Wedding Military Means Divorcing Manhattan

When her Manhattan colleagues found out Chloe Kamarck was marrying an Army officer, she got a lot of questions: “But why? So he supports the war? Is he a Republican?” This generation is into service—the recession has driven many to the Peace Corps, Teach for America, and the like—but as during Vietnam, the military carries a stigma, especially amongst the upper classes, Kamarck writes for Vogue.

Once powerful families like the Kennedys and the Bushes took pride in their military service; now, they avoid it like the plague. Schools like Harvard and Columbia still ban on-campus ROTC programs. “The tacit lesson for the elite is that military service is not for their kind.” There are cultural differences—Kamarck thought she’d be dating at the MoMA, not Chili’s—but they're superficial. “It took me a while to warm up to his buzz cut, but his patriotism was contagious.” (More Manhattan stories.)