Free Republic

Now that the President is poised to sign the repeal of the ban on homosexuals serving in the U. S. military, academics are prepared to welcome the armed forces they have banned from their campuses with open arms, at least metaphorically. San Francisco State University political scientist Aaron Belkin will actually be at the White House signing ceremony, according to Renna Communications. Meanwhile, Harvard is letting the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) come back to Cambridge. Harvard deans evicted ROTC during the Vietnam War.

Harvard University will welcome ROTC back to campus now that Congress has repealed a ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, university president Drew Faust said.The move will end a four-decade standoff between one of the nation’s most prestigious universities and its armed forces. The tension began over the Vietnam War and continued in recent years as university administrators, faculty, and students objected to what they saw as discrimination against gays and lesbians.

EXCERPTS: Kimberly Sipes said her reaction to the statement about the officer hearing a shot fired is “bull-” (expletive deleted). “I was sitting right there,” Sipes said, “not even 10 to 15 feet away, and I did not hear one shot then a pause for somebody to shoot another gun. It was automatic, all at one time. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.” Sipes said the rifle her son held was his first gun, a gift from someone. She said she watched her son carefully as he opened the door because she was worried about his safety. Sipes said that from...

Reported at TheSunNews.comWelcome to high school. Now drop and give me 50. The entire freshman class at Carvers Bay High School has been automatically enrolled in the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, a military-sponsored program that trains high school students in military discipline and concepts. Principal Richard Neal, a Navy veteran, said the school's Marine Corps JROTC class is fulfilling the student's physical education requirement and is part of the school's Ninth Grade Academy. But Charles Holloway, the parent of a freshman student at Carvers Bay, said he did not want his son in that program and when he...

Sen. John McCain has announced that he will vote no on confirming Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan, citing her handling of the military recruiting as dean of Harvard Law School.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan clashed Tuesday with a Republican senator over the limits she ordered on military recruiters while dean of Harvard Law School, repeatedly denying she blocked them as she sought to deflect foes' efforts to slow her apparently smooth road to confirmation.

retired U.S. Marine who runs a Massachusetts high school's ROTC program says he faces termination if he doesn't pay a $500 union fee by next week, a levy he refuses to pay because he already receives medical and dental benefits from the military.

May 15, 2010 College Student May Owe ROTC $80,000 After Coming Out as Lesbian A student who received a full-ride ROTC scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may now owe the Army nearly $80,000 for the money it put toward her tuition and books after coming out as a lesbian. Sara Isaacson was notified in March that she was being discharged for violating “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” after informing the head of the university’s ROTC program of her sexual orientation in a formal memo, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Along with the notice was a...

The ROTC seniors turned over command to next years graduates tonight, Freeper grandson Gerry just kept coming by and piling awards in his momma's lap! I've got 200 pics to cull and process and get online, I tried to get at least one shot of everyone. It was a fast paced ceremony, I overheated my flash unit and had to wait until it cooled.The Special Forces are after him now, he sure isn't one of those fat kids they talk about. It's up to him now, for sure.

Previously undisclosed FBI documents suggest that the Kent State antiwar protests were more meticulously planned than originally thought and that one or more gunshots may have been fired at embattled Ohio National Guardsmen before their killings of four students and woundings of at least nine others on that searing day in May 1970. As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new — and very different — light on the tragic episode. The upheaval that enveloped the northeastern Ohio campus actually began three...

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska, April 26, 2010 – The commander of the 3rd Comptroller Squadron Financial Management Flight here has provided a $750 scholarship to the University of Alaska Anchorage's ROTC program. Air Force 1st Lt. Christina Geller presented her first check for the scholarship April 23 at the ROTC's leadership lab. The lieutenant said she wanted to give back to the school that had helped to kick off her career. An Anchorage native, Geller started UAA's ROTC program in May 2004. She graduated in 2006, and then was assigned here. She said she plans to continue the scholarship...

Harvard University’s decades-old ROTC ban on campus may soon be a thing of the past, some students and faculty members say. While Harvard announced last week that it’s taking part in a new “mentoring program” for returning veterans trying to establish civilian careers, the buzz on campus is how much longer Harvard’s Vietnam-era ban on ROTC can last. The ban’s future appears to hinge on whether President Obama and Congress abolish the military’s “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy toward gays serving in the armed services. If the controversial policy’s days are numbered, then so is the ROTC ban at Harvard -...

My grandson Gerry, on the left, has the job of drill training and keeping the drill team in top notch shape at St. Augustine High. He even sounds like a drill Sgt, LOL. He has grown from a kid to a fine young man so fast it is scary.He will graduate this year.

The St. Augustine High School JROTC is leading the Christmas parade on Saturday. Today was the last chance to practice. This is my grandson drilling some of the troops. His patience is amazing, they keep recruiting people with two left feet! I forgot that the mic would pick up the radio program, that's the Paul Porter Show in the background. Paul is our local Patriot talk show host. CLICK THE RED LINK

Virginia Tech this morning confirmed that Fort Hood shooting suspect Nadal Malik Hasan graduated from the university in 1995. Here's the full news release. Virginia Tech has confirmed with the United States Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va., that the alleged shooter at Fort Hood, Texas, once attended Virginia Tech. According to Virginia Tech records, Nidal Malik Hasan first enrolled at Virginia Tech for Summer Session II in 1992, and completed coursework in Spring Semester 1995. He received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in biochemistry from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He minored in biology...

WASHINGTON — Military officials say Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspected shooter at Fort Hood, was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed. The Virginia-born soldier is single with no children. He is 39 years old. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1997. At Walter Reed, he did an internship, residency and a fellowship.

Jihad at Fort Hood? Shooter: Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan - Jihad Watch via kwout

Military officials say the suspected shooter at Fort Hood was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July. The officials had access to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's military record. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because military records are confidential. The Virginia-born soldier was single with no children. He was 39 years old. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech University, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in...

Chris Higgins, 21, an upbeat Harvard University junior, is a social studies major who has worked at an orphanage in Uganda and backpacked around China while learning Mandarin. He is also a master sergeant in the Army ROTC, an officer-in-the-making who has spent weekends firing an M-16, rappelling, and honing land-navigation skills while many classmates are launching a blitz on the college social scene. “I have a mission,’’ said Higgins, a native of East Setauket, N.Y. That mission - to serve the country and gain leadership experience - is shared by a sharply growing number of American undergraduates, who have...

St. Augustine High School hosted a regional JROTC drill competition today. Grandson Gerry rolled me out of the sack at 6AM and off we went. Why we had to leave so early is beyond me, nothing started until about 9AM, but since the army was running things you just got to follow orders! I couldn't get the right angle on the Sun but managed to catch some of the action. I headed out just after 10AM to chase some critters, Gerry was there for the day. I'm trying to calibrate a new monitor, some pics may be light or dark...