View source for Coventry Military Academy

{{InfoBoxAcademicInstitute
| name             = Coventry Military Academy
| image            = Coventry Military Academy logo.png
| imagewidth       = 200 px
| caption          = Logo of the Coventry Military Academy
| type             = Academy
| Previous Names   = Coventry Academy<ref name="HS(TLC)p125"/>
| Location         = [[Coventry]]
| Founded          = Star League era<ref name=FRLCAF5>''Field Report 2765: LCAF'', p. 5</ref>
| MilCourse01      = [[BattleMech]]
| MilCourse01Dates = By 2750<ref name=FRLCAF5/>
| MilCourse02      = Technician
| MilCourse02Dates = ca. [[3079]] onwards<ref name="O:LAp17">''Objectives: Lyran Alliance'', p. 17: "Coventry"</ref>
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==Overview==
The '''Coventry Military Academy''', formerly known as the Coventry Academy, was a military academy based on Coventry. Located on Dunnigan near the city of Port Lawrence,<ref name="HB:HSp80">''Handbook: House Steiner'', p. 80: "Coventry"</ref> the Coventry Academy was very close to the [[Coventry Metal Works]] plant.<ref name="HS(TLC)p125">''House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)'', p. 125: "The Coventry Academy"</ref>

==History==
===Succession Wars===
During the [[Star League era]] and [[Succession Wars (History)|Succession Wars]], the Coventry Academy was a small school that only provided training for [[MechWarrior (pilot)|MechWarriors]]. Given the Academy's location near the Coventry Metal Works plant, many of the professors teaching at the Academy also worked at the plant.<ref name="HS(TLC)p125"/> [[Aaron DeChavilier]] criticized the school's close ties to CMW in [[Field Report 2765: LCAF|a report on LCAF readiness]], calling it a glorified cadre for the manufacturer and saying its graduates often needed additional training on equipment made by other manufacturers.<ref name=FRLCAF5/> In [[3025]] the senior officer at the Academy was [[Leutnant-General]] [[Robert McGregory]].<ref name="HS(TLC)p125"/>

===Clan Invasion and Later===
Prior to their surrender, large parts of the Coventry Academy were razed by the cadets and instructors in [[3058]] as a part of their active defense against [[Clan Jade Falcon]].<ref name="HB:HSp109"/><ref name="FM:LAp39">''Field Manual: Lyran Alliance'', p. 39: "Coventry Military Academy (CMA)"</ref> If not for the actions of the cadets and their instructors, the damage taken by Coventry during the Jade Falcon incursion would have been far more severe; the instructors and students fought a bitter engagement against the Jade Falcons within the grounds of the academy itself, and the defenders were taken as bondsmen by the Jade Falcons, although they were subsequently released when the Jade Falcons left the planet.<ref name=TBOC16>''The Battle of Coventry'', p. 16: "Situation"</ref><ref name="FM:LAp39"/>

The [[Lyran Alliance]] began to rebuild the Coventry Academy as the '''Coventry Military Academy''' (CMA) in [[3060]], pouring monumental amounts of funding into the rebuilding work<ref name="HB:HSp109"/> at the personal direction of [[Archon]] [[Katherine Steiner-Davion]] while the surviving cadets were either transferred to active service or relocated to the [[Nagelring]] to finish their education.<ref name="FM:LAp39"/> When the CMA reopened in [[3060]] it had expanded its facilities considerably over the old Coventry Academy, with cadets now able to train on cutting-edge [[BattleMech]] designs and study in an environment that had state of the art equipment.<ref name="HB:HSp109">''Handbook: House Steiner'', p. 109: "Coventry Military Academy (CMA)"</ref> The first class graduated from the new facility in [[3063]].<ref name="FM:LAp39"/> The CMA was the first Academy in the Lyran Alliance to ensure that all of its cadets were trained to operate [[OmniMech]]s, something that it was able to do after being issued with almost a full [[battalion]] of training 'Mechs including sizeable numbers of [[Firestarter (OmniMech)|FS9-O 'Firestarter'']]s and ''[[Hauptmann (OmniMech)|Hauptmann]]''s.<ref name="FM:LAp39"/>

Training at the CMA was disrupted by the [[FedCom Civil War]], and even as late as [[3067]] training was only just returning to normal. Even after training returned to normal the campus was still scarred by the aftereffects of the war; one of the most notable signs of lingering issues from the war was the appointment of Leutnant-General [[Marko Rafaello]] as commander of the academy; Rafaello was personally approved by planetary Duke [[Thomas Bradford]] because of Rafaello's support for [[Victor Steiner-Davion]], with Bradford deliberately replacing Leutnant-General [[Billie Piper]] - a supporter of [[Katherine Steiner-Davion]] noted for causing tension through her views even before the war broke out<ref name="HB:HSp109"/> and who had been commanding the academy since at least [[3062]].<ref name="FM:LAp39"/>

After the Jade Falcon incursion new cadets at the Academy were deliberately taught about the heroic exploits of their predecessors; a sense of accomplishment, determination and history soon came to pervade the Academy and recruitment increased sharply, beyond the teaching capacity of the Academy, but the years between the rebuilding of the Academy and the end of Leutnant-General Piper's tenure were marked by internal tension as Duke Bradford deliberately worked to undermine the Archon's influence at the Academy and see the cadets trained as freethinking individuals rather than robots.<ref name="FM:LAp39"/>

===The Jihad===
The Academy survived the [[Jihad]], operating underground during the years in which the [[Word of Blake]] occupied Coventry,<ref name="O:LAp4">''Objectives: Lyran Alliance'', p. 4: "Strategic Integrity"</ref> and once liberated the Academy expanded its training curriculum in cooperation with Coventry Metal Works, which was itself in need of experienced workers. As a result, many of the senior students at the Academy would intern at the CMW plant for months at a time as a part of their education.<ref name="O:LAp17"/> The Academy didn't escape the Jihad unscathed, however; the CMA was still trying to rebuild in [[3085]], and while it was at least still operational as a training institute the class sizes were small.<ref name="FM:3085p97">''Field Manual: 3085'', p. 97: "Martial Training Centers"</ref>

===Alumni===
* [[Salome Ward]] graduated from CMA in [[3013]].<ref>''The Kell Hounds'', p. 18</ref>
* [[Ronan Carlyle]] was part of CMA's Class of [[3148]].<ref>''Tamar Rising'', p. 95</ref>

==Notes==
* The [[school rag|school sash]] - or "rag," as such sashes were commonly known - was brown in color.<ref name="HB:HSp109"/>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[The Battle of Coventry (scenario pack)]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: Lyran Alliance]]''
* ''[[Field Report 2765: LCAF]]''
* ''[[Handbook: House Steiner]]''
* ''[[House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)]]''
* ''[[Objectives: Lyran Alliance]]''

[[Category:Military Academies|Coventry Military Academy]]