Harvard NROTC

sealion

10-Year Member
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Jun 9, 2006
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Another amazing Harvard NROTC gal!




MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (July 20, 2007) -- From Harvard to the Marine Corps and back, one student at the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program preparatory school is on her way to becoming an officer in the Corps.

Sgt. Talya C. Havice left Harvard University, Mass., after completing her first year with aspirations of becoming a United States Marine.

She realized that after 13 years of grade school, and a year of college, she really did not know what she wanted out of school.



“I found that I was there for the degree and not the experience,” said Havice, a native of Warren, Ohio.

Havice said her first image of the Marine Corps came shortly after the events occurring on and after Sept. 11. She enlisted with the intent of gaining a broader perspective of what she described as an “extremely professional group of elite warriors.”

Havice left Harvard with a five-year academic leave of absence allowing her to return to the University within that time without re-applying.

After her completion of recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., Havice attended the Defense Language institute in Monterrey, Calif., where she became fluent in the Chinese language.

Her tour in the Marine Corps eventually led her to Iraq where reality of her choices became evident.

“While I was in Iraq, I realized that everyone I went to Harvard with was graduating at the same time I was overseas,” said Havice. “Still, I have no regrets from the decision I made. I know things I have done would have never happened at Harvard or my small town in Ohio.”

Even though most of her peers were now moving on to jobs with six-figure salaries, Havice is confident in her choice. While serving in Iraq, she met a second lieutenant in her command who showed her exactly how much difference one officer could make. The lieutenant, along with a personal commitment she made to herself, led her to apply for the MECEP program.

“Sgt. Havice is a very intelligent and hard-working individual,” said Maj. Aaron P. Shelley, executive officer, MECEP preparatory school. “I have no doubt that she, along with everyone else in the program, have bright futures ahead of them.”

Shelley, a native of Fairfax, Va., said that in his three years at the school, this is the first time a student will continue pursuing an education at Harvard.

“Havice performs very well in the classroom environment and even helps tutor the other Marines who need assistance,” said Shelley.

Havice is scheduled to graduate from MECEP on Aug. 1. From there she will serve the Corps from the schoolhouse by gaining the knowledge she needs to receive her commission.

“I hope to stay in the intelligence field,” said Havice. “But as a junior officer, it is more about leading Marines then it is about from where you lead them.”
 
Anonymous Funding

The article I've linked below discusses the growing presence of ROTC on Harvard's campus.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/09/29/controversy_at_harvard/

The interesting twist in the article is that the reporter mistakenly id's the additional funding as coming from advocates for rotc. Advocates does not fund or fund raise.

The additional funding comes from a few anonymous alumni - most of whom have never served.
 
Harvard Memorial Church

We visited Harvard last weekend for parent's weekend. Amazing...that's about the best way I can describe it.

In the middle of Harvard Yard is Memorial Church which was dedicated on Armistice Day 1932 as a tribute to students, professors and alumni who died fighting World War I. The church is the site of many weddings so we stayed only briefly.

This is the inscription that borders the top of the walls:

While a bright future beckoned
they freely gave their lives and fondest hopes
for us and our
allies that we might learn from them courage
in peace to spend
our lives making a better world for others




It also has memorials inside for the Korean War:

TO THE ENDURING MEMORY OF
THE HARVARD MEN
WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES
IN THE KOREAN WAR


And for World War II:

IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN WORLD WAR II

And Vietnam:

TO THE ENDURING MEMORY OF
THE HARVARD MEN
WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES
IN THE VIETNAM WAR


It's kinda tough to read those inscriptions when you're standing next to a young man in NROTC who wants to serve.
 
The Few the Proud the (Harvard???) Marines

Advocatesforrotc.org has a great article discussing the presence of Marine veterans on Harvard's campus - especially the grad schools. Nate Fick -"One Bullet Away" - is highlighted as well as some other amazing people.

