Since the 1860s, hundreds of thousands of school-aged Australians have undergone military and youth development training in various army cadet programs. This is the first book to tell the cadet story across both time and space in a single narrative, presenting a general history of the army cadet movement in Australia from 1866 to 2006.

Once a staple of American society, military schools are a dying breed, with fewer than thirty remaining. Historically, most military academies existed in the South and along the East Coast. However, Colonel Thomas A. Davis pushed this tradition westward when he founded the San Diego Army and Navy Academy in 1910. Davis pioneered a novel education and leadership training structure for young men that predated the Boy Scouts and JROTC Program. From this single institution sprang the Brown Military Academy, Davis Military Academy, San Diego Military Academy and more. Author Alexander Mui chronicles the endurance of this revered academy through countless trials, wars, economic depressions and the nationwide military school decline until it remained the last traditional military academy west of the Rocky Mountains.