Carrying the Colors

Norwich University cadets took the field at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 8, serving as color guard for the New England Patriots’ home game against the Green Bay Packers.

The cadets, members of the Corps of Cadets, represented the university before a national television audience and a stadium crowd in the tens of thousands. The duty is a familiar one for Norwich. The Norwich University Color Guard carries the colors of the United States, Vermont, the Armed Services and the university at ceremonies on campus and across the region. In 1975, the governor of Vermont designated the unit the official Color Guard of Vermont.

The appearance came three days before Veterans Day, a fitting moment for a university whose identity is bound to military service. Norwich was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. Partridge believed that an educated citizenry should be ready to serve the nation in both peace and war. That idea, the citizen-soldier, shaped the Corps of Cadets and, in time, the nation’s approach to officer education. Norwich is recognized as the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, which has since commissioned generations of leaders across the armed services.

That tradition is carried today by cadets who raise and lower the colors across the Northfield campus in every kind of weather, and who balance that duty with academics and Corps responsibilities. The work is quiet and exacting, and it asks for the discipline, teamwork, and composure the university has built for more than two centuries.

Carrying the colors in Foxborough placed those habits in front of a large audience. For the cadets, it was an opportunity to represent Norwich and Vermont at one of New England’s most visible venues. For the University, it was another example of a Norwich education: service to something larger than oneself, performed with pride.