John Valentine - 5/28/2012
Did literacy work in Clay County Kentucky in 1963 with the Appalachian Volunteers, an organization based at Berea College and one of the models for the VISTA program. Lived with families at the heads of hollows, and spent some time loading coal in the dog hole mines of Eastern Ky.
Drafted in 1964, and enlisted in Marine Corps OCS.Served with the 2nd Battalion, 1st. Marines in the Republic of Vietnam
in 1965-66, first as a Mortar Platoon Commander and then as an Rifle Platoon Commander. Our Battalion made amphibious raids off the coast of Vietnam for several months and then took over the TAOR around Phu Bai, near the former imperial capitol of Hue. Was wounded in a fire fight just south of the DMZ and med-evaced to the United States. Completed mymilitary obligation as Training Officer for the Marine Corps Counter Guerilla Warfare Center at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Saw Jack Downing for a minute in country. Not sure whether Dick Adams ever flew close air support for us. Made it to fellow Marine Mal Mixon's wedding, and was married by former Army Reservist, Mark Mullen. Have had some great visits over the years with roommate Dave Ruschhaupt, including one at Wright-Patterson Air Base while he was completing part of his medical residency as a Major in the Air Force.
Not keen on the All Voluntary Military for reasons of justice (the opportunity costs for most volunteers preclude them from being what Milton Freedman called "true volunteers") and utility (the cost of funding troop strenght in time of war, the stress of multiple tours, shortages of human capital, political maleability of the force, and the increased likelihood that an all volunteer force will be sent to war by our elected officials.)
The uncoupling of the obligations of citizenship from those of military service, does not bode well for the long term health of our civil society.
Ron Fichtner
I was the first officer, in 1963, commissioned on the USS Forrestall (then CVA-59). Then, was assigned to the USS Rigel (AF-58), a refrigerated supply ship ("reefer") out of Norfolk with the task of supporting the fleet, often while underway. Thereupon began the usual assortment of jr. officer assignments: admin. officer, asst, first lieutenant, gunnery officer, man overboard officer, helicopter landing officer, OD underway, etc. And standing watch.
Long voyages to the Med. to replenish the 6th Fleet, endless war games in the frigid North Atlantic, and supporting in 1965 the U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republican, called a "flap" by the then administration at a time when the Vietnam buildup was mounting. Memories of the tedium at sea: taking on all chess comers, getting to know fascinating shipmates from all walks of life, and trying to buy into the mantra that, "Everyday's a holiday; every meal's a banquet. "
Spared an assignment to 'Nam' as the family had grown, I quietly completed my four years active duty with 1 1/2 yrs as Regimental Officer at Bainbridge Naval Training Center, MD.
Those years not withstanding, my major contributions to national service occurred in public during 22 years at the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and thereafter. My advice to young men and women: there are many meaningful ways to serve, and it's important to do so.
John B. Gerald
I spent most of the Vietnam conflict trying to stop it. You would have as
well, I think,
after unloading the planes of wounded “kids,” your age, probably less
economically advantaged. The stance of McNamara's keynote speech at
graduation was a warning not to be an officer. I spent some years of
weekend a month reserve duty as a medic. With respect for the war's terrible
cost to Americans and Vietnamese I enclose an unpublished poem.
"a warning"
by john bart gerald
a generation's fighters are placed in the rice paddies to be killed
then found criminal for believing patriotic lies
the choice of enemy is arbitrary
in wars of aggression the enemy is inside
there are no thanks for serving forced labor of conscription
caught you for being innocent - the guilty never pay
twenty year old widows walk fancy streets with businessmen
survivors puzzled by hatred fight to live like mistakes
parents troubled their kids are still alive build prisons
vets stay close to their kids make peace with trees earth ocean
in wars of oppression there are no thanks for words that free
for honesty that costs too much
there are no thanks for ever except whom you can save
and the people who love without explaining
William Callanan
I served three and one half years with the U.S. Army Security Agency (ASA) from October 30,1962 to May 27, 1966.
