Arnold E. Resnicoff oral history interview

Arnold E. Resnicoff, Dartmouth College Class of 1968. Oral history interview documenting his military service during the Vietnam War. Resnicoff discusses his childhood in the suburbs of Washington, DC, including his family and the role of Judaism in his life. He describes his undergraduate years at Dartmouth, including membership in Sigma Phi Epsilon and the Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (NROTC) as well as participation in student dramatic productions. He discusses the campus climate prior to coeducation and the growing presence of anti-war activism at Dartmouth. Resnicoff recounts taking a year off between his sophomore and junior years to work on a kibbutz in Israel through Sherut La’am, and studying abroad in Bourges, France during his senior year. He describes his service in the Navy following graduation, including training in San Diego, California and his role as a communications officer onboard a command ship in Vietnam and Cambodia. Resnicoff describes his career in the Navy following his return from Vietnam: studies at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California; service in naval intelligence; studies at Jewish Theological Seminary while serving in the Navy Reserve; and 25 years as a rabbi and chaplain with postings in Japan, Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, Naval Training Center Orlando in Florida, and Stuttgart, Germany, as command chaplain for the U.S. European Command.