‘He took that explosion himself to save his men’

In October 1952, a young Harvard alumnus named Sherrod Skinner was killed after rolling onto a live grenade to save his fellow Marines. Skinner, a second lieutenant, was a junior officer thrust into the Korean War just months after his commissioning in Harvard’s ROTC program.

On Wednesday, Skinner’s memory was offered as an example of the leadership traditions of two important American institutions, Harvard and the military. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Clark held up Skinner as an example to the 19 graduating seniors who were commissioned as second lieutenants and ensigns into the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Space Force on Wednesday. 

Clark said Skinner’s leadership and cool head despite being twice wounded helped his Marines hold off enemy forces attempting to overrun their outpost. When they ran out of ammunition, he ordered his remaining forces, which had fallen back into a bunker, to feign death. The ploy worked until an enemy soldier tossed in a grenade, which landed between Skinner and another Marine. 

Skinner’s actions earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor, one of 18 awarded to Harvard alumni. His example, Clark said, offers lessons in leadership and honor that are instructive for young officers. Just months earlier, Skinner had been on Harvard’s campus, yet, despite his inexperience, he didn’t hesitate in making the ultimate sacrifice. Clark, who led the Air Force Academy and is a pilot with 400 combat flight hours, said the story makes him wonder what he might have done in a similar situation.

“He took that explosion himself to save his men. Lt. Skinner knew what it meant to hold the line. He knew what it meant to commit to something greater than himself,” Clark said. “Twenty-two years old, a year in the military, and he led with everything that he had, and gave everything that he had.”

Clark said leadership is made up of three things: integrity, humility, and excellence. With integrity, your actions follow from your morals and ideals. With humility, you don’t think less of yourself, Clark said; you think of others more and yourself less. And with excellence, you commit not to an impossible ideal of perfection, but to continuous improvement and being better the next day than the day before.

“Lt. Skinner continued to get better, because he became so incredible in such a short time,” said Clark. “Integrity, humility, excellence, those are the values he had.” 

Clark, whose daughter Zoe Clark was commissioned as an Air Force second lieutenant Wednesday, was the keynote speaker at Harvard’s 2026 ROTC Joint Commissioning Ceremony held in Sanders Theatre in Memorial Hall. 

Harvard President Alan Garber, who delivered welcoming remarks, told the ROTC cadets and midshipmen that they are at the intersection of great American institutions where excellence has flourished for centuries. 

Garber offered the example of Paul Revere’s grandson, Edward Hutchinson Revere, who graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School in 1849. Revere treated Union wounded on the battlefield during the Civil War. He was captured, imprisoned, and released. He returned to the battlefield to treat the wounded and was killed at Antietam, one of the bloodiest single days in American history.

“In the year of the United States Semiquincentennial, we are reminded of the role that this place of learning and the people it has educated have played in the making of America,” Garber said. “We are reminded that this country is the result of innumerable efforts — from every kind of person with every kind of skill — to ensure that the Republic endures. And we are reminded that how a duty is discharged often holds as much meaning as the duty itself.”

The walls of Memorial Hall, where the 90-minute ceremony took place, are inscribed with the names of 136 Harvard students and alumni who died on Civil War battlefields such as Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Bull Run.  

The 19 ROTC cadets and midshipmen who entered Sanders Theatre on Wednesday left as newly commissioned junior officers: second lieutenants in the Army, Air Force, and Space Force, and ensigns in the Navy. They join a Harvard military history that dates back to the nation’s founding in the American Revolution and includes nearly 50,000 alumni and 18 Medal of Honor recipients, more than any other college or university outside the U.S. service academies.  

The new officers are headed to careers in the infantry, in military intelligence, piloting planes and working on submarines, in the medical corps, in cyber electromagnetic warfare, and in other areas. Most are going on active duty, with stops for additional training, but two are joining the Army Reserves, and two more are getting educational delays to attend law or medical school before reporting for duty.

The main part of the event, which also included remarks from Lt. Col. Tom Allen, chair of Army ROTC for Harvard, was the commissioning ceremony. During this, the cadets and midshipmen took the oath of office and received the official insignia of their new rank — single gold bars for second lieutenants and shoulder boards for ensigns. They also received a gift from the University of a biography of Winston Churchill and a coin with an image of Memorial Hall on one side and the Veritas shield on the other. 

Once the oath was performed and the new officers pinned, each received his or her first salute from an enlisted service member, a friend, family member, or instructor, after which they gave the individual a silver dollar coin. 

Commissioned on Wednesday as second lieutenants in the Army were Quin Daly, Mike Greenway, Sisira Holbrook, Zoe Kim, John Marcucci, Jack Martin, Max Morehead, Aidan Pesce, Eva Rankin, Adler Schultz, and Anthony Stackle.

Commissioned as second lieutenants in the Air Force were Zoe Clark, Joseph Hwang, and Christopher Shen. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Space Force was Michael Kuhl.

Commissioned as ensigns in the Navy were William Kaufmann, Thomas Leeds, Lucas Martin, and Sydney Slazak.

Also recognized on Wednesday were five graduating seniors whose training will be completed this summer in Cadet Summer Training. These “End of Camp Commissionees,” all Army cadets, are Lael Ayala, Jason Kwak, Anna Keller, Noelle Keto, and Pranav Pendri.