His grey-blue eyes peering over a desk of intricately organized military paraphernalia and family photos, Colonel Scott Manning lightheartedly works to convince us to join Yale’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). A career fighter pilot with two master’s degrees and a combat veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Manning has chosen to be at Yale, on the frontline of military education.
As the commander of the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (AFROTC) Detachment 009, his goal is to expand the program from its current enrollment of eight students to 100, although he tells us with grave sincerity that the U.S. military would be strengthened immeasurably by the addition of 1,000 bright Yalies.
AFROTC has a complex history at Yale. It began when the National Security Act of 1947 established the U.S. Department of the Air Force, which created over 200 AFROTC units across the nation’s college campuses in less than a decade. The 1957 launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite marked a turning point for the Air Force. Eager to maintain dominance in the sciences, the Air Force decided to focus more on developing new technology than on building the conventional military might that dominated the battlefields of World War II. Within a year, the Air Force pulled out of campuses less focused on technology and engineering, such as Yale.
Yale’s Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (NROTC), one of the U.S.’s first six units created in 1926, remained longer. Only after anti-Vietnam War protests erupted was NROTC forced off campus in 1972. When the military repealed its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in 2010, the Yale administration worked hard to coordinate the return of both AFROTC and NROTC. The programs resumed operations on campus in the fall of 2012.
“Yale’s commitment to public service is a huge part of what brought ROTC back,” said Josh Clapper ’16, noting that the missions of ROTC and Yale dovetail. Both strive to equip students with the skills necessary to lead purposeful lives and contribute to the good of society, whether in an academic, professional, or military setting.
“ROTC helps Yale stay true to her traditions by giving the opportunity to students to serve God, Country, and Yale,” Michael Herbert ’16 asserts. Beau Birdsall ’16 agreed, noting that Yale students lacked this opportunity for several decades. “It is important that those who are interested in serving their country through service in the military have an equal opportunity to obtain a Yale education,” he added.
The presence of ROTC on campus broadens Yalies’ perspectives, say University officials, ROTC staff, and students. It enhances the diversity of opinions on which Yale prides itself and grounds students in reality beyond the “Yale bubble.”
On the day when Yale’s ROTC students began their fall semester classes this August, five soldiers in the United States-led coalition in Afghanistan were ambushed and killed. It was a stark reminder to the young officers in training that military service today is not an abstract notion. The men and women in Yale’s ROTC program had done more than begin the school year with a new extracurricular—they had committed to engage in military conflicts around the globe when their country called.
Sam Cohen ’15, a midshipman in NROTC hailing from Maryland, embraces the program for exposing Yale students to the real world. He said, “ROTC on campus is a visible reminder that we are still at war, something that can be easy to forget when we get all caught up in our papers and exams and projects.”
Before ROTC left campus, it enjoyed a close-knit relationship with Yale. “Service to our nation, and more particularly the military, has been a great tradition at Yale since her founding,” noted Drew Denno ’16. The ROTC’s office at 55 Whitney Avenue is decorated with pictures that document the history of ROTC at Yale: planes stored in Coxe Cage during World War II, young men engaged in early-morning calisthenics on Old Campus during World War I, and students learning mechanics by assembling and disassembling a B-26 aircraft. The rift between Ivy League institutions and ROTC over the last several decades left a large gap in that history — one that has impacted both Yale and the military.
As Warner Overhauser ’16 asked, “How many enlisted privates or seamen are from Ivy League universities or upper-class families? The answer goes without saying. And that hurts both the military as well as an institution such as Yale.” He elaborated, explaining that Yale suffers from a lack of informed on-campus debates on military issues while the armed forces suffer from a lack of well-educated recruits. The reestablished ROTC programs seek to correct for this.
Ten Yale students have enrolled in the University’s NROTC program, in addition to the eight in AFROTC. Each of the students interviewed explained that the opportunity to serve the U.S. is the primary reason for his or her enrollment. From there, the motives for participation differ.
Several students, including Eric Abney ’16, joined because of family histories of service. A half-hour after receiving an interview request from The Politic, the gentlemanly Texan arrived, eager to begin telling of his father’s experiences and his own. Seated in a plastic chair a bit too small for his large frame, he mentioned his grandfather who served in World War II, and his father, who, Abney said, “sent my grandma voice tapes while serving in Vietnam.” Abney’s father is writing down his memories of war to pass down to his son. He also intends to pass down a medallion of St. Christopher, known as the saint of travelers, that he wore in Vietnam—but only when Abney enters the fleet.
Others joined because of the opportunity to engage with accomplished mentors. Overhauser recalled a conversation he had with General Stanley McChrystal, who was teaching a course at Yale. The general asked him why he chose Yale and NROTC. “Well, sir,” Overhauser responded, “without both Yale and NROTC, I wouldn’t be here talking with you.”
In addition to interacting with mentors through the program, participants must exercise their own leadership skills. Andrew Hendricks ’14, the cadet wing commander of AFROTC, fulfills objectives laid out in his program’s “ginormous” handbook by delegating tasks to about 35 cadets from the regional AFROTC consortium hosted at Yale.
