Life Post ROTC

What was it like going into active duty after ROTC?

I was at the Mont Alto campus of Penn State University of my freshmen year. Because I had enrolled in Forestry. But they had a ROTC unit there, so I was a Cadet enrolled in October, instead of September. I was a Corporal by the end of the year. Then I went up to the main campus. Up there I became a Sergeant my sophomore year, and I enrolled my junior year in advanced ROTC and became a Captain my Junior year. Then I was a Major by senior year. By that time, I was teaching underclassmen.

What that normal progression? That seems fast?

It was quick. Most of them went to Captain; I was fortunate to be able to go to Major. I was teaching military history. Principally the battle of Gettysburg to underclassmen: freshmen and sophomores. For that I was getting $15 a month! Getting good pay!

And so, when I graduated, I graduated early, Commissioned, and distinguished military graduate. I was assigned to the 316^th infantry, which was a top quality reserve unit at that time. I stayed in it until 1941 when I went back on active duty. Umm… I don’t know the tall of the story, except that the commanding officer of the 316th was Colonel Hoxie Harrison Smith. He was an operator. He got crossways with Eleanor Roosevelt. And she put out the word that the 316^th would never be called to active duty here in WWII. Politics. What he did, I don’t know. 

There’s a rumor that he did, or said… we don’t know… but there’s a rumor that he did or said something of a racial nature. And she was offended by something of that nature. She was strong on racial relations and it is rumored that that’s what he did. He said something, so he put out the word that the 316^th is doomed to spend the war in the United States of America and this upset him, upset everybody. But she was the President’s wife, and so politics being what it was…

When my roommate and I heard this, we went into the war, into the service. Joined up. We don’t know, but the 316^th was never called, but the Hoxie Harrison Smith wrote a book about that thick [motions 1 inch] about what happened to the officers who had been in the 316^th but went overseas with other outfits. He wrote a book on it. He was so bitter against Eleanor Roosevelt, that he wrote a book on it!

I only met him once [Hoxie Harrison Smith], only once.