From the Editor

MEET Josiah Bunting and you want to snap to attention and bark, “Yes, sir!” Major General Bunting, superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute, is 6’4″ and seems taller. He has the short hair and strong jaw of a Marine, and when he tells of leading VMI cadets on a 15-mile march last year, the only wonder is that it wasn’t longer. Then he explains this year’s plan: 82 miles.

Bunting is rugged, a disciplinarian who talks of VMI’s rigors—“the minute regulation of behavior,” as he puts it— with relish. But he gets just as excited talking about Newman. Or Thucydides. Or Plato. He tosses off words like “eupeptic” and “plangent,” and makes enough literary references to fill a George Will column.

About the Author

Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

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MEET Josiah Bunting and you want to snap to attention and bark, “Yes, sir!” Major General Bunting, superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute, is 6’4″ and seems taller. He has the short hair and strong jaw of a Marine, and when he tells of leading VMI cadets on a 15-mile march last year, the only wonder is that it wasn’t longer. Then he explains this year’s plan: 82 miles.

Bunting is rugged, a disciplinarian who talks of VMI’s rigors—“the minute regulation of behavior,” as he puts it— with relish. But he gets just as excited talking about Newman. Or Thucydides. Or Plato. He tosses off words like “eupeptic” and “plangent,” and makes enough literary references to fill a George Will column.