After Basic Training, I spent a second eight weeks training as a Personnel Clerk at Fort Dix NJ.This was followed by two months at Fort Bragg NC. While in the Tarheel State, I witnessed first hand civil rights demonstrations (lunch counter sit-ins) in Raleigh. My New Englander's assumption of a basic belief in fair play and tolerance for all men, particularly in the military services, was shattered. I was dismayed at the open and blatant disdain for people of color expressed by otherwise rational people.
After nine weeks at Fort Bragg, I was reassigned to an ASA unit at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. My nine months in Florida were pleasant but totally boring. I consider it my sojourn in a "Land of the Lotus Eaters". In return for agreeing to a seven month extension of service, I spent six months immersed in German at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, followed by four months at Fort Meade Md. I drove across country and back in 1964 and saw the last vestiges of segregation before passage of the Civil Rights Act. I refer readers to my 25th Class Report. I was honored to have been able to sit next to Haywood Burns at our 25th Commencement in1987
I spent slightly more than one year in Berlin and took as much advantage as possible of its cultural opportunities. 1962 classmate Jay Nelson was a source of good humor and friendship. Harlan Noel was also in Berlin,but I was never able to meet up with him. Unfortunately, my tour was cut short by my stepfather's death.
Looking back, I can say that my service time was beneficial for me, given my spoiled and pampered background. I admire our classmtes who served in Vietnam.; but have disdain for McNamara and others who continued to pursue it.
I favor compulsory national service.
Warren Coulture
My initial assignment after graduation and commissioning was to Combat Information Officer Watch Officer School at Fleet Anti-Air Warfare Center at Point Loma in San Diego, after which I reported to the USS Fletcher (DD-445) home ported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. I was initially assigned as Gunnery Officer in the Weapons Department and, later, as First Lieutenant in charge of the Deck Division. We made two deployments to the Western Pacific and were involved in the 1963 Mercury capsule recovery operations north of Oahu.
Upon release from active duty in 1964, I continued to serve in the Naval Reserve in a variety of units and positions including CO of the USS Fuhrer (FFG-7) reserve crew and Group Commander at Youngstown, Ohio Reserve Center. During the last ten years of my career I served in the War Gaming Center support reserve unit at the Naval War College in Newport, RI as Training Department head and, later, as Executive Officer.
During my tour there, the War Gaming Center was awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation. I retired in 1991 as a Captain with a number of fellow officers aboard the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor. In my home community of Hollis, NH, I have served as Chairman of the Trustees of the town trust funds for most of the past thirty years and as the scoutmaster of the local Boy Scouts of America Troop 12 for twenty years.
I am very active in various veterans' organizations including Region 2 military outreach with the NH chapter of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), as a member of the board for the NH chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), member of the Veterans Count Club of NH, member of the Wardroom Club of Boston, and board member with the Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
K. J. Lee
I served as a Major in Fort Lewis, Tacoma, Washington from 1970 to 1972. I helped establish an otolaryngology-head and neck surgery residency which is thriving very well now at Madigan General Hospital, Fort Lewis.
Brian P. T. Blake
After graduation I joined the Air Force, obtained a 2nd lieutenant's commission, and was involved in building F-1 rocket engines for the Apollo moon-landing program. Honorably discharged on 25 Sept. 1965, just after the Tonkin Gulf Incident, I qualify as a Vietnam Vet and am a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Eighteen months later I went to Saigon as a civilian construction manager. Did some unofficial shooting during the Tet Offensive and survived, another story. Before leaving the States I obtained a letter from the "Boston Globe" certifying me as a war correspondent, which enabled me to travel around the country with Army, Air Force and Naval units in my free time.
You are welcome to quote this copyrighted material, with credit to me, as you wish. It is included in my forthcoming book, a biography of my great-grandfather, Under Brilliant Stars, The Adventurous Life of John Y.F. Blake, 1856-1907, "Liberty's Champion," Brother to Geronimo and Commander of the Irish Brigade in the Boer War, A Thread In History's Tapestry From The Stone Age To Modern Times.
