Class of: 1969
Brick: yes

I graduated from Stetson in June 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War. I had won a national competition to intern with a US cabinet member, but instead spent the summer at Ft. Benning, Georgia, making up the first two years of ROTC. I attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and did the third and fourth years of ROTC there. In July 1971, after training at Ft. Riley, Kansas, I was commissioned as an army officer. I proposed that I use my graduate training by teaching at West Point. I was turned down immediately because I was not a career officer. (Ironically, I was later made a senior professor at West Point as a civilian.) I was not called to duty until 1974, when I attended the Signal Corps officers school at Ft. Gordon, South Carolina. The military was demobilizing at that time, so I was sent home. In sum, my service was short and not heroic. Nevertheless, I am proud to be associated with those who made much greater sacrifices for their country.