Many of the veterans currently enrolled at Harvard Law School carry the lessons learned in the military into the law school classroom. Their service and unique perspective enriches the entire HLS community, elevating awareness about the legal and policy issues affecting veterans and the significance of law in contemporary warfare.
Two years ago, stationed in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan as a platoon leader with the U.S. Army, then-Lieutenant David E. White Jr. ’17 found himself early one morning sipping tea with a village elder while explaining why his men were searching for bomb-making materials. Outreach to locals, and showing respect to their leaders, is essential in fighting the insurgency:“We want the local populace on our side as much as possible,” says White, a 2009 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
“Little did I know, as I was leaning up against a six-inch wall made of mud, clay and hay, that behind that wall was over 300 pounds of homemade explosives,” recalls White, whose men found the cache hidden under a haystack. With that discovery, and the detention of seven insurgents, the mission crippled the region’s deadliest bomb-making cell. “Our platoon got very lucky that day,” he says.
During his year-long deployment, White, born and raised in upstate New York to a family with a history of military service, led his 21-man platoon on other missions including re-integrating former Taliban fighters into Afghan society, training more than 150 Afghan National Security Forces on the role of the military and police in a constitutional society, and leading his unit’s strike force to partner with special forces from various branches of the U.S military and other nations to capture mid-level Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents. To undermine Taliban funds, White also instituted an alternative seed program for local farmers to persuade them not to grow poppy. Continue Reading »
[from Harvard Law Today]