist, William Paley founder of CBS, Butch O’Hare World War II’s first Navy Ace and Medal of Honor winner for whom Chicago’s international airport is named and General Paul Tibbets who led the first B-17 bombing missions over German occupied Europe and as pilot of the B-29 Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan to help end World War II .

This book is more than about bricks and mortar or the success of Western Military Academy graduates. It is a story of how private military school education developed in America and the character of the men (and today, women) that education can develop.

For those wanting an insight into what it is like to go to a military school like Western Military Academy and what character it produces in its graduates, this book will give a look into that world