Thursday, June 27, 2013

Military Preparation on College Campuses.

Today In Wyoming's History: February 25: 1919  Photographs were taken of the Student Army Training Corps at the University of Wyoming.  The SATC was the predecessor of the Reserve Officer Training Corps.  The students here are depicted using the Krag rifle, which was obsolete at the time, but which was apparently seeing at least some training applications of this type.

This certainly shows an interesting cultural difference between 1919 and 2013.  In 1919, a huge war had just ended.  In 2013, of course, we find ourselves at war, but a war, which no matter how horrible it may be, is small by historical standards.  The population is generally supportive of the soldiers, while support for the war at large is waning.  It's hard to imagine a thing like this occurring today, however.

Of course, this wouldn't last.  A forgotten fact about World War One is that the war was not popular in recollection by  the 1920s, that being part of the atmosphere of the Jazz Age.  People looked back on it as a mistake.  World War Two, which of course was fought against the same major European foe, changed that view, and military training in the form of ROTC would become popular on college campuses once again.

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