Thank you, Major Swain.
Welcome, General Clark and distinguished guests. Welcome, parents, family, and friends. I am pleased to be here with you and grateful for the opportunity to acknowledge the achievements of our graduating cadets.
You are heirs to the legacies of two great American institutions: Harvard University and the United States military. Excellence has flourished at their intersection for centuries. Members of our community have been decorated with the highest honors from each of the service branches. And we proudly claim more Congressional Medal of Honor recipients than any college or university other than the service academies.
Tens of thousands of Harvard students and alumni have chosen to answer the call of duty, serving with distinction, making sacrifices for the ideals of this great nation, and contributing to the public good. Among them are 136 sons of Harvard who lost their lives fighting for the Union cause during the Civil War, their names engraved on plaques throughout the quiet transept into which we entered Memorial Hall today.
Edward Hutchinson Robbins Revere, plaque 3, grandson of Paul Revere, Harvard College student, and Harvard Medical School graduate, Class of 1849. When the war broke out, he “looked to know where he was most needed,” advocating in Boston for special lectures on military surgery to aid the cause before heading to the battlefield to serve as a physician. He treated his patients “under the fire of the enemy” with the tools afforded by a hospital knapsack. He was captured and imprisoned in Richmond, Virginia, for four months, during which time he faithfully tended to the sick and injured. Upon being exchanged and released, he returned to his post—saving countless limbs and lives before he was shot and killed at Antietam. Despite every circumstance, Dr. Revere was remembered by many for his “cheerfulness and kindness,” “gentle, honorable, and faithful” to the last.
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. 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.
In you, our graduates, we see the potential created when excellence, purpose, and service combine. We honor your selfless choice to support and defend the Constitution. That you have made such a choice distinguishes you in ways worthy of our admiration and respect.
I hope that these years of effort—and years of friendship—have bonded you for life. And I hope that you will return to us, when time allows, and share the experience and wisdom that you will no doubt gain through service.
Thank you.