Page 130 - YB1942

SEPTEMBER 28,1941 ... \'\festern Mary- creased tremendously by the first draft, and land students returned to a campus whose a second draft was in the probable future. atmosphere was charged with the growing The men of the armed forces of the country momentum of a mighty defense effort. On were setting the keynote for the personality foreign shores, the situation in those coun- of every-day living; and, on the Campus, tries with which the sympathies of the eyes turned to the P. M. S. & T., the assist- United States lay, was far from encourag- ants, and the cadets of the Reserve Officer's ing. The year ahead appeared inevitably CO Training Corps. be full of :1 grim and bloody business. The \'<'estern Maryland unit realized the The Militar-y Department at \Vestern necessity of producing officers more cap- Maryland College rook as an aim to make able than ever of assuming responsibility in concrete all of the abstract defense ideas and the field; it realized the increased urgency ideals that floated nebulously in the student of training officers who could be called upon mind. Our nation was, in sympathy, to utilize their training in active service im- virtually at war with the Axis powers. To mediately upon graduation. It recognized protect our freedom we had become the the crying need for an ever-increasing num- supply-center for England and her allies or, ber of potential soldiers with the excellent as the slogan stated, "the arsenal of democ- basic training that would equip them for racy." The nation had gone "all-out for leadership in the ranks of the regular army defense"; its standing army had been in- in which, it was evident, they might event- ually serve. Under its able leaders, Col. Percy L. 0>lonel Percy l. Sadler, P.M.S. 8£ T. Sadler, Lts. Gcorge Henry Caples and Law- rence S. Reynolds, and Sgts. R. C. Puryear and G. J. Junior, the unit was subjected to a strenuous schedule of classes and drill. "Military," in the minds of the majority of \'<'estern Maryland students, was lifted en- thusiastically from the status of "just another course" to the vital position of a contribution to Uncle Sam's defense effort. The baccalion was fortunate in that favorable weather conditions held till just before Christmas, and the continued out- door classes provided opportunity for needed hours of drill and field work. The battalion was placed under the leadership of three capable cadets: Harry Baker was