Hendricks has focused on preparing younger AFROTC cadets for summer field training by reviewing marching formations and helping with instruction. “It’s a great feeling to see something that you have spent a lot of time planning come to life,” he explained, “especially if it influences the development of those around you.”
A desire for a “disciplined, organized, regulated lifestyle” attracts students like Beau Birdsall. Cadets at Yale live and breathe orderliness. When James Baker, Chief Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, gave a guest lecture at the NROTC leadership lab, one cadet held a notebook and pen and the rest sat silently, hands folded and white hats removed.
The program is also intellectually rigorous. On top of completing their Yale majors and distribution requirements, students in both ROTC programs enroll in specific Yale courses designated by the military. They must complete five to seven hours of coursework per week for the program, including seminars, leadership labs, and physical training. Usually a class fulfills a requirement for either Yale or ROTC; Paul Kennedy’s “Military History of the West” is the first class in the country to count towards both ROTC and general academic requirements.
For those in ROTC, hard work pays off. Students emerge from ROTC at Yale as broadly educated and capable military officers. Lieutenant Daniel Kohnen, nuclear power officer in the U.S. Navy and a naval science instructor at Yale, elaborates on the benefits of a Yale education with so much gusto that his smile is detectable even over the phone.
He explains, “We’re able to take some concepts that we teach to the next level with the caliber of students we teach here. When they become officers, ROTC participants will come prepared with both a liberal arts education and practical skills.”
Upon graduation, Yale’s AFROTC students become second lieutenants, according to Colonel Manning. In addition to guaranteed employment after graduation, the program’s substantial scholarships make ROTC appealing to potential participants. Moreover, students benefit from the military’s guidance when assuming their first leadership positions: “There will be training, a career path will be laid out, there will be supervisors.” NROTC students, meanwhile, are commissioned as ensigns.
Cohen appreciates how the program thrusts students into the practical world immediately after they leave college. “I can’t think of any other job where right out of college you have responsibility for 20-plus other people,” he said. “That seems to me like the best leadership training.”
Interaction with civilians is vital to cadets’ leadership training. Captain Christopher Reinke of the U.S. Marine Corps, program adviser of naval science at Yale, observes that Yale students in ROTC who “wish to pursue a career in the military can more easily interact with their civilian counterparts.” He continued, “This interaction will lead to a more informed and educated student body as a whole so that when a midshipman or cadet enters the military, he will have a better understanding of what his nonmilitary college peers expect out of them. Conversely, the Yale grads that go off into the business world or private sector know a little bit more about the military and those that wear the uniform.”
Gabrielle Fong ’16 says that many of her classmates have asked her about the Navy and the military in general. “Because of that, I’ve been able to share my motivations for joining the military and the positive things it has to offer,” she explains. Students often see their peers in ROTC in a completely new light when they don military uniforms. Abney recounted entering a classroom without receiving a single glance of recognition from fellow students because his white cap was covering his distinctive strawberry-blond hair.
Though ROTC students enjoy the nascent program, they admit it faces significant challenges. First of all, they lack guidance from experienced older participants in ROTC. Reinke laments, “One thing that’s been hard for our students is the lack of upperclassmen that have gone through [the program] who can help steer them in the right direction, particularly with regards to Yale-specific issues. It will be great a few years from now when we have Yale upperclass midshipmen that can really speak to incoming freshmen about the issues they faced when they arrived at Yale. Then we can better support our students and ensure they have the best resources to succeed.”
Moving forward, Manning said ROTC will rebuild its presence at Yale by constructing a community of supporters and crafting new traditions. Clapper looks forward to “solidifying our ideas for the unit’s structure and tradition before the arrival of the new freshmen in the fall,” while Fong is eager to “reestablish some of the traditions that used to take place at Yale when ROTC was here.”
Manning details an additional struggle. “One of our biggest challenges has been the associated crosstown schools [and] bringing everyone together.” Yale’s AFROTC program welcomes students from regional universities for classes once a week. After taking a long trip, these students stay for an entire day before returning to their campuses. Yale and ROTC have tried to create a comfortable environment for commuters, adding a lounge with a big-screen television and couches where ROTC participants can relax and study.
Students, however, express dissatisfaction that ROTC classes do not award Yale course credits. As Overhauser explains, “The Navy requires us to take both special Navy classes as well as a much more specific version of Yale’s distributional requirements.” Manning explains that AFROTC at Yale has attempted to mitigate this issue by exempting Yale athletes from physical training courses, which take up two hours a week.
In spite of challenges, ROTC students and administrators have high hopes for the program’s future. Abney looks forward to the day when the military becomes “a more vital part of campus life, where seeing students in uniform is common.” As ROTC grows, Fong wishes for greater female participation in the predominantly male program. Reinke aims not only to recruit new students, but also to engage with veterans who attended Yale in order to “further rebuild the history of Yale NROTC and bridge the gap from the past to today.” For cadets, these connections are important. As Matt Smith ’16 observed, “We are midshipmen-Yalies, not Yale midshipmen.”
More than anything else, Yale must reacquaint itself with “a type of student that literally has already committed himself to be a future soldier and officer,” says Clapper. He adds proudly, “This hasn’t really existed at Yale for a long time.”
Students’ opinions do not reflect those of the U.S. military or government.
Rachel O’Connell is a sophomore in Davenport College