Columbia University Heckles War Hero and one of their own.

MATTHEW MCDERMOTT

CLASH: Veteran Anthony Maschek (above, with fiancée Angela O'Neill) faced heckling from fellow Columbia students over ROTC (below).

Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus.

"Racist!" some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Hear

t after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.

Maschek, 28, had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue an impassioned challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military.

"It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting," said Maschek. "There are bad men out there plotting to kill you."

Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds.

Maschek, who is studying economics, miraculously survived the insurgent attack in Kirkuk. In the hail of gunfire, he broke both legs and suffered wounds to his abdomen, arm and chest.

He enrolled last August at the Ivy League school, where an increasingly ugly battle is unfolding over the 42-year military ban there. More than half of the students who spoke at the meeting -- the second of three hearings on the subject -- expressed opposition to ROTC's return.

J.C. RICE

From:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hero_unwelcome_Zi3u1fwtRpo87vXAiAQfSN

It is disappointing that these students are being so shortsided. They are saying, "hey, we are anti military and we don't want your program at our school" - for whatever reasons they select.

Instead they could be welcoming the opportunity to educate future leaders of the military. If they don't like war/conflict - ignoring it will not make it go away. If they don't agree with policy - talk to politicians. If they don't like the way the military is run, train those who will be leading it.

There will be other schools who will educate military leaders, and it seems Columbia would rather put their head in the sand and heckle those willing to protect their rights to heckle.