THE CITATION

Thomas Reed has spent his life in the shadow of Major General William Reed, whose citation for the battle of Qayyarah is taught at the academy. When Sergeant Elias Vance, one of the last survivors of the ambush, reaches out from a hospice bed, Thomas learns that the official account was fabricated in forty eight hours by an Army desperate to turn a catastrophe into a hero. The honor code that has defined Thomas's life now demands he report a truth that will destroy his father, his family, and the mythology of the unit he is weeks away from commissioning into.