University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

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LE - -- V- -V 4 - V .A-N..,.........L.,-,,.. ,.Y.Y,,..., - -Q --ev,-Q... ...- , N T3 LT. HousTo LT. HARRls LT. BEnFoRn LT. FRASER MAJOR BLUCK CAPT. BERG Y ...TD age eighteen

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I M! M Llrjyl 1' tv- w J if .. 42 W apt w u 5 X ,yi 1 xx y Y N .',- f- Major joseph Roscoe Bluck AJOR JOSEPH ROSCOE. BLUCK, erstwhile commander of the S. A. T. C. Unit at the University of Mississippi and now an inspector of the 6 different R. O. T. C. Units throughout the United States, is a native of Nevada. Major Bluck won fame as a football player at the University of J Missouri and was once chosen for the All-American team. When the B government called for football men to train them as officers, Major Bluck LL entered the first officers' training camp at Fort Logan H. Roots, on May 3rd, 1916, and received his Captain's commission on August l6th of the same year. He was then transferred to the 348th Infantry stationed at Camp Pike, and later to the l62nd Depot Brigade for special duty as Brigade Police Officer. The first experience of Major Bluck in a military institution began on May 12th, l9l 7, when he was assigned to the Mississippi A. Sz M. College at Starkville, Mississippi. He served there until his transfer to the University of Arkansas, where he was in charge of a training corps of that school. With the placing of the S. A. T. C. unit in the University of Mississippi, Major Bluck was made comrnandant at this institution, holding at that time the rank of Captain. He began his duties there on October lst, l9l8, and one month later received his commission as major. He welded the unit into a smooth working army post and had the respect as well as the obedience of every one of his men. It was due to his good management that this post suffered as little as it did from the epidemic of infiu- enza that raged here. Ole Miss students fully realize that the University was indeed fortunate in having as its commandant Major Bluck. He is not only a man of the highest military efficiency, but he is a gentleman in every respect and was liked by every student and every member of the faculty. His career reflects credit upon his State and his work at Ole Miss re- flects credit upon this institution. Pagc seventeen

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4 , fill fi, ye- : , f f -we v 1 , 5' t L E IM-I It S 5 ' 4:ig'-.,: .-iiigT.ig.:s2?QZ.T ,I f . ' N.. History of the S.A.T.C. at Ole Miss N October the first, nineteen hundred and eighteen, there was established at Ole Miss and at various other colleges and universities throughout the United States, a Students' 1 Army Training Corps Unit. Prospective students of the University had been supplied Ga beforehand with all information concerning the proposed establishment of this unit at the University, and practically every student who had reached the age of eighteen and was ll physically fit, immediately joined it. Enlistment began promptly on the first oft October qi and continued until about the fifteenth of that month, although men were accepted on up until the time of' demobilization of the unit here. This unit at the date of demobilization was composed of about three hundred men and six commissioned officers, Major Bluck, Captain Berg, and Lieutenants Harris, Houston, Bedford and Fraser. These officers had, to assist them in the work of training the men here, the students who had returned from Fort Sheridan to assist in giving military instruction at the Univer- sity. There were three companies, composed of about a hundred men each, until government orders necessitated a change, when two companies were formed, ln addition to these two companies there was also a third company known as The Boy Scouts, composed of all students not in the S. A. T. C. Ole Miss soon took on quite a military air, and Gordon Hall proved to make an ideal barracks. The men were quartered four in a room, the doors were removed from the rooms, all furniture was removed from them except the dresser, and serviceable army cots took the place of bulky double beds. The campus was quickly transformed into a military post under strict military discipline, the same as at any other army post. No private was allowed to go to town without first getting a pass from his commanding officerg kitchen police scoured the mess hall and washed the dishesg long wooden benches having tops made of three bare planks and seating eighteen men each, took the place of the regular tablesg hall orderlies swept the corridors of the barracks, and special details policed the campus. just as everything was beginning to work smoothly the flu epidemic struck us and for over two weeks gripped us in it's deadly throes. Classes were suspended, the hospital was full to overflowing as there were approximately three hundred cases here, and the third floor of Gordon Hall was transformed into a hospital. Only a few nurses were available and the men themselves were pressed into service as nurses and attendants, performing these duties quite creditably indeed. The good ladies of the campus offered their aid as well as the co-eds who prepared meals for the convalescents, and at last the deadly malady was overcome. Too much credit cannot be given to the institution as a whole, nor to the unit here for the masterly way in which this critical situation was handled. After things settled down to normal once more, drilling was begun in the same manner as it is given at any army camp. That the officers were efficient teachers and the men apt pupils, is attested to by the well drilled unit that we had here at the close of hostilities. Rifles were used in drill only during the last month, and uniforms were never worn by all the men due to the fact that they arrived about the time of the signing of the armistice, and the wearing of them was not made compulsory. Several times the unit went up town to give exhibition drills and each time acquitted itself quite creditably. A military band was quite an asset to the unit and furnished music for all occasions, as well as playing at retreat every day. While it must be admitted that the army training as given detracted somewhat from the efficient courses as given heretofore, nevertheless it offsets this disadvantage in various ways by the training it Page nineteen