While Dartmouth students were struggling to wake in time for their 10As, Tim McNamara '78 was defending U.S. Navy ships from terrorist attack.
McNamara -- who manages graduate student homes and new housing projects for the Dartmouth Real Estate Office -- is a commander in the Navy Reserves. As one of only two College employees on active duty in recent months, he recently spent five months in Newport, R.I., before he went abroad for two months to Tarragona, a port-city in Spain. He returned home to New Hampshire last June.
McNamara served as an intelligence officer in a harbor defense command unit, mostly considering security arrangements for American ships docked at foreign ports.
"It's primarily anti-terrorism," McNamara said. "We coordinate units that have shore patrols, small boats that patrol harbors and detection equipment, like low-light or radar equipment."
McNamara, who enlisted in the reserves 18 years ago, usually dons his uniform for only one weekend per month and two weeks during the summer. He speculated that his recent activation came because of his unit's anti-terrorist specialty.
"After September 11th, anti-terrorism became key and we were mobilized almost immediately," McNamara said.
McNamara typically changes units every two years and, as a result, has experienced life in a variety of different naval positions, he said.
"I've been everything from an intelligence analyst to the executive officer of a reserve SEAL team to the executive officer of a special operations unit based in Korea. I've done a little bit of it all," McNamara said.
Although he declined to comment on the current conflict in Iraq, McNamara acknowledged the right of recent anti-war activists to assemble both on- and off-campus.
"I think that people are entitled to their opinions, and it's a wonderful thing that we have the ability to disagree," McNamara said.
However, McNamara was critical of a recent act of violence against a member of the military allegedly committed by a protestor. "That gets beyond policy and into taking it out on individuals," he said.
A larger problem, McNamara said, may be the notable disconnect between civilians and the military.
"A lot of it depends on where you are, geographically and socioeconomically. If you look at the southern U.S., they're much closer to [the military] and have a better understanding of it. Here in the Northeast, we don't get much exposure to it," McNamara said.
McNamara speculated that there is particularly little awareness of the challenges of life in the armed forces among college students.
"I would love to see more folks from the Ivies in the military. I think it's a good thing for them to understand, and it's a good thing for the military," McNamara said.
"Northern New England is not a big military hotbed," McNamara said. "There are quite a few National Guard folks, but the rest are rather sparse."
