On the walls of the Army War College campus, bronze plaques list the names of graduates going back generations. Occasionally a name is conspicuously absent — or rather, present as a visible erasure where a name once was. Officers who later disgraced themselves or the institution have their names physically removed, leaving a blank patch that is in some ways more striking than the name itself.
This curiosity is worth a look if you are already on the campus visiting the War College or the barracks. It is easy to miss if you are not looking for it, but once you know what you are seeing, those smooth patches in the metal carry a weight out of proportion to their size.