Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer Term Paper

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Eagle: Sam Damon

Sam Damon may be the protagonist of "Once an Eagle" but you need to remind yourself of this fact when you notice how often this man is talked about and discussed in military training units. There is something so universal about Sam Damon's character, his values, his leadership and the principles he hold dear that we almost forget that he is after all a fictional character. Why has be become everyone's hero, you might wonder? But the answer doesn't exist in the book but it lies within our conscience. Don't we all admire a person who has some values and sticks to them regardless of his personal needs and fears. Isn't there something simply 'great' about a man who believes that "...if it comes to a choice between being a good soldier and a good human being -- try to be a good human being." (p. 998)

Sam Damon is every sane person's hero. He is the man you would want to become or at least look up to as a role model. But Damon is not an inspiration for the people serving in the Army but instead he is a source of real inspiration and encouragement for every person who truly wants to be a leader. In Damon's character, we find the moral compass that we would want to keep close to us in case we ever find ourselves at moral crossroads and have no idea which way to go. Damon's principles are universal in nature.

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He believes in what is right and isn't afraid to stick with his principles no matter what others think of him or his ideals.

A who is going to debate niceties of design, degrees of ferocity then? Flame-throwers, napalm, phosphorous, crossbows, poisoned stakes, shumies -- don't expect men caught in the desperate straits of war, crushed with a thousand hellish decisions, to resort to Marquess of Queensberry tactics then." (787)

Damon understands the most important fact of life that many of us either miss or totally ignore it. He may not be the writer of his destiny but he certainly holds the power to direct his life on the right path. This is what Myrer wants to tell us about Sam Damon early in the novel when he presents a quote by Aeschylus: "So in the Libyan Fable it is told that once an eagle, stricken with a dart, said when he saw the fashion of the shaft, with our own feathers, not by others' hands are we now smitten." (p.2)

Damon is not the officer you would expect especially without political connections or sophisticated upper-class upbringing. But it is his humble roots that have instilled true moral and ethical values in him and have made him a real man and a soldier everyone respects. His career is overshadowed by an antithesis of himself, Courtney Massengale. Massengale is the kind of person….....

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