Lincoln – The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is planning a construction project to recognize military service. It would be located between the Military and Naval Science building (M&N) and Memorial Stadium, featuring glass panels.
According to a Lincoln television report, more input is being sought from veterans. Some veterans interviewed had their own ideas. One said "I think they can come up with a better design besides the panels." Another said making it more personalized would better represent veterans.
I'm of the same mind about the panels (see Part II), but more concerned about the overall approach. According to a UNL press statement, "The campus panels will illustrate the multiple facets of a service member’s life, including the importance of family, faith and camaraderie, while also depicting the personal sacrifice that military service entails." The $4.5 million project, to be paid for by contributions, is to create a space "showing the university’s values and its commitment to telling the story of our military-connected students, faculty, staff, alumni and public.”
The danger in this project is that it will be a generic, platitudinous paste-up that could be anywhere, in countless places across the country. And that it could be interpreted as jingoistic, or even confused with disinformation that targets veterans with similar efforts and images, not to be supportive but to be divisive.* Divisiveness has a history at the site, as the M&N building was once occupied in a war protest, as ably recounted in Robert Knoll's Prairie University, pp. 151-155. The Board of Regents' reputation suffered; it was a low point in NU history.
Perhaps it is not too late to make some changes to the project.
I am twice an NU graduate who received my commission in the regular Navy at the M&N building. I held a Navy ID card of some type – midshipman, active duty, reserve, retired reserve – for 44 years altogether. My commitment to veterans remains strong, as an original supporter behind the non-profit organization Veterans Education Success, the work of which was featured last week in a New York Times editorial.
I am also one veteran and NU alum who thinks the tribute as planned misses an opportunity and could likewise be more thought-provoking about the vicissitudes of war.
The opportunity being missed is to connect the site of tribute to the personal histories of great leaders who taught and studied on the NU campus specifically. General John J. Pershing was a professor of military science, but he also taught math to a wider circle of students and took law courses himself to obtain a law degree. His military science students included Frederic Clements, who went on to found the discipline of plant ecology, and Frank Eager, who as a lawyer became the clerk of the Nebraska House of Representatives and later won a Silver Star in the Battle of Manila.
Nearby Love Library housed cadets trained by NU faculty in WWII, as did the field house. Heading a special military college back then were professors Joseph Alexis, C. Bertrand Schultz, Olin J. Ferguson, and Charles H. Oldfather, whose contributions are in danger of being forgotten. GIs with educational benefits thronged to the campus in the 1940s and 50s. Temporary buildings were constructed to handle increased enrollment, as shown at right in this 1950 photo.
Positive connections between the military and the rest of the academy are manifold. How appropriate it would be to note several such connections at the site to make this a unique tribute, one that could exist nowhere else.
Pershing's particular experience is also a cautionary tale, worthy of special notice for its illustration of the terrible side of war. As commander of the American Expeditionary Forces at the bloody Meuse-Argonne offensive in World War I, "General Pershing was nearing a nervous breakdown. One officer witnessed 'Black Jack' sitting in his staff car, sobbing and calling for his wife, who had died three years earlier in a tragic fire. Pershing now performed the most courageous and self-effacing act of his distinguished military career. He realized it was time for a change. Relinquishing his battlefield command.., Pershing handed over control of the 1st Army...."**
Pershing's self-effacing example is inspirational. It does not glorify war, but reveals its realities, its truths (surely a university value). The reality of war must be conveyed in any tribute to those who serve in uniform.
Pershing went on to write his account of the war; it won a Pulitzer prize. At the Pulitzer ceremony, Willa Cather, his math student in Lincoln, paid homage to her professor. Cather herself won a Pulitzer for One Of Ours, her account of World War I from the standpoint of a Nebraska soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice. A quote from that work would be fitting for the UNL project.
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*See the Department of Justice indictments of the "Being Patriotic" disinformation appeals to veterans.
**Lengel, Edward, http://www.edwardlengel.com/americas-finest-general-hunter-liggett-turns-the-tide/ downloaded January 4, 2020.
