Military, Ivy League are not incompatible

I was surprised and pleased to read Eliot A. Cohen's piece, "Ivy faculty should welcome back ROTC" [Opinion, Dec. 29]. He suggests that since "don't ask, don't tell" has been repealed, Ivy League schools have little else but personal prejudice preventing them from welcoming the Reserve Officer Training Corps programs back on campus.

As an Ivy League school graduate (Teachers College, Columbia University), and a retired major from the Army Reserves, I understand what recruiting on these fertile grounds could mean to our nation. I have seen firsthand, in three deployments since Sept. 11, 2001, including tours to Guantánamo Bay, and to various locations in Iraq, the myriad situations where the contributions of, as Eliot Cohen calls them, "smart, hardworking and able" Ivy League students, would be limitless.

During tough recruiting years after Sept. 11, most of the service branches reduced minimum entrance requirements, and it is time to reverse that trend and end the misguided perceptions and stereotypes perpetuated by those who would discriminate against the military culture. It is also time for the military to put aside the same toward Ivy League institutions.

Why the misconceptions and myopia? Thirty of our presidents (70 percent) have served as military officers, and 13 attended Ivy League schools; eight did both.

We can and must solve this problem together, if for no other reason than it would contribute to the best chance we have at survival as the truly greatest nation on Earth. This global War on Terror finds our troops in more than 70 countries worldwide and shows little sign of ending in my generation. Who next would you want leading tomorrow's military, and then perhaps this nation?

Montgomery J. Granger

Port Jefferson Station