Salute

Sophia D. Chua-Rubenfeld ’15 receives her first salute at the ROTC Commissioning Ceremony in Tercentenary Theater on Wednesday.

Year in Photos: ROTC

From left, Carolyn F. Pushaw ’16, Lucy F. Perkins, and Kira R. Headrick ’17 bow their heads during a 9/11 memorial service hosted by ROTC cadets and midshipmen in 2014.

ROTC Archival Images

Courtesy of Harvard University Archives

Boots on the Ground: ROTC at Harvard

Four years after the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps’ reinstatement on campus, the challenges of reuniting two long separated institutional and bureaucratic giants—Harvard University and the United States military—remain.

Body By ROTC

We’ll be the first to admit it: we aren’t the most muscular writers on FM. We don’t have the prodigious heft of Nathan and Ben, for instance. But, feeling fed up with the biting jabs about our scrawniness at writers’ meetings, we recently sought the help and advice of one of the fittest people on campus: Carolyn F. Pushaw ’16, a Marine-option ROTC midshipmen.

Memorial Day 1917

Reserve Officers Training Corps, Harvard University, Memorial Day, May 30, 1917

Bayonet Drill

Students practice a bayonet drill at Harvard Stadium in 1917 or 1918 according to an annotation on the photograph.

Forward March

Charley M. Falletta ’16 plans to continue efforts to expand Harvard ROTC.

Cadet Falletta

Charley M. Falletta ’16 listens during Army ROTC’s weekly leadership lab on Wednesday, Feb. 18.

1969: Students Protest ROTC at Harvard

List of Loyalties

Nathan L. Williams ’18 keeps a priority list in his dorm room. When asked about ROTC, he explained, "What else would be more, more important?"

9/11 Memorial

From left, Carolyn F. Pushaw ’16, Lucy F. Perkins, and Kira R. Headrick ’17 bow their heads during a 9/11 memorial service in 2014.

Army ROTC LEAD Lab

Charley M. Falletta ’16, Lucy F. Perkins, and James J. W. Clarke ’16 discuss tactics during Army ROTC’s weekly leadership lab on Wednesday, Feb. 18.

PLANK

Cadets plank during Army ROTC physical training at Gordon Indoor Track in February.

Naval History Class

ROTC midshipmen and Marine options give presentations during a naval history class at MIT. Students in Naval ROTC usually take a course on military science each semester.

Using the SOCH

Lt. Nathan Stempel helps Sebastian R. Saldivar ’15 prepare for an interview in the SOCH.

The SOCH

Following the reinstatement of ROTC in 2011, Harvard granted the program office spaces at the SOCH. The study space represents only the first in a series of expansions and changes that some ROTC participants would like to see.

Lt. Stempel

Lt. Nathan Stempel works as a professor and adviser at the NROTC program at MIT.

2011 Protest Against ROTC Reinstatement

James R. Sares ’12 (right) and other demonstrators protested the reinstatement of ROTC at Harvard in March 2011 because, despite the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the military does not allow trans-identified or intersex individuals to serve.

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Cadet Farrow

Zander E. Farrow ’16 is one of two Air Force ROTC cadets at Harvard.

Reinstament

Navy Secretary Ray E. Mabus (seated, left) and Harvard University President Drew G. Faust (seated, right) signed an agreement in March 2011 to re-establish Naval ROTC at Harvard after nearly 40 years of absence due to Harvard's non-discrimination policy.

Marine Option Pushaw

Carolyn F. Pushaw ’16 decided she wanted to join the military when she was a child.

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MIT ROTC Building

The MIT ROTC building is located on Vassar Street in Cambridge.