The schedule for Dartmouth Homecoming 2012 includes a range of events and activities, including a panel discussion with Dartmouth President Emeritus James Wright and Trustee Nathaniel Fick ’99 entitled “Hometown Heroes: Perspectives on the American Military Experience.“
 The discussion will be held from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 27, in the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center’s Oopik Auditorium.

Wright is the author of Those Who Have Borne the Battle: A History of American Wars and Those Who Fought Them and Fick is the author of One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer. Excerpts from both books were featured in the September/October 2012 issue of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.

From Those Who Have Borne the Battle: A History of American Wars and Those Who Fought Them:

When the United States and some allies went into Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks in order to root out the Taliban and to find or kill Osama bin Laden, I thought it was a justifiable action. When we went into Iraq 18 months later, it seemed neither justifiable nor wise.

In the fall of 2004, however, I was surprised at how engaged emotionally I became with the battle for Fallujah, and was increasingly impressed by the soldiers and Marines fighting there. Maybe I identified with them as someone who had been a young Marine 45 years earlier. More important, they were the age of the Dartmouth students for whom I was responsible.

Read the full story, published in the September/October 2012 issue of ‘Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.’

From One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer:

North of Ar Rifa, we spotted the battalion’s fireflies flashing in a field east of the highway and silently rolled into the perimeter. While the platoon prepared for the long drive to Qalat Sukkar, Gunny Wynn and I sat in on a brief of the night’s mission. I was reaching a numbed equilibrium where nothing fazed me. In the past 12 hours I had been shot at by other Marines, overseen the killing of a group of men intent on killing us, watched artillery pour into a crowded town, nearly been killed by my own commanding officer, and now was about to be launched on a long-range mission into enemy territory.

Read the full story, published in the September/October 2012 issue of ‘Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.’