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Yale undergraduates and alumni have a record of service
to their country that originated with the founding of the Republic and
continues to this day. Captain Nathan Hale of the Class of 1773 was
captured by the British and executed in September of 1776. He died, by the
most famous account, with the words: “I only regret that I have but one
life to lose for my country.” This first great military hero of the
American Revolution is honored with a landmark statue on the Old Campus.
Since Hale’s day, Yale College men – and, since 1969,
women- have continued to make their mark upon the nation, many through
military service. Large numbers of them began their service through ROTC
and other programs while studying at Yale. Prior to the United States’
entry into World War I, a group of Yale students were themselves
instrumental in founding what would eventually develop into today’s Naval
Air Reserve. One of them, David Ingalls, ’20, went on to become the first
air ace in naval aviation history and is now remembered at Yale as the
namesake of the Ingalls Rink, home of Yale’s hockey teams. Another member
of that group, Robert Lovett, ’18, served in later years as Secretary of
Defense; in his honor, Yale created a major endowed, senior faculty chair,
the Robert A. Lovett Professorship of Military and Naval History, in the
Department of History.
Time and again when called upon by their country, Yale
graduates have served in the armed forces in disproportionately large
numbers, when compared to the alumni and student bodies of other
universities. Many have held leadership positions at the higher ranks, and
some have used their military experience to benefit society in other ways,
holding important posts in business, government and education.
Others have given their lives in pursuing their duty.
Yale honors them in perpetuity with the inscription of their names,
classes and records of service in the rotunda of Woolsey Hall, the
University’s largest auditorium, and with the World War I Memorial in the
Hewitt Quadrangle.
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