share the risk / Eloi vs. Morlocks / 4 Amherst College alumni go back to school to tell why they served and what they saw

A recent production of the Broadway musical "South Pacific," which first opened in 1948, three years after the end of World War Two. The musical was based on stories about the war in the Pacific by a Harvard grad who served as a Navy officer, James Michener. There was a draft, but every man, rich or poor, wanted to serve in uniform; no man wanted to be left behind in civvies.

A notice sent to me about a program at Amherst College (founded 1821), in nearby Amherst, Massachusetts, one of the USA's most prestigious "Ivy League" private colleges.

There is no conscription in the USA today, so nobody has to serve in uniform if he thinks he has better (or safer) things to do. Conscription/the draft ended at the end of the Vietnam War.

Every graduate of Amherst College has nothing but opportunity and advancement ahead -- law school, medical school, grad school, Wall Street, the sky's the limit. In the midst of the most unpopular wars in U.S. history, these guys joined up.

----- Original Message -----
From: N***** S****
Sent: 3/7/2008 5:32:27 PM
Subject: Four alum's in military and their experience

Todd was a student of mine. Other three were not:

https://cms.amherst.edu/news/eventsmultimedia/2008/node/39757

N***** S****
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Amherst College
Amherst, MA 01002

February 18, 2008

For immediate release
Contact: Caroline Jenkins Hanna
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

Four Amherst College Alumni in the Military
to Participate in Panel Discussion

AMHERST, Mass. -- Amherst College will host a panel discussion titled

From Campus to Country:
Why we chose to serve
in the military after Amherst

with alumni and members of the armed forces Matt Flavin, Todd Nichols, Michael Proctor and Paul Rieckhoff Friday, February 29, in Cole Assembly Room of Amherst's Converse Hall at 4:30 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of Amherst's ongoing effort to promote meaningful discussion of the complex issues associated with the nation's military, as well as honor those who serve.

Flavin '02 joined the armed forces in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy and underwent extensive training before being deployed to Bosnia as a human intelligence officer and an operations officer for the Allied Military Intelligence Battalion. Upon his return to the United States, Flavin joined the Naval Special Warfare community and completed combat deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. He last served as the director of targeting and intelligence for SEAL Team ONE. He now attends law school at Georgetown University Law Center.

Nichols '99 is a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. He has been to Iraq on three combat tours for a total of two years from February of 2003 to October of 2006. On his first deployment, he was based out of Kuwait prior to the U.S. invasion of the country, and conducted operations in areas all over Iraq. During his second tour, he spent a significant amount of time in Najaf and Al Anbar Province and then returned to the latteras well as Balad and Baghdadon his third deployment. During his time in the military, he has flown AH-1W attack helicopters.

Proctor '02 graduated from Amherst cum laude with a bachelor's in philosophy. He took a position with his local congressman for four months until October of 2002, and then attended Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Va. Following his stint there, he spent several years in training learning to fly various aircraft. He was first deployed to Iraq in February of 2007 where he flew countless combat sorties involving air-to-air refueling, logistical transport, battlefield illumination, detainee transport, VIP transport and "Angel" runs, where he carried the coffins of the fallen out of the country to be taken home from Kuwait. He has been awarded a Navy Achievement Medal and five Air Medals for combat flight. He is currently a captain and an aircraft commander in the Marines.

Paul Rieckhoff '98 is executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), a non-partisan non-profit founded in 2004 with tens of thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states. Rieckhoff himself was a first lieutenant and infantry rifle platoon leader in the Iraq war from 2003 to 2004. He is now a nationally recognized authority on the war in Iraq and issues affecting troops, military families and veterans, and has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The Charlie Rose Show, 60 Minutes, ABC World News Tonight, All Things Considered, New York Times, Washington Post, Army Times and Wall Street Journal, among others. His first book, a critically acclaimed account of his experiences in Iraq and activism afterwards titled "Chasing Ghosts," was published by Penguin in May 2006. Rieckhoff currently serves as an infantry officer in the New York Army National Guard and lives in Manhattan.

The discussion will be dedicated to the memory of Navy lieutenant Joshua Walter "Max" Gross '98, one of three crew members who died Jan. 16 in a helicopter crash in Corpus Christi, Texas. The event is sponsored by the college's Presidents Office.

=============

Hiya N***, thanks for the notice.

Wars come and go, you win some, you lose some, some are a draw (Korea). Whether a war is Good and Necessary, or an abominable mistake -- this ends up astonishingly subjective. McCain took a trip to Vietnam a few years ago, and as he was leaving, muttered to reporters that he still thinks we should have won.

I think what it's really all about for traditionally prestigious schools like Amherst (and Mount Holyoke) is the question or public perception of whether their alums shared the risk. This wasn't as bad a problem when we ran the armed forces with a draft, however flawed. In Basic Training, my 2nd lieutenant training officer was (a frat boy idiot) straight out of the University of Pennsylvania.

The flawed Vietnam draft offered easy ways to weasel out of it. And then, a few decades later, an awful lot of ambitious politicians were very sorry they had weaseled out of it. (And Bill Clinton desperately needed Al Gore, the Vietnam vet, on the ticket.) The worst, stupidest war you can imagine is still a "ticket punching" thing -- voters look back and want to know if you trudged off to shoulder your share of the risk.

Or if the educational elite let the poor people do it instead.

Looks like a good program, sorry I missed it ... But the whole thing was a credit to the school, and these guys will remain a credit to the school for a long time.

Me, I dream of a time when our political machinery will just skip crappy wars entirely. Maybe one war per century in this wicked world is necessary. But as long as we keep wars in our national repertoire, everybody needs to share the risk, or the whole thing just reeks of Eloi and Morlocks.

B