Long before TCU had our ROTC program, we had soldiers.

As far back as World War I, TCU students combined coursework with formal military training. They lived under a regimented schedule, dug trenches on campus and prepared for the rigors of service.

Veterans Plaza was dedicated in 1923. It remains at the heart of our campus today, offering a fountain, a grove of trees and places to sit and reflect.

That continuity is important. Military service is more than the subject of this issue of TCU Magazine. It is one of the threads woven through the history of this university, connecting generations of Horned Frogs who answered difficult calls and carried the consequences of war home.

In these pages, we look back at Maj. Horace Carswell Jr. ’39, TCU’s Medal of Honor recipient, and we encounter scholars through the LCpl. Benjamin W. Schmidt Symposium on War, Conflict, and Society, which asks the hardest questions about what war costs.

I am proud that the university has joined a national effort to recover Americans who never came home, including 22 Horned Frogs who remain missing in action.

This bond across generations is part of what it means to belong to TCU.

We inherit more than a history. We inherit a responsibility to remember people well, to ask difficult questions with courage and compassion, and to care for one another across generations.

Where we began matters. What we choose to carry forward matters even more.

Lead On and Go Frogs!