Active in the nation's service

Half a century ago, Reynolds’ choice would not have been unusual. The atrium of Nassau Hall bears testament to Princeton alumni’s commitment to military service. The names of 152 students, alumni and professors who died in World War I are memorialized on the lists engraved in the marble walls, and there are 355 names listed on the World War II memorial. The memorial inscriptions also list the names of 29 students who lost their lives in Korea and the names of 24 who died in Vietnam.

Over the past 50 years, there has been a decline in the number of people affiliated with the University who enter military service, a trend that has been mirrored at institutions of higher learning around the country.

But for those Princetonians who pursued a life in military service, it provided an alternative career path that challenged them with responsibilities they would otherwise not have faced, several alumni said. While some later entered the corporate sector, they said the practical skills they learned in the military complemented their Princeton educations, providing them with important experience for their later careers.

Reynolds, who now works in the corporate sector, said his military experience prepared him well for his civilian career.

“I’m always pretty quick to point out to folks with whom I work in my civilian job how similar private industry and the military are in organizational terms,” Reynolds said. “The military is kind of the prototypical hierarchal organization … and you see that mirrored in a lot of civilian organizations. So in those terms, it really was an educational experience in terms of basic management.”

Reynolds also noted that entering the military provided him with a higher-level position than other career options might have given him.

“I was always impressed with how much responsibility the military gives to its young leaders,” he said, explaining that he was placed in command of a platoon of four tanks and 16 soldiers immediately upon entering active service. “That’s really unprecedented in terms of a first job.”

Raj Shah ’00, who worked for the consulting firm McKinsey & Company before entering active duty with the Air Force, said that “leaving [the firm] was probably the best thing I ever did.”

“[The military is] an incredible experience,” he explained. “Even then I had no idea of what I was getting myself into … I met some of the most incredible people I’ve ever worked with.”

Shah, who is currently putting together a startup company in Washington, D.C., focusing on cybersecurity for the U.S. government, explained that his Princeton education taught him to think “more broadly.”

“I think the way you learn things there, it provides a good base, I’d say, and the military helps polish you and direct you in the right way,” he said. “There’s stuff like discipline and not giving up, but you sort of just look at things differently. Deadlines are deadlines, and people are the most important part of any organization … If you show up five seconds late for a mission, or if you lose where your friend is or where your wingman is, someone’s going to get hurt in a very bad way very soon. It’s not just, ‘Oh, I lost my client 10 bucks.’ ”

Despite these benefits, Princeton alumni — and Ivy League alumni in general — seem reluctant to enter the military after graduation, veterans noted. Shah explained that the number of alumni in the military has decreased sharply since the mid-1900s, when, he said, “there was certainly a different sentiment in terms of the uniformed service as a means to public service.”

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Maj. Mark Crow GS ’08 also said that recent graduates don’t seem to view the military as a feasible career path. “It just doesn’t seem like society presents that as an opportunity for young men and women who are going to these elite schools,” he said. “The expectation is that they’re going to go to get a graduate degree and then a J.D. or an M.D.”

Crow, who came as a graduate student to Princeton after two deployments to Iraq, currently works as an economics professor at West Point. He said that “the idea of waking up and going to work every day for someone’s bottom line, of making money for someone, didn’t appeal to me,” explaining that he joined the military because he liked the idea of being part of a “larger cause.”

“If we make an assumption that schools like Princeton are ‘elite,’ then the presumption is that that’s where the ‘elite’ students go, then that’s where some of the future political leaders go,” Crow said. “Familiarity with the military is a benefit,” he added, in any area of political leadership or public service.

“The military needs Princetonians, and I think Princeton needs the military,” Shah explained. “I think there’s an immense value for Princeton students to go for four or five years, understand the cost of war.”