In 1969 when ROTC was banned on the Harvard Campus I was a junior faculty member at MIT and located in what was Building 20, the old "Rad Lab" building, a wooden structure which housed the MIT ROTC groups. Many a night as I worked, with threats of bombing the building by the SDS, I just paid little if any attention. I was from New York and these SDS ers were pikers. There were a few close calls.
In writing my book on the USS Albert W Grant I had the opportunity to access the records of Hunt Hamill, a classmate and team mate of JFK, class 1940 at Harvard, and the XO on the ship. Hamill was a member of the 1940 Harvard NROTC class and they are shown below.
This a fine group of Harvard men, but as you read the NY Times today you see there is less than a handful today. Hamill and his classmates were the heroes of WW II, patriots, who worked together and dies together to defend democracy. The current men are in many ways as much if not more than these men since they have to travel miles to get their training.
The Times states:
In writing my book on the USS Albert W Grant I had the opportunity to access the records of Hunt Hamill, a classmate and team mate of JFK, class 1940 at Harvard, and the XO on the ship. Hamill was a member of the 1940 Harvard NROTC class and they are shown below.
This a fine group of Harvard men, but as you read the NY Times today you see there is less than a handful today. Hamill and his classmates were the heroes of WW II, patriots, who worked together and dies together to defend democracy. The current men are in many ways as much if not more than these men since they have to travel miles to get their training.
The Times states:
"R.O.T.C. students at Harvard and Yale are not the only ones campus-hopping. Harvard is one of eight colleges served by M.I.T., the Army R.O.T.C. host school. Five of these satellite colleges — Wellesley, Tufts, Gordon, Endicott and Salem State — have arranged for transportation for their cadets to get to M.I.T. Several colleges in the consortium have the R.O.T.C. staff travel to their campuses to conduct military classes and physical training, making it easier on their students.
Harvard, with its campus ban, does neither.
One of the featured speakers at the 2009 Harvard commissioning ceremony, Darnell Whitt II, a retired naval captain, noted that the year he graduated from Harvard — 1959 — 121 seniors were commissioned as officers. He told the R.O.T.C. students that he was sorry their numbers were so few and that he hoped that by the time they returned for their 50th reunion, “the current issues about military matters at Harvard will have been resolved and there will be a closer connection between the great university and those in uniform.”"
The article continues:
"President Faust of Harvard, a historian, says that as much as she admires the military — and during her June commissioning speech, she went out of her way to mention an interest she and General Petraeus shared in Ulysses S. Grant — she cannot have a student group on campus that is closed to one part of the student body. The student handbook says that the federal law is “inconsistent with Harvard’s values as stated in its policy on discrimination.”"
This is a bit of a stretch since the ban was in 1969 when the issues of homosexuals in the military was not even an issue. The military truly requires men and women from the non-Academy world to come to their ranks and make a truly integrated service. President Faust should come to see the merit of military training and participation since it is by the inclusion of men and women from Harvard that the military will actually evolve with society. The impact on the Navy due to the NROTC men in WW II was tremendous. Admiral Nimitz himself was the NROTC head at Berkeley before going to Washington!
I am reminded of the story by Hamill regarding a call from Gov Saltonstall when he was Cadet Commander of the NROTC at Harvard when there was a revolt against the Communists on Campus. Some students had requested that the NROTC take action and subdue the Communists by force. Saltonstoll told Hamill that if any harm befell the Communists that he would take no action. Hamill prudently let the matter cool down. The details are in the clipping below. It is worth a read. The men of the ROTC were true patriots. Perhaps President Faust could also give it a read as well.
The article continues:
"President Faust of Harvard, a historian, says that as much as she admires the military — and during her June commissioning speech, she went out of her way to mention an interest she and General Petraeus shared in Ulysses S. Grant — she cannot have a student group on campus that is closed to one part of the student body. The student handbook says that the federal law is “inconsistent with Harvard’s values as stated in its policy on discrimination.”"
This is a bit of a stretch since the ban was in 1969 when the issues of homosexuals in the military was not even an issue. The military truly requires men and women from the non-Academy world to come to their ranks and make a truly integrated service. President Faust should come to see the merit of military training and participation since it is by the inclusion of men and women from Harvard that the military will actually evolve with society. The impact on the Navy due to the NROTC men in WW II was tremendous. Admiral Nimitz himself was the NROTC head at Berkeley before going to Washington!
I am reminded of the story by Hamill regarding a call from Gov Saltonstall when he was Cadet Commander of the NROTC at Harvard when there was a revolt against the Communists on Campus. Some students had requested that the NROTC take action and subdue the Communists by force. Saltonstoll told Hamill that if any harm befell the Communists that he would take no action. Hamill prudently let the matter cool down. The details are in the clipping below. It is worth a read. The men of the ROTC were true patriots. Perhaps President Faust could also give it a read as well.
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