Front and Center

Passing through Johnson Gate this afternoon, the cadets of the ROTC will be approaching the end of a long march, and Mil Sci as a course and institution will be nearing the finale of 27 years of service. It was in the fall of 1916 that the first Army class in Military Science and Tactics was held here; since that time the unit has plugged ahead through rough times, often faltering, sometimes erring, but turning out many efficient Field Artillery officers on the way. Born as a quick trainer for the last war, the ROTC has become a national fact, a training source that built up the reservoir of officers for the early days of this war. The cadets who will march this afternoon seem destined to be the last at Harvard for some time.

America pleased to enter World War I soon after the start of the first ROTC, and the College shifted en masse into a training camp--everyone but a few pitied physical and under-age ineligibles was in ranks. The ROTC was popular then. But through the tinfoil twenties and bitter thirties it took fortitude and the promise of a uniform and polo to make men endure the westernunioning taunts of friends. When war came there was an increase in applications. And in the emergency the Harvard ROTC has trained, often by accelerated programs, a large number of men, many of whom are in action today. With the passing of the ROTC, the part-time soldier, valuable in peacetime, leaves Harvard; there will be more and more full-time soldiers to take his place.