ROTC Returns to Harvard

After 41 years of absence, a reserve officers’ training corps presence is returning to Harvard University. Navy Secretary Ray Maybus and Harvard University President Drew Faust earlier this month signed an agreement returning an ROTC program to the school. “Effective with the scheduled end of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ we will again have a regular and durable presence of Navy training programs on our campus,” said Faust in remarks. All three services left the campus amid hostile protests during the Vietnam War. They were barred from returning based on the school’s objections to DADT. When asked when Air Force ROTC might return to Harvard, Air University spokesman Phil Berube told the Daily Report that the service is “in preliminary discussion” with one Ivy League school, which wishes to remain anonymous for now, about establishing a host detachment. Cornell University is currently the only Ivy League school with an Air Force ROTC host presence. (For more, read Replanting ROTC from Air Force Magazine’s February issue.)