Students Trained Here by Thousands For Army and Navy During Last War

Bold headlines which screamed "WAR" in the CRIMSON, Friday, April 6, 1917, did not find the College either startled or unprepared. Since January of the previous year, over a thousand undergraduates in high-collared uniforms and campaign hats had been preparing for this moment, first in the unofficial and no-credit Harvard Regiment, and later in the ROTC which was set up during the summer of 1916.

The war which threatened America long before the nation went into action, precipitated among the student body a demand for some sort of military training at the College. Thus on January 10, 1916 the Harvard Regiment was formed. The original unit was drawn up purely on a voluntary basis, and bayonets, belts, and rifles "of the 1898 Springfield model" were provided by the government. Drills were held outdoors until winter necessitated the use of the old Hemingway Gymnasium and the baseball cage. With the inauguration of the official ROTC, a half-course known as Military Science and Tactics, training at Harvard went on a more official basis with commission in the reserve awaiting those who had satisfactory records.

War Comes to Harvard

The early months of 1917 were occupied with a series of heated drives among the student body to fill the quota of men in ROTC demanded by the War Department. Under the direction of Captain Cordier, the new regiment had barely begun its intensified training when the war with Germany broke out.

News from Washington in the early days on the war pointed toward the formation of Officers' Training Camps at existing army bases, and the members of the ROTC spent a long and anxious week pondering their fate. Finally the War Department announced that ROTC training at Harvard would be given at least at the summer camp. Most of the men over 20 years old in the unit left to train in officers' camps of the Plattsburg type, while younger men continued to train at College.

Beginning May 7, 1917 the units opened an intensive training period with eight hours of drill each day. It was this regiment which marched proudly in review before its distinguished guest Marshal Joffre, who said to its commanding officer, "you are to be congratulated upon being identified with such a magnificent corps of future officers of the American army as I saw at Harvard this afternoon.... the ... appearance was superb, and I admired their discipline and military carriage."

250 Mile Training Hikes

Probably the Harvard Regiment, faced with the prospect of drilling all summer under seasoned and exacting American and French officers, could just barely groan once more when the Military Office in Weld 3 informed the students that the Regiment would take "a long hike of 250 miles during the month of July 16 to August 15." Already by June jubilant headlines in the CRIMSON heralded the long awaited arrival of machine guns for training purposes: "Third Machine Gun Here... Lecture on First Aid... Collection To Be Taken For Ammunition."

During the fall, enrollment in the Military Science Courses continued to run well above 1000, and the advance course, Military Science 2 met for its Friday classes under Lieutenant Morize of the French Army, now professor of French at Harvard.

Naval Schools Open

The Navy was not slow in also tapping the vast reservoir of manpower and officer-material in the colleges. And by the end of 1917, 2,500 men who were taking Naval training passed in a review of all the military forces at Harvard. Broken down into units this total included the Naval Cadet School for Ensigns. University undergraduates training for Ensigns' examinations, and the University Naval Radio School. Adding to the Navy men the 1,150 men training in the ROTC, a total of 3,650 men were at Harvard working for their commissions. Throughout the early part of 1918 and the summer. Undergraduates continued to drill in the ROTC, at the flying ranges in Wakefield, and the manoeuvers grounds at Fresh Pond.

The fall term of 1918 opened on what the CRIMSON, then limited to weekly publication, called "A military regime." The entire college was dedicated to the training of its students for war. One specialized course was the Student Army Training Corps, in which the student gave himself over entirely to military training. A tentative schedule for the SATC was announced' as "Reveille--6 o'clock: Lights Out--10 o'clock." At the same time the initial course in Naval Science and Tactics was organized. A three year course, the Naval unit got under way with a working force of 500 enrollees.

Armistice Scuttles SATC

Hardly had the University settled down to the task of training each student to bear arms when the Armistice came. By December, 1918, the SATC men were receiving their discharges, and the College shifted back to its normal tenor of life with remarkable speed. But the day of the Armistice the War Bureau of the College announced that according to latest reports 6,500 Harvard men had taken part in the war, and 226 would never return.

In the intervening years between two wars, the courses in Naval and Military Science and Tactics became an accepted part of the College curriculum. But the role of the colleges in the war has changed vastly. Thus during the months immediately preceding or following December 7, there were none of the Frantic efforts to train undergraduates which characterized the years 1916-17. Instead the College is assuming the responsibility of training the student for military duty, the armed forces now prefer to remove the student from college and train him themselves.

Training Programs

Today in the College there are only about 500 men in the Naval and Military ROTC, instead of the thousands of the last war. Also in the reserve programs of the Army and Navy, few specializing courses are demanded, and none in the way of military training.

Those officers now training at Harvard have been sent here to use facilities which the College has lent the Army and Navy. The undergraduate daring this war is still in mufti, and since it is the preference of the armed forces to bring training under its own jurisdiction rather than leaving it to "amateur military training." it is very unlikely that Harvard in the year 1942-43 will become the armed student camp of 1917-18