Vietnam Mon Amour
After college your author spent a bit over three years as an Air Force lieutenant in the Mojave Desert at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and at Chicksands RAF Station in Bedfordshire, England. This was the height of the Cold War, and Vietnam was escalating. In 1966 I had left the Air Force, and a U.S. Navy general contractor made an irresistible offer to go to South Vietnam as a civilian construction engineer. From June 1966 through July 1968 I was with RMK-BRJ in Southeast Asia, building military bases and infrastructure. First station was Vietnam’s elegant capital city of Saigon, devastated by Ho Chi Minh’s Tet Offensive in January 1967. In April 1968 the company transferred me up the coast to Chu Lai, just south of Danang. We lived on a barge anchored to shore and had no social life, so I wrote home a lot. The following is from a letter that my parents kept.
“Chu Lai, 23 June 1968. It is Sunday. Last night there was a fierce attack on the “sand ramp” where the “LSTs” (Navy jargon for Landing Ship, Tank) tie up, the VC trying to score hits on the 2,000-pound bombs stacked there. Shells were falling all around our barge, helicopter gunships were blowing up floating mines, the Marine bunkers along the shore were cutting loose periodically with tracer fire.
“We staggered down to the bunker amid the “whomp” of a salvo of incoming shells, which I find this morning have holed and flooded an LST and torn a chunk out of the ramp. About half an hour later we went back to bed, but I’m sure I hadn’t been in the rack more than fifteen minutes before the siren sounded again. This time I just said the hell with it and pulled the pillow over my head – until a rocket round landed so close it knocked the alarm clock off my chair; and at that point, with the cadence – Whump! Whump! Whump! – starting again I crawled back to the bunker. Some of the construction people were standing at the back of the barge as I left, drinking beer and laughing like mad as each round came in. Most of the shots were landing in the water, sending up great pillars of spray in the light of the flares.
“ ‘Come on, Charlie!’ someone was saying, ‘get some of those Marines for us! Eat ’em up, you little bastards! Grr-r! Go get ’em!’ And all the time the chop-chop-chop of the M-60s (machine guns) …
“Another rocket came close enough to shake the barge, and the next sound you heard was the simultaneous clash of breeches slamming home as everyone aboard cocked his weapon. Reagen alone has an M-14, a .45 automatic, and a carbine. Norm Smith, on the deck below me, has two AK-47s, ‘one for each hand.’
“This afternoon I found my way to the Americal Division staff headquarters, and just spent the last three hours flying all over the northern First Corps area aboard a Huey helicopter gunship. We were taking a HQ staff major around to various sites, making short detours as required to deliver mail, booze, ammo, and intelligence reports. A few minutes west of Chu Lai we were in the mountains, some of the most beautiful, lush, green country in the world. We were never more than a few hundred feet high, and would swoop down to the Special Forces camps over glistening rice paddies, terraced like gardens on the hillsides, to red dirt hilltops surrounded by barbed wire, sandbags, trench lines cut into the perimeter. …Very quiet, the air fresh and clear with the jungle towering below.
“The major talks with a sergeant, M-16 on his shoulder, .45 on his hip, grenades festooning his flak jacket, ammo pouches on his belt. The gunners unload a few cases of Schlitz from the helicopter. Vietnamese Popular Forces stroll over ... In another minute we are again airborne, passing effortlessly over the old farmers, water buffalos, the girls with their water jars, and the thatched roofs of the villages swept by the barrels of our M-60s.
“Inspired by my success with the Americal Division, I have also visited the Marine Swift Boat Operations building and arranged to accompany a 24-hour patrol with one of their “finder-killer” squads next Sunday. The walls of the Squadron Headquarters are bedecked with Viet Cong battle flags and lacquered AK-47s bearing dates and legends, trophies mounted on plaques with such sayings as, ‘May 14, 1968 – the Success of our PSYOPS Program was once again measured in lead.’
