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  • Challenging the War HabitThe Committee on Militarism in Education and Its Battle against the Reserve Officers' Training Corps
  • Charles F. Howlett (bio)

The idea for military training in higher education, apart from the nation's historic military academies—West Point and the Naval Academy in Annapolis—and private institutions such as Norwich Academy in Vermont and the Citadel and Virginia Military Institute in the South, became reality during the Civil War. This was especially true in the North when the Union Army realized it needed more capable and educated leaders to meet the crisis. The passage of the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 by the federal government set the precedent for providing subsidies to colleges for military training in state agricultural colleges.1 From 1862 to 1914, as more land-grant colleges were established, their military training programs became mandatory and part of a male student's requirements for graduation. Although these programs were often not taken seriously by the students and faculty, their existence, nonetheless, provided a pathway for students seeking a commission to serve as officers in the U.S. Army.

As it became more apparent in 1914 that the European continent would be thrown into disarray and bloodshed, supporters of American military preparedness began to take center stage in the event the United States would ultimately be dragged into the conflict. [End Page 106] Many wondered how the ranks of the military would be filled with qualified leaders to take charge of the large numbers of enlisted men called into service, either voluntarily or through a draft. Preparedness advocates such as former President Teddy Roosevelt, former Secretary of War Henry Stimson, the banker J. P. Morgan, and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, along with patriotic organizations that included the National Security League and the Navy League, eventually pushed President Wilson to present his preparedness program to Congress, which led to congressional passage of the 1916 National Defense Act.2

Prior to the act's passage, military officials and preparedness advocates also envisioned other ways of creating future officers, which drew attention to New York State's contribution to militarization. After war broke out in Europe and inspired by Army General Leonard Wood, military training camps were established for the purpose of training college students and certain community professionals who were interested in receiving a military commission. Wood's scheme became the blueprint for the so-called Plattsburg model of summer military training camps. Established first in Plattsburg, New York, these military training camps eventually spread to other parts of the country.

Hundreds of distinguished and lesser-known public and private leaders, who were mostly in their thirties and forties, volunteered for the summer camp at the Plattsburg Barracks, not far from the Canadian border. Among the more notable attendees were New York City Mayor John P. Mitchel, who would later die during aviation training in Louisiana; Teddy Roosevelt's sons, Quentin and Theodore Jr.; Julius Ochs Adler, general manager of the New York Times; and his nephew Adolph Ochs, the newspaper's publisher. Although the four-week training was dubbed by the press as the Tired Businessmen's Camp, the Plattsburg Camp garnered considerable attention as the New York newspapers provided immeasurable publicity to the prewar preparedness movement. Once underway and after U.S. military intervention in Europe, the camp would also be used to train college students seeking a commission in the U.S. Army. Close to thirteen thousand business and professional men participated in these camps during the war years. Led by General Wood, Teddy Roosevelt, and former Secretary of War Elihu Root, federal funding was secured for the camps for the direct purpose of commissioning graduates in the army's newly established Officers' Reserve Corps.3

In terms of its direct impact on higher education and the success of the Plattsburg Summer Camp movement, the 1916 National Defense Act also authorized establishing a two-year basic course plus a two-year advanced course for college students combining [End Page 107] regular academic course work with summer field training. The establishment of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) was open to any civilian school or college that applied. The law stipulated that creating an...

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