Perspective: At nation's oldest private military academy, casualties hit home

On September 19, 2005, Vermont Army National Guard 1st Lt. Mark Dooley, class of 2001, was killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi. In all, four Norwich graduates have died in Iraq.

NORTHFIELD, Vt. --On Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center towers burned, Jonathan Pride watched from the fifth floor of Port Richmond High School in Staten Island, N.Y.

He learned then that his country wasn't safe from attack.

Last week, Pride learned again how vulnerable Americans can be, when two former students at Norwich University were killed while serving in Iraq.

"It's kind of like surreal now because before I heard names, you know, and I saw pictures and I didn't know them so it was kind of removed," said Pride, a senior cadet who will graduate next month, becoming a U.S. Army lieutenant. "Now, it's somebody I know. It's kind of like 'Wow, there really is a war out there.'"

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