Opening day
A small ceremony on Tuesday marked a big moment in Harvard history: the official opening of the first Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) office on the Harvard campus in 40 years. Harvard had banished any physical campus presence for ROTC programs in 1970 and 1971, at the height of protest over the Vietnam War. But in March the University signed an agreement with the Navy to bring an ROTC office back to campus, predicated on the expiration of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, which banned gays from the military. The law expired Sept. 20. The office, two adjoining rooms in Hilles Hall on the Quadrangle, will serve as an advisory space for a Naval ROTC (NROTC) unit that is part of a consortium of six local colleges. Nine midshipmen from Harvard are enrolled in the unit, called the Old Ironsides Battalion. They will continue to take military science classes at the...