Navy V-12 Unit Gets Underway
2,000 Trainees from All Over Country Assemble July 1 To Form Largest School of Its Kind Under New Program
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE during the past year has been in close touch with the Navy and has learned a lot of nautical ways, but new excitement and new experience nevertheless arrived in Hanover when the Navy V-12 Unit of approximately 2,000 men "came aboard" on July 1.
Classrooms, dormitories, mess halls, and playing fields filled with young men of college age gave an impression of the fullness of pre-war Dartmouth, but the strange athletic insignia from other colleges and the uniforms of sailors from the Fleet quickly dispelled any idea that this was ,a peacetime enrollment. The long lines of trainees going through preliminaries, the unusual confusion in scheduling classes and working out academic programs, the cadence of college boys marching to mess or afternoon drill—all served to establish the fact that here was a new sort of Dartmouth, bewildering at first to the old-timers and then enthusiastically accepted by everyone.
As this is being written, two weeks after the start of the new program, the country's biggest V-12 unit has satisfactorily gone through the "shake down" process and has settled down to hard academic work, which, rather than military training, is the real objective of the Navy's V-12 program. The Navy and Marine trainees seem to have taken to the College, and the College seems to have taken to the new students forming the V-12 associated school. Transfer athletes wearing Dartmouth baseball suits for the opening summer game on July 17 and trainees boasting about "our" team demonstrate that a good degree of solidarity has already been reached.
The V-12 trainees who reported to Dartmouth on July 1 were drawn largely from the college level and included the largest delegation of some 300 men from Dartmouth itself. Of the 1,350 Navy and 650 Marine reservists, a little over 1,100 were college men previously in the V-i and V-7 classifications: 560 were V-12 freshmen from high schools and preparatory schools; 180 were men from the Service; 93 were in the Medical School unit; and 74 were in the Thayer School unit. Men were ordered to Dartmouth from nearly every state in the Union, although predominantly from New England, and from more than 100 different colleges and universities. Major delegations have come from the University of Wisconsin, Chicago, Boston University, lowa, Boston College, Holy Cross, North- eastern, Fordham, New Hampshire, Indiana, Missouri, Manhattan, St. John's, and Columbia.
Pouring in all day long on July 1, the V-12 arrivals presented their orders at Navy headquarters in College Hall, were billeted in dormitories, and then began the routine of physical exams, inoculations, drawing supplies and books, registering with the College, and getting organized into a regiment of nine companies, six Navy and three Marine.
On Sunday evening, July 4, the Dartmouth trainees assembled as a unit for the first time. Commander William F. Bullis, USNR, commanding officer of the V-12 Unit at Dartmouth, addressed separate assemblies of the Navy and Marine students; and Major John Howland, USMCR, officer in charge of the Marine Corps detachment, spoke to his group. The opening meetings were attended by the staff of twelve commissioned officers assisting Commander Bullis and by members of the College faculty. Two nights later the entire College, civilian and V-12, gathered in the Bema to hear President Hopkins deliver the opening address at the convocation exercises starting Dartmouth's 175th year.
Classes for all students began on Monday, July 5, but because of the much larger group of V-12 freshmen than expected, the lack of academic transcripts in many cases, and other scheduling complications which forced the Registrar's Office to close its doors for a week in order to find time to untangle things, some trainees did not start classes until the following week. In many of the regular Dartmouth courses, civilian and V-t2 undergraduates studied together, and with not all trainees in uniform during the opening two weeks, professors reported that it was hard to tell where the dividing line came between the two groups.
Instruction, along with housing, messing, hospitalization and recreation, is the College's responsibility, while the executive, physical training, medical and supply departments of the Unit come within the province of the Navy. In order to establish more effective control of academic matters, President Hopkins has named an Academic Board composed of himself, as chairman; Commander Bullis (ex-officio), Major Howland, Dean Neidlinger, Dean Bill, Dean Strong, and Sidney C. Hayward, liaison officer with the Navy and vice- chairman of the board. The Academic Board will, among other functions, pass upon the desirability of retaining men in the V-12 program. It has power of recommendation only, however, and all separations will be made by the Commanding Officer, who does not vote with the board.
Administration of the V-12 Unit is entirely handled by the Navy staff, and so that there will be no misunderstanding of what is expected of him, each trainee possesses a fat, mimeographed manual entitled "Regulations of the Naval Training Unit, Dartmouth College." Discipline, on the whole, is strict and in force at all times, calling for neatness, promptness, military carriage, no drinking within the academic limits, and no smoking on the street.
The daily schedule varies somewhat with individual trainees, but the following is approximately true for all: 6:00 a.m., reveille; 6:05, calisthenics; 6:50, breakfast; 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00, morning classes; 11:50, noon meal begins; 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, afternoon classes; 3:45, physical training; 4:45, liberty or optional competitive athletics; 5:30, evening meal begins; 7:00, non-athletic activities may begin; 8:00, evening study hour begins; 9:50, tattoo 10:00, taps. Trainees are free to attend to personal errands between classes, so long as they sign out of the dormitory, and one night a week they may study late at the library from 10 to 12. Variations from the daily schedule are allowed on Saturday, when liberty extends from the last class until midnight, and on Sunday, when men may sleep until 8 and have liberty all day until the evening study period begins at 8. Shore leave beyond the academic limits is permitted every fourth week-end, the schedule being staggered among four dormitory groups.
The dormitories being used by the Navy are Butterfield, Russell Sage, Lord. Gile, Streeter, Hitchcock, and Massachusetts Row. The Marines are housed as a unit in New Hampshire, Topliff and South Fayer- weather. The Marine detachment, the only one in the First Naval District, is an integral part of the Dartmouth V-12 Unit, but it has its own staff officers, its own dorms, and its own uniforms, being garbed in the summer khaki of Marine privates while the Apprentice Seamen of the Navy wear whites or blues.
Even with a sizable Marine detachment, Dartmouth is predominantly Navy. The hours of the watch ringing from Baker Library tower, the official adoption of Navy time by the College, and the nautical lingo on all sides leave no doubt about that. For Hanover it is an old experience in a new form, and withal a stirring and satisfying one.
V-12 Public Relations
AUTHOR OF THE above story ofthe beginnings of the V-12 Dartmouth Navy Unit last month isCharles E. Widmayer '30, director ofthe Dartmouth News Service and associate editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Because the College is in chargeof public relations for the NavalUnit, as for its other students, Mr.Widmayer is now responsible forpublicity for the 2,000 V-12's, in collaboration with Commander Bullis,commanding officer. He is also editor of the Dartmouth Log, newweekly newspaper.—E,D.
Higgins. COMMANDING THE V-12 UNIT at Dartmouth are Major John Howland USMCR, officer in charge of the Marine detachment, Comdr. William F. Bullis USNR, commanding officer of the entire Unit, and Lieut. Leroy N. McKenney USNR, executive officer.
