The Varsity

Download or read book The Varsity written by Asbury Brown and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-21 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Varsity is a fictional story based on true accounts of America's youngest warriors during WW II. Today it is estimated that over 100,000 adolescents, 12 to 16, willingly forfeited the sweetness of their youth to combat the ruthless ambitions of Axis powers. The story's two main characters drop out of high school in 1941/42 during their sophomore year to enlist the Army and Marines.Leaving behind the end zones of Peninsula High. Entering the kill zones of Europe and the Pacific, the two best friends realize they are on a horrific express train with no stops. It is also when they face not only the terror of mortal combat but severe penalties should true ages be discovered. To meet these challenges, they adopt the core of a warrior's ethic: learning to soldier on. At war's end, the two best friends return to Point Loma, California and---still teenagers---re-enter high school to earn diplomas and take advantage of the GI Bill. Their travails are not over as new conflicts emerge from jealous seniors, a hostile PTA, and insensitive teachers. To avoid the banalities of senior year hi-jinx, the two GIs become co-captains of a perennially losing varsity squad and transform it into a championship contender. Varsity is more than just another war story of blood and valor as it explores: love beyond romance, touches upon shell shock---the precursor of PTSD---and asks if there are any core military values that have application in peacetime. It is a story that required a decade to meticulously research for historical fidelity and its fictional characters are amalgams of genuine underage veterans of the most lethal episode in human history. To gain perspective, the author interviewed nearly a hundred Veterans of Underage Military Service known as VUMS. For most VUMs, they held their secret until 1991 when amnesty was awarded by the US Department of Defense. As Tom Brokaw once said "...it is time their story is told."