Featured series 
Harvard and the Military
Harvard has played a significant role in America’s military traditions since the founding days of the nation, and continues its historical and ongoing commitment to military and public service, as well as its academic contributions in areas like technology, defense, and diplomacy.
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HealthSEAL-tested, NASA-approved
Jonny Kim, a Harvard Medical School graduate and former Navy SEAL, has been selected to join NASA’s next astronaut class.
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Campus & CommunityDeparting as leaders
Six Harvard seniors received inducted into the armed forces at the annual ROTC commissioning ceremony.
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Campus & CommunityA call to do justice
A graduate of West Point, David E. White Jr., J.D. ’17, came to Harvard Law School after a tour in Afghanistan as a lieutenant and platoon leader. At the Law School, he honed his passions for leadership, public service, and justice.
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Nation & WorldFor U.S. military, ideals must matter
The world expects ethics and honor from American troops, service academy chiefs say at Harvard panel.
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Campus & CommunityGay Marine helps change history
As the first American to be injured in the Iraq War, Marine Eric Alva shares the story of being gay in the military at Harvard’s final Faculty of Arts and Sciences Diversity Dialogue.
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Campus & CommunityHonoring the Crimson line
Harvard officials, staff, administrators, faculty, alumni, and students stood alongside alumni veterans and active servicemen and -women at a reception at Pusey Library for an evocative exhibition that traces the interwoven histories of two of the country’s oldest institutions: Harvard and the U.S. military.
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Reising serves those who serve
Harvard Law School student Jesse Reising will extend the Warrior-Scholar Project to Harvard. The Warrior-Scholar Project is a two-week “academic boot camp” to help veterans transition from the military to college.
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A welcome to the military
In an annual fall tradition, Harvard rolls out the welcome mat for its new students and fellows who are veterans or who are still in the service.
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Back to basics
Military training returns to Harvard, as ROTC cadets participate in their first on-campus workouts in 41 years.
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Smart suit improves physical endurance
Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering announced that it has received a $2.6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a smart suit that helps improve physical endurance for soldiers in the field.
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Signs of progress against PTSD
A decade after the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, studies have shown that the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among troops is surprisingly low, and a Harvard researcher credits the drop, in part, to new efforts by the Army to prevent PTSD, and to ensure that those who develop the disorder receive the best treatment available.
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Stepping up
A day before graduating, four Harvard seniors receive their military commissions.
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Renewing Harvard-Army ties
In a ceremony March 28 at Hilles Hall, Harvard University resumed a connection with the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) that started in 1916.
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Blue, gray, and Crimson
Before the Civil War, Harvard was a microcosm of the complex loyalties and opinions that marked the United States. During the war, it lost more than 200 of its sons.
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Harvard formally recognizes Army SROTC
Harvard University announced March 21 that it has signed an agreement with the United States Army to re-establish a formal on-campus relationship with the Army Senior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (SROTC).
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The return of ROTC
Among the top Harvard stories of 2011 was the return of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) to campus after an absence of 40 years. In March, the University signed an agreement with the Navy. By September, offices had opened in Hilles Hall for the Naval ROTC’s Old Ironsides Battalion.
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Harvard goes to war
Harvard University’s expansive role in World War II, from research to recruits, helped the Allies to triumph.
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To honor the living and the dead
A ceremony on 11/11/11 at the Memorial Church will dedicate a tablet honoring Harvard’s 17 Medal of Honor recipients and also will celebrate the return of an ROTC presence to campus.
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A Harvard perspective on military service
Harvard’s Office of Career Services adds to its shelves of guides a pamphlet on military service.
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New approach to traumatic brain injuries
Bioengineers at Harvard have, for the first time, explained how the blast of an exploding bomb can translate into subtly disastrous injuries in the nerve cells and blood vessels of the brain.
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Officers of the day
On the eve of Commencement, three Harvard students become military officers during the annual ROTC commissioning ceremony.
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Harvard in the military
Recent graduates commissioned as officers through ROTC are training, traveling, and plunging into combat.
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Signing ceremony welcomes ROTC
After a 40-year hiatus, Harvard University will again host a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program on campus, according to an agreement signed Friday (March 4) by President Drew Faust and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, J.D. ’76.
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Harvard welcomes back ROTC
Harvard President Drew Faust and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus today (March 4) signed an agreement that will re-establish the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) formal presence on campus for the first time in nearly 40 years.
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From Ivy to military
ROTC commissioning ceremony honors students for their “honor, courage, respect, and selfless service.”
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Over there, over here
On the Harvard campus, as many as 150 students have an untraditional academic past, as present or former members of the U.S. military, many of whom have had multiple combat tours.
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Working to lift the fog of war
Thousands of miles from his Harvard lab, Kevin Kit Parker is lugging a gun and his engineer’s sensibilities through the mountains south of Kabul, in Afghanistan’s Wardak and Logar Provinces.