The article was reprinted with permission from Proceedings, U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland. So I have not provided a link to the article.

Captain Maura Sullivan -

To her surprise, “The entire class of 90 students stood
up and applauded,” Sullivan says. “I was so humbled by
that, I walked around and thought, this is the place I have
to go to school.”

To read the article you'll need to go to advocatesforrotc.org, then go to the Harvard Coverage tab, then click 2000-present, it's link is way at the bottom.
 
Harvard beats Yale!!

The final score 37-6 at Yale.

It's a huge rivalry and was played for the Ivy League Championship.:beer1:
And was the final game of the season.

Ya gotta celebrate when you can.
 
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Obliquely relevant

With New Book Out, Faust Shows Historical Side



And both Ayers and McPherson point to Faust’s fondness for bridge-building, both in the scholarly and administrative spheres.

“I know she hopes to be a kind of conciliator of all the different points of view and factions at Harvard, and that would clearly be related in some way to her role as an historian, in that she’s never been a strong partisan as a historian, and she’s always been open to interpretations that are not her own,” McPherson says.



http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=521510

Drew Faust is the new president of Harvard. She comes from University of Penn which has a great NROTC program - at least I really like it.

I've met her and she has fabulous communication skills. I hope her willingness to re-examine the experiences of soldiers in the Civil War translates to an amicable relationship with the ROTC representation at Harvard.

Maybe I'll email her and suggest that she be outrageously bold and brave.
 
^^^ Hey JAM, guess what?

Faust To Attend ROTC Event

From the Harvard Crimson

Published On Friday, April 18, 2008 1:41 AM

By ATHENA Y. JIANG

Crimson Staff Writer


University President Drew G. Faust will attend this year’s Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) commissioning ceremony during Commencement, continuing a new precedent set by her predecessor Lawrence H. Summers.

According to Harvard spokesman John D. Longbrake, Faust will be “part of the program,” although he did not say what her precise role would be. Summers spoke at the commissioning ceremony each year as Harvard president in an effort to show support for students participating in ROTC.

Harvard has had a fractious relationship with ROTC since its removal from campus in 1969 in the wake of strident anti-war protests. ROTC remains banished due to the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which Harvard considers discriminatory, and is not deemed an official Harvard organization.

Harvard students involved with ROTC conduct their exercises with a battalion at MIT.

Last year, neither Faust, who had not yet taken office, nor then-Interim President Derek C. Bok attended the ceremony. Their absence drew criticism from student groups at Harvard and from the Wall Street Journal.

A June 8, 2007 editorial in the Journal wrote that ROTC has been “mostly spurned by the school’s administration,” and that their “honor and service deserve better from their academic tutors.”

Longbrake said that Faust and Bok both had previous commitments that day and so could not attend the officer commissioning ceremony.

President of the Harvard Republican Club Caleb L. Weatherl ’10, whose group has campaigned for greater recognition of ROTC from the college, said that he commended Faust for her decision to participate in the ceremony.

“Her attendance this year, I believe, shows that it is important to her to honor the students who choose to serve in the military,” Weatherl said, adding that “we should all be grateful” to students in ROTC for their willingness to serve.

Although members of Harvard’s gay community have protested against a stronger ROTC campus presence in the past, Clayton W. Brooks III ’10 said that he interpreted Faust’s decision to attend the ceremony as keeping with the University’s anti-discrimination policy.

“We don’t feel that she is in any way supporting the policy of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’” said Brooks, administrative chair of the Harvard College Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Political Coalition.

But Brooks also expressed his desire for more sweeping changes in the relationship between the military and the gay community.

“We hope to one day see [Faust] speak at the ROTC commissioning service in which openly LGBT students can also participate,” he said.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523152


Drew Faust is very smart and an excellent communicator. I hope she speaks at the ROTC commissioning ceremony and I look forward to her remarks. Regardless, I think she will walk away inspired.
 
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