"Lieutenant, Your Cap's on Backward!"

About the

2008 Illustrated and Updated Edition of

LIEUTENANT, YOUR CAP'S ON BACKWARD!

     A warm story indeed. In a pleasant narrative based upon the author’s two years of active duty as an Army JAG in Germany during the early years of the Cold War, he takes us through his experiences reviving both the profound danger of that age coupled with his own innocence and youth. What is so striking to the reader is the degree of detail that the author provides about his experiences, which are, by now, fifty years old. Many of the stories, such as learning the ropes from salty senior enlisted men and from senior officers, will be familiar to all new officers.    
     Yet the tale is about much more than First Lieutenant Thomason’s time in the Army. The book is a glimpse into a different era and what it was like to be on the "front lines" of the Cold War.                            

     For many, the Cold War was a fight of superpowers poised on the brink of an inevitable war. Sooner or later, one side would make the first move and the world would go up in a mushroom cloud. While history books often teach the dark and dreary side of the Cold War, there was still a lot to laugh about; a lot in which to believe and cherish. Lieutenant, Your Cap’s On Backward! A Warm Story of the Cold War, now available throughany bookstore, on-line, or directly from the author is the powerful and poignant story of one young Army officer and his experiences as a trial lawyer in Germany.

     From 1953 to 1955, author John J. Thomason served in the Army’s VII Corps headquarters Judge Advocate section in Germany. During this time he collected letters, photographs, trial transcripts and memorabilia, to which he has added recollections and research, to create Lieutenant, Your Cap’s On Backward. Living in and learning about post-World War II Europe, Thomason participated in 168 general courts martial, observed important international events, and formulated insights as to how the world operated. He also met a young lady from Bakersfield, California on an exchange scholarship in Stockholm, Sweden, a story in itself.

     Insightful and reflective, Lieutenant, Your Cap’s on Backward brings history to life. This personal narrative reveals a life that was about more than war and trials; it is a book about romance, growing up and living in a new world.  The book was originally published in 2002.  This new edition contains apparently lost, but newly discovered, photographs of people, places and things central to the story and is updated to 2008.

     John J. Thomason spent 50 years as a trial lawyer, first in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and later in criminal and civil practice. In November 2002 he received the highest honor given by the Memphis Bar Association: "The Lawyer’s Lawyer award." After concluding his distinguished career, Thomason decided to write the story of the most significant three-year period of his life. During his time in Germany, Thomason thought he was "transformed from a happy-go-lucky law school graduate with no military training into an effective trial lawyer and competent Army officer."

     This book contains everything from accounts of once-classified trials to anecdotes involving a US senator, Major General James M. Gavin, Medal of Honor winner Ed Kelley, and a host of other fascinating Germans and Americans who shaped the author’s life.

     Although Lieutenant, Your Cap’s on Backward is Thomason’s first book, 2008 will see the publication of another, Bluff City Barristers, a photographic history of the Memphis, Tennessee legal community.   He was also previously published in the Tennessee Law Review, Docket Call, The Bulletin of the American College of Physicians, The Willamette Law Journal, Medical Economics, West Virginia State Bar News, New York State Bar Journal and For the Defense.

     To order a copy of the book diredctly from the author or to obtain an autographed copy, send twenty dollars (book cost, packaging and postage) and your instructions to John Thomason, 794 Harbor Crest Drive, Memphis, Tennessee, 38103.

     Thomason’s book, ISBN: 978-0-557-02523-7 may also be ordered through any bookstore or from an Internet book vendor.

      Thomason’s e-mail address is JJT794@comcast.net.  His telephone number is 901-525-7138 or 501-825-7255.   A copy of the back cover appears below.