Well, OK, it’s a travel story and the author is not a staff writer, but still:
In the memorial garden just outside the museum entrance, a wall filled with plaques commemorates VMI graduates who died serving their country. It is not on the battlefield at New Market or inside the museum in Lexington, but there, looking at the modest bronze memorials, that you get the truest measure of VMI.
I don’t suppose anybody wants a war, but looking at the history of sacrifice by the graduates of VMI, you begin to think that when there is one, it might be a good idea to have the folks from VMI on your side.
The decadence of our elites is underlined by the fact that Harvard’s Memorial Chapel, to take one example I’ve seen myself, also has a list of students who died serving their country, starting with WWII believe, but you couldn’t say the author’s second sentence above today with a straight face if you replaced “VMI” with “Harvard.”