ROTC and Columbia: the Jack Wheeler Legacy

As I've mentioned here and elsewhere, the late Jack Wheeler's big cause over the past year or two had been the return of ROTC programs to on-campus operation at Harvard and other elite schools from which they'd been removed during the Vietnam years. The repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy removed the last stated obstacle to their resumption.

Last week Michael Segal offered a step-by-step plan for getting ROTC going again at Harvard. Now Eric Chen presents a comparable blueprint for Columbia. Part of the reason a blueprint is necessary: resinstatement would involve significant complications and headaches on the military's side, not just for the universities, so it shouldn't be done in a slapdash way. Worth reading, along with Wheeler's own impassioned statement on the subject last spring. And worth acting on.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/rotc-and-columbia-the-jack-wheeler-legacy/68837/