Army and Navy Program to Establish 5 More Training Schools at Harvard

Four hundred twenty-one graduates of the Silver Anniversary session of the Chaplain School were graduated with impressive ceremonies at 9 o'clock on Wednesday of this week. Following a drill and review at Andover Field, the student body paraded past Chaplain (Col.) William D. Cleary and his staff. Music was provided by the band of the 241st Coast Artillery.

At the graduation exercise in Sanders Theater, the invocation was offered by Chaplain (Major) Dan A. Laning, former assistant division chaplain of the 36th Infantry Division and now an instructor at the Chaplain School. The graduation address was delivered by the 'Reverend Dr. Willard I. Sperry, dean of the Harvard Theological Divinity School, Following the presentation of diplomas to the sixteen section leaders, who received the tokens for the members of their sections, the exercise were ended by the blessing pronounced by Chaplain (Capt.) Donald R. Brownelt.

The February session thus ended marks the conclusion of twenty-five years of history for the Chaplain School.

Started in 1918

Originally established as a school for chaplain candidates on February 9, 1918, at Fort Monroe, Virginia, it was moved two months later to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, where it functioned until the end of World War 1.

In 1920 it was reactivated as a school for commissioned chaplains at Camp Grant, Illinois, from where it was transferred first to Fort Wayne, Michigan, and finally, in 1924, to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. At Fort Leavenworth, between sessions for resident students, its misison was the preparation and revision of the courses used in the War Department's Extension School for Chaplains.

On February 2, 1942, within two months of America's entry into World War II, the Chaplain School was reactivated at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, as a school for commissioned chaplains of all components of the Army of the United States. Its removal to Harvard University took place early in August of 1942, and the first classes were held on August 10th of that year