“The Marine commander of the flotilla, a massive but infinitely likeable lieutenant by name of Wagner, promises me a crack at searching fishing boats for gun-running along the coast. There’s a good chance of an action, as the bombing pause has enabled Charlie to move so much stuff South that the waterways are literally clogged with suspicious junks, particularly after dark. ‘We put the spotlight on ’em and blow ’em right out of the water,’ says Wagner happily. He favors quad-.50s at fifty yards. ‘There’s nothing left to sink.’”
On leaving Vietnam, I sent my brothers, John and Tony, 'plane tickets to meet me at Shannon Airport in Ireland. We rented a car and toured the Emerald Isle for five weeks, staying in B&Bs with sly sips of poteen. All was good again.
Sherman Lewis
My service was not military, but to educate my students about how ideologically biased and ignorant leaders damaged our national security and caused enormous suffering. I did not give them conclusions or bias the facts, but tried to present enough facts they could decide. The problem was not the military below the colonel level, and I support ROTC--my dad was in naval ROTC at Harvard, but the politics of leaders afraid of voters even more ignorant than they are. Add ideology to the mix, and we're toast
We grew up in the 1950s. It’s hard to remember but back then we
really did, generally, trust our institutions. No longer. Colorful swear
words would go well here. What comes to mind is “Hell no; we won’t
go.” In my case, my government tried to kill me in a distant war the US
should not have been fighting in the first place.
We could not have imagined then how much our attitudes would
have change by now.
Back then, men went to war. Back in the sixties, the deferment
system was unfair, so it was changed to a lottery, and then the draft was
changed to a volunteer military. Equality, with no draft to resist, right?
Now, women are now going to war, and that is a kind of greater
equality. But ask ourselves—is it our daughters, our Harvard and
Radcliffe daughters, going to war? Is our social class, the one we were
born into or Harvard helped us rise into––is that upper middle and on up
social class now mostly insulated from those who are fighting and dying
in the name of our country? Conclusion: Even as we evolve towards
more fairness between the two major sexes, we still have this old issue
of social class combined with a questionable military policy. Did we
learn nothing from the Vietnam War?
Stuart Parsons
Spent a year as ASW officer on USS Hunt DD-674 out of Mayport, Med and Caribbean cruises, Cuban missile crisis, and another year on USS Tweedy DE-532, Pensacola. Great years.
Jack Downing
I signed up for the Marine Corps' Platoon Leaders Class (PLC) program before arriving at Harvard in the fall of '58 and a few years later accepted a regular commission out of Basic School. I was assigned to K Comp;any, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, with the 1st Marine Brigade at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
In late 1964, I went to Vietnam on an OJT assignment, serving with a Special Forces Team at a place called Gia Vuc. It was there that I learned that my classmate and good friend Jim Dunton, an army lieutenant, had just been killed in action while serving as an advisor with a South Vietnamese unit. I returned to Hawaii from my OJT tour and rejoined my unit just in time for us to ship out for Vietnam in March 1965. We were one of the first U.S. ground units units to be committed to Vietnam.
For the next 13 months I served in India Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. In May 1966 I left Vietnam and was assigned to Marine Corps Schools, Quantico Virginia, at first training officer candidates and later serving at Command and Staff College. I left the Marine Corps in the fall of 1967 and immediately started working for the CIA. I retired in 1999 as Deputy Director of the CIA for Operations and then spent a few years as a consultant to Congress on intelligence and defense matters.
In short, virtually all of my professional life was spent in "military/national service." For this I have no regrets. I recognize that, in contrast to previous wars, relatively few of our classmates served in the military and fewer still saw combat. To me such service was an obligation and a privilege
Ted Amazeen
Would like to offer one observation, not necessarily flattering to those who view Harvard College as the gold standard among American higher education schools. My wife and I are of the opinion that the Naval Academy and, by extension, West Point attract the “best and the brightest” young men and women, year in and year out, from all corners of our nation.
