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

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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

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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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N l i gave the students along other lines. Vlvhen the men composing this unit lined up on the night of the eleventh of December and were gixen their honorable discharges from the army, there went out of exisience here a military unit as efficient as was to he found at any institution in the country, and an organization which, when we look back upon it in years to come, will cause our hearts to swell with pride as we remember that we were members of the organization which helped to prove the loyalty and D L patriotism of our Alma Nlater. . . f'-NX X 3 f f. . U45 ...D 1' ltltfl