A humorous, fictionalized coming-of-age story of a brainy, awkward boy with a touch of OCD. Growing up in the ’fifties and ’sixties, Arty dreams of becoming a cadet, inspired by The West Point Story on TV. A quiet, shy kid from a working-class family in a small Kansas town, Arty lacking belief in himself ultimately gives up on his childhood fantasy.  

His father, however, remembers. A postal clerk who trained as an Army Air Corps pilot in WWII, Arty’s dad latches onto his son’s childhood dream. This Arty discovers with dismay at age 17, when his father shockingly buys a brand-new, sky-blue, 1966 Ford Custom four-door sedan—with the intention of driving his son to West Point in style.

This act unleashes a series of slap-stick adventures as our hero struggles to check off all the necessary requirements to gain admittance to an elite military academy— by “building a resume” including to letter in a sport despite a glaring lack of athletic ability. Arty never nabs an appointment to West Point, the oldest U.S. military academy, but by some lucky breaks and his own perseverance he earns an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy, the newest…