Word: arotc
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Devere Armstrong, head of the AROTC unit, denied that any pressure had been exerted. "As commissioned officers," he said, "cadets will be expected to join officers' clubs. We feel that the Caisson Club is a form of training for this side of military life. Anyone who joins ROTC is the recipient of many advantages paid for by the government, and accepts therewith a moral obligation to support his unit. However, I have not myself participated in any pressure on any cadet--as far as I'm concerned there is no pressure...
...AROTC graduates who accept the Air National Guard offer will be officially enrolled for a six-year period in the National Guards of their respective states, rather than in the regular Air Force Reserve. After a maximum of three years of active duty in administrative training posts, they then enter the active reserve of the Air National Guard for the remainder of the six year period for training, consisting chiefly of weekly drills. Two more years' service in the inactive reserve program completes the National Guard requirements...
...rare, this element of force, but an AROTC directive proves that it is not inconceivable. By regulations, all ROTC units must set up an officers club affair which presents several dances a year. The AROTC added a unique feature to this by more or less compelling membership, something not required by regulations or practised by other local units...
Harvard's ROTC commanders have managed their exasperating task very well on the whole, but in this case, we fear, one of them is on the wrong side of that vague but crucial line. If the AROTC could not mold officers without dances, then we could hardly object to coercion. This is not the case, though. Dances and other social functions are hardly essential to teach men discipline, to teach them military procedures, techniques, and the other qualities good officers possess. Social functions are just not important enough to justify the inroads they make on an undergraduate's normal interests...
...then, Exhott them if you wish, chil them, teach them, and imbue them with as high morale as you can. But forcing undergraduates to center their lives on Shannon Hall, or any step toward that which isn't absolutely indispensable to producing competent officers, is blatantly improper. The least AROTC could do (and what probably would hardly dent the officers club membership, either) is to leave such things to the candidate himself. Only this way can the proper and preceations balance be kept...