Consider this, please; the overwhelming majority of underclassmen at either of those two military schools would prosper on any Ivy League campus and excel in any Ivy League classroom; at best, only a handful of students attending Harvard, Yale, Princeton, et. al., would even be considered for admission to Annapolis or West Point. The point, simply, is that while we can be thankful we had an opportunity to attend a universally respected college, we should not be lured into thinking Harvard is the “be-all-and-end-all” of higher education. The mission of the military schools requires finding and training bright, disciplined individuals whose value system holds honor, team and nation above self; that is the difference, in my mind, anyway, and elevates those young men and women a notch or two above the rest.
Philip C. Stevens
First ship an LST but within a year I qualified for OOD underway (fleet steaming), and appointment as dept head for operations a bit later. Had a good skipper who let me do a lot of ship handling. Biggest thrill on departure from Norfolk when Captain said, "Ok Phil, take her out."
Second ship, a DL was much more difficult but the ship twice circumnavigated the South American continent for emjoyable liberty. Anne followed the ship around for the first deployment. Still have occasional dreams of being back in the Navy but there is always a flail of some sort.
Michael Hornblow
Entering the Army as a private about a month after graduation was a valuable and humbling experience. I was in the Army Security Agency and our job was to listen into Soviet Communications and keep track of all their radios and teletypes. I was in the Army for three years two of which were near Kassel, West Germany and it helped prepare me for an eventual career in the Foreign Service and I learned many valuable lessons and made real friendships.
Now almost 50 years later so much has changed in the military, so much now has been contracted out including KP. Our military, now men and women, our certainly smarter, more high tech and more lethal than in my generation. As we look to the future it appears emphasis will be on unconventional warfare for the Army, and a stronger role for the Navy and Air Force.
Mal Mixon - 5/27/2012
I volunteered for ROTC, and could not imagine a life without serving my Country. Upon graduation, I was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. After attending Basic School in Quantico, Virginia and Artillery School at Ft Sill, Oklahoma, I was assigned to the First Marine Brigade in Kaneohe,Hawaii. After staging in Okinawa, I landed in Chu Lai, Vietnam with the Brigade being the first combat unit(not counting advisors) to do so, in May 1965 and flew 80-100 missions as an Aerial Observer(A.O.), directing air strikes and artillery fire from the air. The rest of the time, I ran a Fire Direction Center shooting various artillery, guns and mortars. Like Dick Adams, we took a few bullet holes from ground fire, including one that separated the radio cord from my helmet. But nothing was as frightening as a flight I took with fellow classmate and close fraternity brother Dick Adams. On what I thought would be a routine flight from Chu Lai to Danang for a couple of days off, I crawled in the belly of Dick's chopper. In route we ran into a horrible lighting storm, and the other chopper pilot got vertigo and we almost had a midair collision. The chopper was shaking violently from the storm. If we did not die in a crash, I could only imagine becoming a prisoner tortured by the VC. I looked up and could see Dick's legs shaking. Somehow we made it to Danang and within minutes were celebrating our being alive in a Vietnamese officer's club. In retrospect, I think the most important thing I got out of the Vietnamese experience was my ass. I will forever miss my fellow fraternity brother and classmate, Jim Dutton, who was an early Nam casualty. I believe the responsibility to serve rests with every American, and am so thankful for those who went before me
Frank Ward
I was on active duty in the US Navy from 1965 to 1971. I served on the USS Hornet, CVS 12, out of Long Beach, California, and with Destroyer Squadron 7 out of San Diego. In my brief time in the Tonkin Gulf in 1969, I was on the USS Biddle homeported in Norfolk. We were at the search and rescue and early warning station off of Vinh, North Vietnam. My final two years were at the Washington Navy Yard.
However,my wife and her first husband both really sacrificed for their country. He was a Marine Lt. who lost one leg and had another leg mangled in Vietnam. After two years of her nursing him back to the point where he could go to graduate school, he developed lymphoma, probably due to agent orange exposure; and passed away January 1, 1972. She remained a widow until our marriage in 2011.
