More than any scholarship program or unofficial motto, the memorial atrium in Nassau Hall attests to Princeton's service to the nation. As the Latin inscription above the 600 names reads, "Alma Mater keeps in eternal memory her sons who laid down their lives for their country."
Signs of Princeton's military tradition can be found all around campus this Veterans Day weekend. In the chapel, a ceremony this morning commemorates the holiday, and the hundreds of bronze stars affixed to dorm windowsills recall the students and alumni who gave their lives in the wars of the 20th century.
The University's relationship with the military has been strong at times and strained at others. Yet from the Revolutionary War to Iraq, Princeton has produced thousands of soldiers, men and, more recently, women, whose service is honored on Veterans Day.
World War II claimed the lives of more Princetonians than any other conflict. The memorial atrium in Nassau Hall bears the names of 355 students and alumni who died in that conflict, as well as 29 who died in Korea.
During World War I, when many students left the University to join the military even before the United States entered the fight, the casualties were fewer — 152 University members were died — but represented a higher percentage of those who volunteered, including a handful of professors. One officer with a Princeton degree was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military honor given by the United States.
Ten Princeton graduates died in the Revolutionary War, one in the War of 1812, 70 on both sides of the Civil War and five in the Spanish-American War.
Since the defeat of Germany and Japan, the number of Princetonians who don the uniform after graduation has waned. During the Vietnam War, when the ROTC program was closed in protest, 24 alumni lost their lives.
More recently, a small number of alumni have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Col. Mark Milley '80 spent a year commanding the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, in western Baghdad; Milley drew the attention of embedded journalists by accompanying his infantrymen on dangerous patrols.
Lt. Jeff Bozman '05 has just completed a tour of duty with the 3-8th Marines in Ramadi, one of the most brutally contested cities in Iraq, and next year Lt. Micah Hall '05, of the 6-8th Cavalry, will lead his armored platoon on a one-year combat tour.
Lt. Nate Rawlings '04 is nearing the end of a year in Iraq with the 1-22nd Infantry. "We're in Baghdad," he wrote in an email this summer, "slogging it out on the highways and towns doing the day-in and day-out business. It's about 120 degrees, 140 in the Bradley, but we're getting used to it." Rawlings' battalion spent the fall trying to subdue sectarian conflict in Baghdad and is due home next month.
History professor Paul Miles served multiple tours in Vietnam, including one as aide to Gen. William Westmoreland, and retired as a colonel after 30 years in the Army. Many of the ROTC instructors have also served combat tours, and a dozen Army captains and majors are earning graduate degrees here between unit assignments. Following in the footsteps of one of Princeton's most famous military graduates, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus GS '87, many of these officers are studying at the Wilson School, with others at the Near Eastern Studies department.
Capt. Jeanne Hull GS, who has served a year in Bosnia and two years in Iraq, said of her choice to attend the Wilson School that during her three combat tours, "I was surrounded by a team of really intelligent, talented and well-rounded officers, who could think way outside of the box and come up with solutions to very difficult situations; that, more than anything else, motivated me to go back to graduate school ASAP so I could be more like them."
Maj. Matt Zais GS, who spent a year in Iraq with the 1-502nd Infantry and is currently studying in the Wilson School, said, "I became an officer to serve my country, and attending [the Wilson School] is a remarkable opportunity for any Army officer."
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