Lehigh University - Epitome Yearbook (Bethlehem, PA)

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THE WAR Pac ard Laboratory Williams Hall What? They ' ve stopped enlistments again! FTER ARMY enlistments had been stopped and then re-opened the previous T- J month, an order from Washington closed them permanently just one year after Pearl Harbor. This action indicated to almost everyone that the ERC did not have much remaining time in civilian life. A great many men began to feel the same way Pavlov ' s dog must have felt when, after becoming accustomed to the ringing of a bell as a signal for mealtime, he received an electric shock after the sounding of the same bell. They felt that they had been deceived. Perhaps someone did deceive them or perhaps they had even deceived themselves. At any rate, the word shaft not being used in connection with monoliths was heard quite frequently during thoes days. On December 18 the Army officially announced that the days of the ERC were numbered but would only reveal that the extent of the numbers depended on the date on which the college in question ended its current semester. Directives poured in stating that each countermanded all previous orders. Campus wags said that the ERC would be called on the first full moon preceding St. Patrick ' s Day if the college ' s semester ended on an even numbered day and the president ' s name contained more than five letters. Even though the announcements did create some confusion concerning the exact date on which the reservists would be called up, they did end the long period of tense confusion that had been fostered by the question of whether or not they would be called at all. Everyone felt tremendously relieved — not particularly gay — but relieved. [21]

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. EPITOME ■ - been on the fence concerning the reserve question to sign up within the next few Tf days. Possibly the fact that Congress lowered the draft age to 18 the same week also Q had some effect. At any rate, a Brown and White poll taken a few days later revealed y—t that 1,095 Lehigh men were already reservists or contemplated joining soon. It made him feel gladder than he ' d felt in the past eleven months when he heard the news come over the radio that Saturday night that the Amer- icans had landed in Africa. He new that now America was on the road to victory. But he was to realize before long that the road was uphill — all the way. (SUCCESSES BY the Army in North Africa (and by the Lehigh football team — } in Bethlehem) served to keep the student body ' s morale high that fall. House- party was at its hugest since the time Harry James was here, as 912 girls moved in for the event. Dark clouds were gathering on the horizon in the direction of Washington, however, as army enlistments were closed and it was officially an- nounced that members of the ERC would not get the automatic tickets to Officers ' Candidate School they had been led to expect. The closing of enlistments caused no little conjecture about the possibility of the calling of army reservists in the near fu- ture. While most quarters expressed confidence that a large percentage of the ERC would be allowed to complete its collective education, Navy and Marine guards said they felt a lot closer to their degrees. Oh, the eagles they fly high, Lafayette! FTER THE usual week of wood-gathering and dorm-guarding by the fresh- f- J men (including one rather large-scale raid on the Lafayette campus which resulted in a night in the Easton jail for a few unfortunates) the pre-Lafa- yette pep rally, bonfire, pajama parade and serenade to the Fem-Sem inmates all came off in the appropriate grand style that was befitting to the last of such festivities for the duration. On the following afternoon the entire student body (and that is almost without exaggeration) jammed the Lehigh side of Fisher Field in Easton and screamed for a favored Brown and White eleven to avenge the defeats of the several preceding years. Lehigh rooters had not come expecting to be satisfied with a tie, but they were glad to get it, since the final gun sounded with the Maroon on the Engineers ' one-foot line. At the close of the game, the Lehigh stands rose as one man : they had but one thought — the Lafayette goal posts. And neither the board fence nor the cordon of police- men that surrounded the field was able to do more than delay the spirited charge. In a moment they swept across the field, overcame the resistance of the Lafayette men, pulled down the uprights and carried them back to the stands in triumph for com- plete dismemberment. They weren ' t aware of it at the time, but as those fellows pulled those pieces of wood apart in the late afternoon of that gray November day they were also ringing down the curtain on Joe College. [20]

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. EPITOME t - Just before the Christmas holidays of that year, Admissions Director E. Kenneth tJ- Smiley shocked the interfraternity council with the statement that the war might mean q the end of fraternity life at Lehigh and in fact at all American colleges since the gov- i— I ernment was planning a large educational program for Army and Navy personnel at colleges that would require the use of all fraternity houses as well as dormitories for barracks. It had been known for a long time that the Navy planned to use colleges for their V programs, but this was the first inkling of a similar Army-sponsored plan. And so the boys went home to what for many of them was to be their last wartime Christmas in civilian clothes. Welding research The following men will report to Fort Meade, Maryland — . (SHORTLY AFTER the opening of the spring semester, 28 members of the ERC, - mostly arts and business men, were called to active duty. For a day or so, engi- neers began to wonder if perhaps the Army wasn ' t going to keep them in school after all because of their curriculum. Such hopes were shortlived, however, as just four days later, on February 9, the axe fell and 95 more reservists got their or- ders. The biggest, most ' suspenseful drama in Lehigh history had ended. That week- end Kinney ' s, the ' Chor, the Tally-Ho and many other similar establishments were the scenes of numerous farewell parties given by various living groups in honor of the departing heroes, most of whom were freshmen. Almost simultaneously came an announcement from Washington that Lehigh had been selected as an Army school and would be used in the newly-conceived Army Specialized Training Program. This came to somewhat of a shock to a num- ber of amateur crystal-gazers who considered the Navy diesel and flying programs here an indication that Lehigh would be used for one of the V setups. [22]