“As you know, when you leave Cambridge on Thursday, the pack doesn’t get any lighter,” retired Navy Vice Admiral Philip Cullom, M.B.A. ’88, told Harvard’s 23 ROTC graduates—the largest cohort in more than 30 years—during a keynote address on Wednesday morning at Sanders Theatre, before delivering the oath to the new officers. “You enter into a profession of arms and service,” he told them. “And service comes with sacrifice.”
In Cullom’s remarks, like those of the day’s other speakers—interim president Alan M. Garber and Major Tom Allen of MIT’s Army ROTC—it was hard not to hear echoes of the prevailing worries of the current moment: political divisions both nationally and on campus, an uncertain future, and threats to democracy at home and abroad. “You will soon take an oath,” Allen reminded the graduates, “not to a sovereign ruler or a political party, but to the set of ideals embodied in our Constitution. I ask you: do not take that lightly.”
“A Genuine Commitment”
Garber’s address was brief but heartfelt. Noting the extraordinary size of this year’s group of ROTC graduates, he thanked them for their “embrace of duty without regard for circumstance,” which signifies “a genuine commitment.” And he recalled his years as a practicing physician, whose clinical efforts, he said, were mostly devoted to veterans. “They deepened my appreciation for those who support and defend the Constitution, and they remain among my most important teachers.”
Like other speakers, Garber spoke about the University’s ties to the Civil War, and the “136 sons of Harvard who paid the highest price for the Union cause”—whose names are etched in marble tablets in Memorial Hall, which houses Sanders Theatre. “You inherit today a vast legacy of achievement that stretches far beyond the bounds of the institutions that proudly claim you as their own,” he said. “May you choose both to learn as much as you can and to teach as much as you can. May you support one another as you have done throughout your time as students.”
After Garber concluded, the ROTC graduates were told to look under their seats: as a gift, he’d left each of them a copy of This Republic of Suffering, resident emerita Drew Gilpin Faust’s 2008 profound history of the nation’s response to the carnage of the Civil War.
“History Will Have Its Eyes on You”
In his address, Cullom also reflected on past Harvard graduates who have served, and those who gave their lives in that service. A graduate with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy, Cullom earned a bachelor’s degree in physics before coming to Harvard Business School. Retired from active service since 2017, he served in every combat theater, supporting military operations in the Middle East, Mediterranean, Adriatic, Caribbean, and Western Pacific regions, in a career that included destroyer, squadron, and tactical Carrier Strike Group commands. Twice, he served in the White House, including as director of defense policy/arms control on the National Security Council.
“Before you leave here today,” he urged the students, “walk around and take a look at those white marble plaques”—the ones Garber was referencing in Memorial Hall. “Then take some quiet time and ask yourself, ‘Why do I serve?’ And, ‘Who do I serve?’” Those answers begin, he added, with the Constitution and comrades. Another question he asked may require a more complicated response, he said: “What will guide me? What will be my North Star to steer by in times of challenge?”
The short answer: veritas. But it’s not quite that simple, Cullom said, whose research for the day’s remarks had involved some reading on seventeenth-century heraldry symbolism. On the Harvard shield, he said, “You need to look deeper, to the three books beneath the letters of ‘Veritas.’” Two of those books lie face up—“That’s the truth that comes from the study of the written word that’s actually occupied many of your sleepless nights over the last four years.” The third book is face down. “To turn that book over, you’ve had to rise to the truth by being open to honest dialogue. You’ve had to love truth by embracing the core value: to treat others equally, and be respectful, even if they have different views. And you’re learning to live truth in your daily life as you leave Harvard.”
Later, wrapping up, he added, “Don’t forget that history will have its eyes on you. “Good luck and godspeed past 2024. Drive a fair course, and leave a big wake. May you have fair winds and following seas always.”
Members of the graduating ROTC cohort, all from the College, will enter the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.
Army:
- Second Lieutenant Soren Choi concentrated in computer science and will commission with the Army Reserves as a Cyber Officer and will report to Camp Parks in Dublin, California.
- Second Lieutenant Jack Cogbill concentrated in computer science and will attend Basic Officer Leadership Course at Fort Moore, Georgia, before reporting for active duty at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.
- Second Lieutenant Isabel Eddy concentrated in integrative biology with a secondary concentration in environmental science and public policy. She will report to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for active duty as an adjutant general officer.
- Second Lieutenant Luis Esteva Sueiro studied group dynamics and will report to Fort Moore, for active duty as a military intelligence officer, branch detail Infantry.
- Second Lieutenant Owen O’Connor concentrated in economics and will report to Vicenza, Italy, as a military intelligence officer, branch detail Infantry.
- Second Lieutenant Ryan Kong concentrated in East Asian studies, with a secondary concentration in government, and will report to Camp Casey, South Korea, as an ordnance officer on active duty.
- Second Lieutenant Asher Spain concentrated in applied math and will serve as an engineer officer, branch detail Armor, after first earning a master’s degree in government as an Anna Sobel Levy Fellow in Israel.
Navy:
- Ensign Ashley Chung concentrated in economics, with a secondary concentration in East Asian studies, and will begin active duty in Charleston, South Carolina, as a submarine officer.
- Ensign Aaron Eudaimon concentrated in applied mathematics, with a secondary concentration in government, and will begin active duty in Charleston, as a submarine officer.
- Ensign Anne Foley concentrated in computer science and will begin active duty in Charleston, South Carolina, as a submarine officer.
- Ensign Zack Foltz concentrated in molecular and cellular biology and commissioned as a naval intelligence officer. His first duty station is in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
- Ensign Christian McIver concentrated in applied mathematics and commissioned as a submarine warfare officer. His first duty station will be in Charleston,.
- Ensign Ryan Tierney concentrated in history and literature, with a secondary concentration in economics, and will begin service as a submarine officer in Charleston.
Marine Corps:
- Second Lieutenant Edwin Jin concentrated in history and East Asian studies, and will serve as a ground officer. He will attend The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia.
- Second Lieutenant Nicholas Marcenelle concentrated in economics and earned a citation in Spanish, and he will attend The Basic School in Quantico.
Air Force:
- Second Lieutenant Jasmine Adams concentrated in biomedical engineering, and earned a secondary concentration in theater, dance, and media. She will serve as an acquisitions officer, reporting to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
- Second Lieutenant Brad Campbell concentrated in computer science with a secondary concentration in psychology. He will report to Fort Meade, Maryland, to serve as a development engineer officer.
- Second Lieutenant Milo Clark concentrated in physics and earned a citation in Spanish. He will report to Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, to serve as an intelligence officer.
- Second Lieutenant Kaylee Kim concentrated in government and East Asian studies, and in 2025 she will report to Goodfellow Air Force Base as an intelligence officer.
- Second Lieutenant Hayden Teeter concentrated in history and will report to Goodfellow Air Force Base as an intelligence officer.
- Second Lieutenant Derek Vastola concentrated in biomedical engineering and will serve as an operations research analyst at the Air Force research laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
- Second Lieutenant Jack Walker concentrated in chemistry, with a secondary in environmental science and public policy. He will attend Georgetown University before beginning service as a weather and environmental science officer.
- Second Lieutenant Kayra Yaman concentrated in Near Eastern languages and civilizations and will spend a year in Egypt on an Arabic scholarship before reporting for duty as an intelligence officer at Goodfellow Air Force Base.
