Serving Others, Serving Their Country: Georgetown Alumni in Iraq
June 1, 2009
The experience of three recent graduates – whose years at Georgetown were bookended by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – demonstrates how Georgetown continues to prepare students for service and leadership of all kinds. Like many of their fellow soldiers, Lt. Henry Brewster (F’06), Lt. Dave Baker (C’06) and Capt. Daniel Feehan (F'05) were motivated to join by the events of 2001.
“After the attacks, I wanted to contribute something to the common good,” Baker says of his decision to apply for an Army ROTC scholarship, “partly to help pay my way and partly to serve.” Brewster was additionally spurred by family history, as his father had served in the Navy ROTC and his brother preceded him in the Army ROTC.
Feehan, who was a freshman at Georgetown in September 2001, had been in JROTC in high school but was not part of ROTC when first coming to Georgetown. The attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center changed that. “Witnessing that event firsthand was an impressing and lasting experience for me, and sparked a serious interest in military service,” Feehan says. “I found the Army ROTC office at Georgetown and joined fully by my sophomore year.”
