Looking out a bay door in a CH-53 Super Stallion chopper, high above the Afghan desert where you're about to fight for your life, your college education may not mean much.
Dartmouth graduates have found this out for themselves, as troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan reflected on their wartime experiences in recent interviews with The Dartmouth.
Nathaniel Fick '99 served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps, giving him ample time to contemplate the difference between Dartmouth and the military.
"What you got on your SATs doesn't mean a thing at the gates of Baghdad," Fick said. "It matters that you're street smart, committed and courageous."
Competence, not level of education, is what counts most in the field, Fick said. The difference between him and the enlisted men had more to do with his increased administrative responsibilities than their different upbringings.
In the early months of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Fick led a convoy of five Humvees into combat to secure a critical bridge en route to Baghdad. The operation was conducted in the dead of night -- and the thought of ambush weighed on the men's minds.
With the lives of 22 men and the fate of a crucial target in his hands, though, Fick felt pressure to maintain an upbeat front. He gave a rallying pep talk to urge his soldiers forward.
"Emotionally, psychologically, nothing could have prepared me for this," said Fick. "It's a break from any previous experience. A different set of rules apply."
But the 25-year-old first lieutenant did have his education to call upon, which he said prepared him to make difficult ethical choices.
An emphasis on individual thought prevailed in Special Operations, Fick said.
"He who adapts fastest, wins," he said.
Fick has returned home to the United States safely, and has moved on from his military career to focus on graduate school.
Meanwhile, Army Lieutenant Colonel Jim Bullion '78 Tu '82 remains in Iraq. He is stationed in the Kurdish city of Irbil, about 5 hours north of Baghdad.
Bullion's family has a long history of military service, so it was natural for him to join the Army, he said. During his tenure at Dartmouth, the ROTC program had been exiled in the post-Vietnam fallout, so he drove hours each week to Norwich University to serve.
He began his career in the Infantry, a combat division, but has since moved to Civil Affairs, an Army Special Operations Command. CA is an unusual military branch, 90 percent comprised of reservists.
"Our role is to manage interactions and relationships with the civilian population and to win the "hearts and minds" of the people," Bullion told The Dartmouth. "Our battalion has engineers, postal employees, lawyers, doctors, police officers, firefighters and businesspeople, all bringing skills that can help a war-torn community get back on its feet."
Bullion has positive memories of his arrival in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, where residents suffered particularly under Saddam Hussein's regime.
"That drive is one I will never forget -- people lined the road clapping, cheering, throwing flowers and cigarettes at us. The joy, relief and gratitude they expressed was unforgettable -- we were true liberators, and they were thrilled to see us," he said.
Hussein systematically displaced or killed thousands and bulldozed their villages in a calculated attempt to drive them out of strategic areas, such as the oil-rich region of Kirkuk, said Bullion.
Bullion helped launched the "Iraqi Retired General Officers Association," which engaged former enemy officers in rebuild Iraq.
Both Fick and Bullion shared an appreciation for the education that served as prelude to their combat experience.
Fick said his Dartmouth education laid groundwork for his belief that protecting our culture means fighting for it when necessary.
A classics major, he learned about the foundations of democracy by studying the ancient Greeks. He cited Greek culture as the "birthplace of... our liberal society and education system. But it was also a warrior culture."
Still, "it's very easy to lose yourself in the bubble [of the safe Dartmouth community]," said Fick. "You have to realize what's going on in the larger world. It's easy for students to be critical from the sidelines, but it's harder to make those decisions when they're real."
