NAVAL TRAINING SCHOOL

May I take this opportunity to reiterate the welcome to Harvard University which I extended to the entering class 11-43 at the Naval Training School (Pre-Radar). For the first time in the history of the school there are five branches of the Naval establishment represented, namely, the Naval Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve, the Coast Guard, the Women's Naval Reserve, and the Women's Marine Corps Reserve.

To many individuals in this group the field of electronics is new and strange. As has been so well said before, World War I was a war of chemists, while World War II is a war of physicists. In the field of physics, electronics plays an overwhelming part in the conduct of the current hostilities.

As you progress in your training, it will become increasingly apparent to you all why it is necessary to take a graduate radio engineer and put him through eight months special training before he is ready to start on his task.

The tremendous demand for personnel trained in electronics has impelled those charged with the program to turn to the ranks of women engineers for aid. This group, though small, has shown definite promise and a warning is given the men in the course that they will have to exert themselves to the fullest extent of their capabilities to keep alive the myth of male supremacy in scientific pursuits.

Since all of us in the Reserve Forces are trying to accomplish in a few short months the training which would normally take many years, it behooves us all to make an exceptional effort to achieve as much as we can in the short time at our disposal. The academic pace set for all is terrific, but a very great percentage of you will be able to succeed in mastering it.

Your military training, while occupying a smaller portion of your time is equally important. You will shortly take your place with your predecessors alongside the officers of the regular line, and it behooves you to prepare yourselves to the very best of your abilities while there is yet time.

To all...success and victory!