On the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army, two graduating seniors received their military commissions on Saturday as second lieutenants in the Army and Marine Corps in a ceremony at Loew Auditorium attended by friends, family, and colleagues.
Dylan Griffith ’25, a government major from Cambridge, Mass., will commission into the Army’s Individual Ready Reserve while also attending American University Washington College of Law.
Justin Paré ’25, a quantitative social sciences major from Bedford, Mass., will attend The Basic School in Quantico, Va., along with other newly commissioned second lieutenants in the Marine Corps.
Capt. Ian Short, the director of the , introduced the reading of the commissioning warrants and the administration of the oath of office. Robert Gray, Griffith’s middle school math teacher and who served in the Marines, administered the oath to his former student. First Lt. Tyler Corbin, a Marine Corps recruiter for New England, administered the oath to Paré.
Callum and Duncan Griffith then pinned second lieutenant bars on their brother’s uniform, while Paré’s parents, Christina and Mark Paré, performed the honor for their son.
, a member of the Board of Trustees, spoke at the ceremony. Harris is a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she also directs the Brain Injury Program.
“It is a profound honor to be here today to recognize and celebrate an important moment in the lives of two exceptional Dartmouth cadets as they receive their commissions,” she said.
As a neurosurgeon treating trauma patients, Harris said she has “witnessed the physical and psychological burdens borne by those who serve. And I have also witnessed resilience, the kind of resilience forged by training, by bonds of comradeship, and by the profound sense of purpose.”
The commissioning of the two cadets represents more than a ceremony, Harris said.
“It is a solemn commitment to serve, to lead, and to protect the values that sustain our nation. We gather at a juncture when global security is perhaps more precarious than it has been in decades.”
Harris also paid tribute to the legacy of the late Dartmouth president Jim Wright, “whose commitment to military students has shaped the support systems many of you have relied on,” she said.
Part of the legacy that Wright left behind, Harris said, was that the “journey of a military leader is not solitary. It is supported by family, mentors, institutions, and communities that value your service and your sacrifice. It is a journey that demands continuous learning and principled courage, often in circumstances of great challenge.”
At the end of the ceremony the military officers and audience stood to sing The Army Song and The Marines’ Hymn, followed by a reception in the Black Family Visual Arts Center atrium.
Dylan Griffith ’25—Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army
Born and raised in Cambridge, Mass., Griffith will commission into the Individual Ready Reserve while he attends law school. Following law school, Griffith plans to serve in the Judge General Advocate’s Corps. At Dartmouth, the government major and law and public policy minor was president of the Mock Trial Society and vice president of the Dartmouth Political Union. He also was a policy researcher for the Rockefeller Center and president of Beta Alpha Omega fraternity.
Justin Paré ’25—Second Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps
Paré, a Bedford, Mass., native, completed Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Va., last summer and is being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps.
The Quantitative Social Sciences major also played on the Dartmouth Rugby Football Club and was awarded the Andrew Warden Edson Memorial Prize for academic excellence in government courses. He was also a rush chair for the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. Paré hopes to become an infantry officer and after his tour in the military is completed also plans to pursue a law degree.
