The Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) was a military training program instituted by the United States Army during World War II to meet wartime demands both for junior officers and soldiers with technical skills. Conducted at 227 American universities, it offered training in such fields as engineering, foreign languages, and medicine.

The ASTP differed from the V-12 Navy College Training Program in producing technically trained personnel rather than officers as its primary goal, though recruits were told that they had the opportunity to become officers upon completion. The program was approved in September 1942, implemented in December of that year, and drastically curtailed in February 1944.

History

Inception

After the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor sparked U.S. entry into the war, the Army suspended the summer camp required for advanced members of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps in February 1942 for the duration of the war. This presented a problematic situation for the nation's numerous land-grant universities established under the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, whose constitutions included the legal agreement to teach "military tactics." A program that could provide a "continuous and accelerated flow of high grade technicians and specialists needed by the Army" would both help the war effort, offset ROTC enrollment turndown, and keep universities operating when most, if not all, male students would be absent. Colonel Herman Beukema, a professor of history at West Point, was named director of the Army Specialized Training Program, responsible for sending over 200,000 soldiers to 227 colleges at cost of $127,000,000. The program was proposed in September 1942, formally announced in December 1942, and began with a pilot program on college campuses in the spring of 1943. A maximum of 150,000 men were authorized to be enrolled in the program at any one time.

Army Specialized Training Reserve Program During the late part of the 1942–1943 academic year, a national testing program was conducted among the male college and high school student bodies to determine acceptance into the ASTP or the V-12 college training program. A maximum of 25,000 high school graduates were offered scholarships through the Army Specialized Training Reserve Program (ASTRP). Examinees had to be older than 17 but not older than 18 years old, designate "Army" preference, meet or exceed the cutoff of the test (approximately one standard deviation minimum above the mean), and enlist in the Enlisted Reserve Corps and be found physically qualified for general military service. Reservists were called to active duty at the end of the academic term in which they turned 18.

Institutions

Unlike the Navy's V-12 college training program, the Army's criteria for hosting ASTP detachments predominantly favored large, state flagship institutions. All colleges and universities having advanced ROTC programs (i.e., all land-grant universities) were assigned to have ASTP detachments. If an institution had an engineering program, it had to be accredited by the Engineers' Council for Professional Development. No institution would be chosen to have programs of two or more services (ASTP, Army Air Forces College Training Program, or Navy V-12) unless it could accommodate a total of 1,000 or more trainees. Only 53 institutions had programs of two services and just two (the University of Minnesota and Pennsylvania State College) sponsored all three. By the fall of 1943, the Army had 321 ASTP contracts with 227 different institutions. Six of these were historically black colleges and universities: Howard University; Meharry Medical College; North Carolina A&T; Prairie View State College; West Virginia State College; Wilberforce University.

Students

Requirements

Entry requirements were high. Potential candidates included all enlisted men who were completing or who had completed basic training and had scored at least 110 (later 115) on the Army General Classification Test, a Stanford-Binet-type IQ test, compared to 110 for OCS candidates. Score requirements for certain specific programs were even higher. If under 22 years old, they had to have completed high school or its equivalent along with specified mathematics courses; if older than 22 years old, a minimum of one year of college, and "substantial background" in one or more languages, or a year of mathematics and physics, or biology.

Demographics

During 1943, about 100,000 participants in the ASTP came from within the Army, while about 50,000 were new inductees who had established their eligibility for the ASTP prior to entering the Army.

Civilians

During the national testing program, roughly 400,000 civilians were tested for pre-induction eligibility for the ASTP. Additional tests were conducted in November 1943 and March 1944.

Soldiers

Enlisted men were also given the qualifying test, and accepted only at the rank of private. Initially, field selection boards screened men and sent them directly to ASTP training from their units, but a downside of this arrangement was that many unqualified candidates were forwarded as many board members did not understand the program's objectives and requirements. Trainee selection was soon shifted to Specialized Training and Reassignment (STAR) units located at colleges, where men's academic and testing qualifications were examined and they and met with professors and Army officials about the types of training offered; if found unqualified, they were returned to their units.

