With their shoulders back and heads held high, Yale’s Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) paraded in full dress uniform during the annual President’s Review, held April 17 in the John Lee Amphitheater at Payne Whitney Gymnasium.
President Maurie McInnis served as reviewing officer for the annual ceremony, in which Yale’s graduating Army, Navy, and Air Force ROTC cadets and midshipmen learn the location of their first military posting. The ceremony, a celebration of military education and physical preparedness, features visiting military dignitaries and an audience of the graduates’ families and friends.
The event also includes ROTC students from neighboring institutions, including Fairfield University, Quinnipiac University, Sacred Heart University, Southern Connecticut State University, the University of New Haven, Wesleyan University, and Western Connecticut State University.
“From the Revolutionary War through this very hour, generations of Yalies have served honorably in various military capacities,” McInnis said. “That military tradition continues to flourish today, embodied in each of you before me, Yale’s next generation of leaders.
“It is in moments like this, steeped in tradition, yet full of personal significance, that the past and present converge in powerful ways,” she added.
McInnis noted that she is the proud daughter of an Air Force veteran. Her father’s sense of duty and service, she said, shaped her own sense of responsibility to contribute to the common good.
Yale’s history of military service also was the theme of remarks from Yale Navy ROTC Commanding Officer Capt. Bill Johnson.
Johnson recalled how the university shifted its entire academic schedule during World War II to help meet the country’s need for trained officers. The effort helped train 20,000 service members.
“I am proud to say this partnership is just as strong today,” Johnson said.
During the ceremony, two new Yale Air Force ROTC squadrons — units that build cohesion and camaraderie, much like Yale’s system of residential colleges — were announced. The squadrons, which will begin training in the fall semester, are named after Nathan Hale and Kingman Douglass.
Hale, B.A. 1773, proudly sacrificed his life during the American Revolution; Douglass, class of 1918, was a pilot during World War I, a senior intelligence officer during World War II, and helped found the Central Intelligence Agency.
Among the awards presented during the event was the inaugural Joseph W. Gordon Service and Leadership Award, given to first-year Army ROTC cadet Dhriti Gupta. Gordon, who helped bring ROTC back to Yale in 2012, was in attendance to present the award.
Near the end of the ceremony, cadets and midshipmen who are graduating seniors learned the location of their first military posting.
Cadet Joshua Lovejoy, who is from Burke, Virginia, will be a cyberspace operations officer at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. He majored in computer science at Yale.
“To be able to apply what I learned at Yale in service to my country is exciting,” Lovejoy said, standing amid a group of smiling cadets. “I’m proud to be part of a program with such rich history. Hopefully, I’ll leave my mark.”
