Grads

I would like to call your attention to an article in the November 23 New York Times “Sunday Review,’’ an opinion piece titled, “When Is a War Over?” The piece was written by Eliza- beth D. Samet, a teacher at West Point as well as an author. It features a visit by her colleague Major Stoney Portis (MALS’13) to her class on world literature. Stoney also teaches literature at West Point. In the article Samet explores what the experiences of Alexander the Great and Major Portis tell us about America’s long war in Afghanistan. Stoney was invited to dis- cuss his deployment in Afghanistan’s northern provinces of Kunar and Nuristan, in the Hindu Kush. The tribesmen in this area told Stoney they were familiar with the legends of Alexander and his army, which fought in the same area more than 300 years B.C. Samet quotes Stoney, “The blond and redheaded Nuristanis who dotted the mountainsides took pride in the idea that they de- scended from Alexander’s Greeks and outlasted conquerors for millennia.”

After 10 years of marching and conquer- ing, Alexander’s troops finally mutinied against him in India. Alexander had achieved his initial purpose of defeating the Persians and uniting the Greek city-states. However, his goal shifted and no longer had an end point. While his men wanted to go home, Alexander wanted to fight his way to the ends of the known world.

In Samet’s estimation, “Major Portis is a practitioner, a man valued in military culture for his experience, but he came back to West Point to teach because he so forcefully believes in the necessity of studying with depth and care the stories of others to fill in the inevitable gaps in our experience.”

Stoney writes that teaching is his most ful- filling job in the Army as well as one of the most challenging. His 1-and-a-half-year-old son, Leif, has given him an entirely new perspective on life.

175 Greensboro Road, Hanover, NH 03755; (603) 643-3789; m.jane.welsh.gr@ dartmouth.edu