A New Hampshire lawyer, currently serving in Afghanistan, has resigned from his job as a law professor at a Massachusetts university after a colleague wrote in an email that sending care packages to U.S troops serving overseas was "shameful."

U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Robert Roughsedge, a Hampton resident, has resigned his position teaching law at Suffolk University in Boston, after a fellow professor, Michael Avery, sent out an email to university colleagues attacking the school's efforts to collect and ship care packages to U.S. soldiers serving on foreign soil.

"I was disgusted, but not surprised," Roughsedge said in an email to the New Hampshire Union Leader from Afganistan. "Professor Avery is a radical."

Fox News reported Avery wrote in his email, "I think it is shameful that it is perceived as legitimate to solicit in an academic institution for support for men and women who have gone overseas to kill other human beings. Why are we sending support to the military instead of Americans who are losing their homes malnourished, unable to get necessary medical care, and suffering from other consequences of poverty? As a university community, we should debate these questions, not remain on automatic pilot in support of the war agenda."

Roughsedge had been a member of the adjunct faculty at Suffolk University for eight years prior to his resignation, teaching a course on the law and how it relates to counter-terrorism efforts.

"When I saw the statements from the Dean of Suffolk Law and the President of Suffolk, I made my decision" to resign, he said in his email.

"They did not condemn his statements at all. They meant to gloss over this as if he was suggesting ending a public policy or changing a law — both are things that he is encouraged to do. But his personal hatred of the troops, sent out to the entire faculty is his way of bullying everyone into submission." he said.

"Avery is very powerful there and very few will cross him," Roughsedge said. "How many would openly support the troops after his tirade on email? We have our answer. None of the full-time faculty have stepped up."

Roughsedge said he is "receiving emails from around the globe on our email network, from people I have never met, praising my actions. Soldiers of all ranks are taught to be leaders. I did what I learned to do: lead by example. Leading by example is a powerful way of moving an organization or society in the right direction."

Roughsedge, calling in from Kabul, was a guest this week on talk show host Michael Graham's afternoon show on WTKK 96.9 FM in Boston, where he explained his decision to resign. Roughsedge said that even though Suffolk University will continue to hold the care package drive, "I do not want to provide them cover from what they really are." School officials have stated in published reports that they categorize Avery's view as a dissenting opinion that represents academic freedom.

Graham read Roughsedge's resignation letter to Suffolk University Dean Camille Nelson on the air during the major's appearance. It reads, "To Professor Avery, I am simply a killer. ...Taking action against Professor Avery would in no way threaten academic freedom at Suffolk any more than firing a professor who reveals membership in the Ku Klux Klan."

In a prepared statement on the issue, Greg Gatlin, a spokesman for Suffolk University, stated, "Robert Roughsedge has taught classes at Suffolk University Law School as an adjunct and certainly has a right to express his point of view. As we have said, Suffolk University has a proud history, which continues very actively today, of supporting military servicemen and women and veterans. Student veterans have expressed strong support for the university in recent days and have joined the university in calling for support from members of our Suffolk community in the ongoing drive to provide care packages for military men and women serving overseas."

Roughsedge is due to return to New Hampshire from Kabul in one month. He is a father of three.

Asked about his plans for when he returns, he said: "There is not much room on law school faculties for someone with my skill set. They are too busy teaching about police misconduct and gender equality. I will go back to private practice and keep my head down. There is less support for me in the practice of law in New England than there is here in Afghanistan from my fellow service members."