In the spring of 1942, the Army had allowed men in colleges and universities studying specific subjects to enlist in the Enlisted Reserve Corps and defer a call to active duty until they had completed their degree requirements, left or dropped out, or were called to active duty by the Secretary of War. The director of the War Manpower Commission, Paul V. McNutt, announced in August 1942 that the destiny of all male students would be the armed forces, and the Secretary of War soon announced the termination of the program effective in the spring of 1943. By November 1942, about 70,000 men, or one in every seven male college students, had chosen to enlist in the Enlisted Reserve Corps. Reservists who had been found qualified for the ASTP were sent to basic training, and then assessed again when they returned.

Because so many men had graduated from ROTC and received commissions – 93,000 by March 1942, outnumbering Regular Army officers by over three to one – , and that program would become suspended during the war, men who wanted to advance had few choices but ASTP.

ROTC The advanced ROTC program was suspended in its entirety in the spring of 1943 and no new contracts were issued for the duration of the war. The basic ROTC curriculum was kept intact as part of the military indoctrination for the Army Specialized Training Reserve Program. Several major categories of ROTC students existed:

Members of the normal college class of 1942, who had completed a full four-year program plus the summer camp. Members of the normal college class of 1943 who had chosen to accelerate their studies via summer sessions offered in 1942 that gave a full semester or quarter of credit. These men graduated with a completed advanced course minus the summer camp at the end of 1942 if on the semester calendar, or in the early spring of 1943 if on the quarter calendar. These men, along with the members of the normal class of 1943, then went directly to officer candidate schools. Members of the normal college class of 1944 who had taken the 1942 summer session. These men graduated in the fall of 1943 with a partially complete (either three semesters out of four or four quarters out of six) advanced course. These men also went directly to officer-candidate schools, although some men attending institutions on the quarter calendar were allowed to remain in school through the summer quarter to ease congestion in officer-candidate schools. Members of the normal college class of 1945 who had taken the 1942 summer session, called "ROTC juniors." If their institution was on the semester calendar, they were due to begin advanced ROTC in the spring semester of 1943. They, along with the remaining members of the normal class of 1944, were sent to basic training after the spring semester ended.

After returning from basic training in the early fall of 1943, the ROTC juniors were allowed to resume their civilian curricula at the institutions they were attending or act as instructors in basic ROTC, which functioned as military indoctrination for the Army Specialized Training Reserve Program until called to officer candidate school. These men were only attached to the ASTP for administrative purposes.

Course

The highly accelerated ASTP was offered at 227 land-grant universities around the country. Class sessions were in twelve-week terms, with a break of one week between terms. Intensive courses were offered in engineering, science, medicine, dentistry, personnel psychology, and over 30 different foreign languages, with a different number of terms required to complete each. Most subject areas were divided into two phases, the first ("basic") phase covering general education in a subject, and the second ("advanced") phase covering instruction in a specific area. The Army prepared the curricula to be used; professors contracted to teach ASTP courses were required to teach eighteen "contact hours" per week, which was about twenty-five percent higher than their normal civilian course loads would have been.

+Engineering Basic Advanced 3 terms (instruction in English, history, geography, geology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering drawing) 1 term (marine transportation) 3 terms (civil engineering) 4 terms (chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, sanitary engineering)

+Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, and Dentistry Preprofessional Professional 5 terms (instruction in English, psychology, physics, biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry) Varied (followed the curriculum of accredited medical schools)

+Foreign Language Basic Up to 3 terms (instruction in Arabic (western and eastern), Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, or Vietnamese)

While in academic training the soldiers were on active duty, in uniform, under military discipline, and received regular Army pay. Recruits marched to class in groups (the Army stipulated that they be taught separately from civilian students or other military students on campuses), ate in mess halls located in their barracks, and trained in the fields around campus. The soldiers' week featured fifty-nine hours of "supervised activity," including at least twenty-four of classroom and lab work, twenty-four of required study, six of physical instruction, and five of military instruction. At its height in December 1943, about 145,000 men were enrolled in the program.

Administrative difficulties, 1943