The "news hook" was the 50th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War in July 1953. Unfortunately, the story of life at Colby during wartime a half-century ago was made even more timely by imminent war in Iraq and ominous rumblings in North Korea.

Fifty years from now will another editor here explore life during the U.S.-Iraq war of 2003? Or will it be an anniversary of a second Korean War that will prompt Colby to look back a half-century? If those stories--and conflicts--come to pass, how different will they be from the Colby war years chronicled in this issue?

Very different, most likely, because the College in 1953 was of a drastically different time.

Few Colby students today (and even students of my generation) can fathom mandatory marching in uniform and lockstep on the lawn in front of Miller Library. They can only imagine what it would be like to sit in the steeple of Lorimer Chapel all night, searching the night sky for aircraft that might be headed to attack some city to our south. And while final exams might be stressful today, consider the stress of being drafted into war right out of your exam chair.

These are some of the experiences related by Korean War-era alumni in this issue. They recall a time when the American people were less quick to question the actions and motives of their leaders and felt it was every American's duty to serve his or her country in some way. It was a time when Americans went to war despite having recent and vivid memories of the horrors and privations of combat.

A mere dozen years later, the mood on college campuses had changed markedly. Reserve Officer Training Corps had dwindled to a handful of candidates at Colby and marches were more likely to be protests than parades in Air Force blue.

Today, as war looms, we are marching neither in mass protest at Colby nor in uniform. If war begins in coming weeks it will be a high-tech sort of affair, fought by professionals with arms and equipment of mind-boggling sophistication. It's unlikely that it will be fought by many Colby students, though some will be on the ground, in the cockpit, at the computer screens (see the letter from Ethan Platt '96 in this issue). That would stand in contrast to the Korean War experience, which one veteran described as "trying to do it with patchwork. . . . At least today our army is professional," he said.

Still, there is something to be said for a citizen army and lessons to be learned from the Colby alumni who served a half-century ago. They tell their stories with grace and humility; it's important that we listen.