It still bothers me a great deal that we abandoned the South Vietnam people, especially since they were putting up a stiff
fight with only their own troops; until Congress cut off military funding. Also, the more than fifty thousand Americans died in vain.
John Larkin
I served in the Navy between 1963 and 1966. To start, I attended OCS in Newport, graduating on the day of JFK's assassination. Then I spent three years on an LST out of Norfolk, Virginia. Fortunately, my tour with the Navy never took me beyond the Caribbean, and I left active duty in November, 1966. While I knew from the beginning that a military life was not for me, those three years provided a valuable experience: new kinds of responsibility, exposure to a world outside of school, and time out to rethink what I wanted to do next. Of course, I was one of the lucky ones that didn't get sent to Viet Nam.
I definitely believe in the idea of some kind of national service, but I don't know that it should be compulsory. A better idea, from my perspective, would be to provide some powerful incentives such as forgiveness of student loans, full support for study after completion of national service on the model of the GI Bill, or some similar program that enables participants to pursue whatever goals they might have when they complete their service. For anything like that, I suppose we will have to wait for a less stingy Congress with a better imagination of what kind of country we could have with just a little bit of generosity and concern for one another.
Richard McCarthy
I served in Underwater Demolition Team 21 in Little Creek Va. Tom Gaston, also a '62 classmate, served in the Team as well. UDT 21 became part of Seal Team 2 sometime after my discharge. I value my time in the Navy. It is unfortunate that military service today does not appeal to a broader segment of the younger population. If we rely exclusively on a professional military class, the result will be a gap between those who serve and those who are served and one group will not know or understand the other.
Willard Rice
I was in Navy ROTC - so my next step out of Harvard was almost immediate - onto a ship - the USS Kenneth D Bailey DDR 713 based in Mayport Florida. During the next 2 years relatively little time was spent there because our ship was on rotation to the 6th Fleet in the Med or to "GITMO" most of the time. The shared experienced I had with shipmates produced my strongest life-long friendships. The responsibilities I ( any of us) had as officer on a fleet destroyer were intense and much greater than anything I encountered out in the "civilian" world ---- certainly more than what any first civilian job entailed. I don't think people who did not go into the military have any concept of that.
Participating in NROTC at Harvard was a choice that I am glad that I had. It introduced me to responsibilities & experiences that had great positive influence on my future. The Navy experience was as important to my education, my character and life as was Harvard. It pained me that Harvard College subsequently and hypocritically (while cumulatively taking in hundreds of millions of Federal dollars) prevented students from having the same choice of participating or not in ROTC that I had. That is why I joined the board of the "Advocates for ROTC at Harvard". We know that times have changed and there isn't need or desire for actual ROTC facilities at Harvard - that's OK. We just want those students who participate in off-campus ROTC (at MIT) not to be 2nd class citizens anymore. Though there has been a little progress, more is needed.
