Capt. Jeffrey Keho, USN, had a lot to worry about on the morning of Sept. 11.

The incoming freshman class of Northwestern’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps was going through orientation at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center when news arrived that an airplane had plunged into the side of the Pentagon.

“There was some major perturbations because of changes in force pretection condition — terrorist stance,” he recalls.

But the shutdown was only temporary, and NROTC quickly got back on its feet.

“Basically, they ended up losing a day, ” says Keho, who has been at NU for the past year.

“Our midshipmen staff that was conducting it kept their cool about it and did a good job completing that training. That was a big plus.”

Sept. 11 brought a Keho a different kind of surprise than the one experienced by most Americans.

“Those of us who have been around or overseas were aware of the potential (for an attack),” Keho said. “But I think we were as shocked as anybody else at the sophistication and the success that they had.”

For the commanding officer, an international perspective also comes into play. “We’re the last country to experience terrorism. Everyone else has been dealing with this for some time,” he said.

But even if, as Keho put it, the attacks changed “the whole reality of living in the United States,” they have only strengthened the resolve of the NROTC.

“We’re not a big presence on campus,” he said. “I think our students in the program have some sense of purpose, whereas maybe (before) it was the scholarship and then ‘we’ll worry about what happens later on.’ There’s a sense of greater meaning to what they’re doing.”

NROTC classes, meanwhile, have remained mostly the same. “Our (cirriculum) is fairly fundamental,” he notes.

With his military experience, Keho feels differently about recent displays of flag waving and patriotic singing than many Americans. “I guess it doesn’t disturb me,” he said, “but I think it’s simply an emotional reaction. The flag stands for something. Waving it without understanding it is fairly shallow.”

“If you wrap yourself in the flag to abuse an innocent person,” Keho said, “that isn’t what it’s all about.”

He added that, “a lot of people who hang it out don’t know how to hang it.”

Keho also called for tolerance.

“I’m concerned that we not target our own citizens or our own people because of ethnic or religious or any other sort of surface associations which have nothing to do with identity as a terrorist.”

The captain admits that the road ahead is uncharted. Keho notes that this will be an unusual kind of war. “The front lines aren’t drawn on the front lines. The front lines could be Hometown, USA.”

But we’ve come along way in the context of history. “Where once were supporting Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, now the Russians are supporting us as we try to deal with part of the aftermath of that struggle,” Keho said. “It’s an interesting, complex world.”