Jay Norwalk - 5/30/2012
I received commission as 2nd LT in USAFR at graduation June 1962. 4 months later I entered AF Pilot Training at Reese AFB, Lubbock TX. 13 months later I was among the half of the starting class who made it through to graduation. I believe there were 32 of us who graduated. Amazingly 15 are already dead. 1 was murdered. 12 were natural causes. Only 2 died in combat in Nam, if I recall. At least 90% of my class went to SAC, in either bombers or tankers. After bomb, missile, advanced flying, and survival training I was assigned as a co-pilot in in nuclear B-52 G aircraft, stationed in 396th Bomb Sqdn, 397 Bomb Wing, Dow AFB, Bangor, Maine. A part of the year we flew with Hydrogen Bombs as part of the Cold War deterrent defense. Being stationed in the NE, I flew nuclear missions to the north pole, and also out over the Med, almost to Israel. I spent 5 years on active duty, then got out. I then attended HBS, receiving MBA in 1970. If there is a war, I think one should serve, though it is hard when you disagree with the War, as I did with Viet Nam. I disagreed much more strongly with the current Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reasons for these 2 elective wars were give to us untruthfully by the govt. Apart from that, modern wars inevitably cause the deaths of ten times more civilians in the countries where they are fought, than combatants. We should not be imposing this level of pain on foreign countries, in order to pursue primarily our own ends. Even if there had been Al Quaida in Iraq, it was not remotely worth causing the deaths of 100,000 plus. Here we only hear about our own dead and wounded, which is tragic enough. We hear very little about the Afghans and Iraqi civilians who die. I also think the idea of a "professional" military is flawed. These fighting men have a grossly disproportionate burden in almost every way. The average American knows nothing about their lives or these wars. If America is going to go to War, than the burden must be shared by the citizens. That is the responsibility of Democracy. Then Americans will better understand the cost of war, and its reality. Jay F Norwalk, former Captain USAFR
Jay Norwalk
Harv BA 62
Harv MBA 70
Live Newcastle, ME
Bill Schwartz
When I was a senior in high school and looking at colleges my father told me the following: he had six children to educate and that if I wanted to go to any college other than the local state university I would have to pay for it myself. He further told me he wouldn't fill out financial aid applications because we wouldn't qualify. Thus I faced the task, at age seventeen, of finding a way to pay for Harvard on my own. I discovered the NROTC Scholarship plan, won the scholarship, and thereby met my father's requirement and my preferences. I am extremely grateful to the Navy (and the U.S. taxpayers) for affording me this possibility.
I was a Naval Flight Officer principally stationed at Patrol Squadron Forty Four based in Patuxent River, Maryland, with deployments/missions to Newfoundland, Bermuda, Greenland, the Azores, and other locations. We flew the P3A and were the second squadron in the Navy to receive the aircraft. I developed lifelong friendships with my fellow officers and matured a great deal during the four years I served; I am very proud of having been an officer in the U.S. Navy.
(If anyone is interested, the classic New York Times front-page photo of a Navy patrol plane flying over the Russian ship taking the first missiles out of Cuba during the Missile Crisis was my squadron.)
For many of us who attended Harvard, because of our occupational choices, we have limited contact with people who come from less-than-advantaged backgrounds. I value greatly the experience of being in the Navy and being exposed, in significant measure, to persons who fall outside a Harvard frame of reference.
Thanks, John, for asking for responses on this aspect of our lives. Unfortunately I will not be at the Reunion but wish my classmates, particularly those who served in the Armed Forces, every success and happiness.
Bill Schwartz
AB '62 Harvard College
When I was a senior in high school and looking at colleges my father told me the following: he had six children to educate and that if I wanted to go to any college other than the local state university I would have to pay for it myself. He further told me he wouldn't fill out financial aid applications because we wouldn't qualify. Thus I faced the task, at age seventeen, of finding a way to pay for Harvard on my own. I discovered the NROTC Scholarship plan, won the scholarship, and thereby met my father's requirement and my preferences. I am extremely grateful to the Navy (and the U.S. taxpayers) for affording me this possibility.
I was a Naval Flight Officer principally stationed at Patrol Squadron Forty Four based in Patuxent River, Maryland, with deployments/missions to Newfoundland, Bermuda, Greenland, the Azores, and other locations. We flew the P3A and were the second squadron in the Navy to receive the aircraft. I developed lifelong friendships with my fellow officers and matured a great deal during the four years I served; I am very proud of having been an officer in the U.S. Navy.
(If anyone is interested, the classic New York Times front-page photo of a Navy patrol plane flying over the Russian ship taking the first missiles out of Cuba during the Missile Crisis was my squadron.)
For many of us who attended Harvard, because of our occupational choices, we have limited contact with people who come from less-than-advantaged backgrounds. I value greatly the experience of being in the Navy and being exposed, in significant measure, to persons who fall outside a Harvard frame of reference.
Thanks, John, for asking for responses on this aspect of our lives. Unfortunately I will not be at the Reunion but wish my classmates, particularly those who served in the Armed Forces, every success and happiness.
Bill Schwartz
AB '62 Harvard College
Harvard Class of '62
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