The Navy V-12 Program: A Solution to the War Crisis at Central College 

Adapted from text by Dr. Robert Wiegers.

New Year 1942 ushered in the first full year of World War II and another challenge for Central College.  In the last twenty-four years, Central had dealt with the Great War, the Great Depression, followed by the economic recovery and she was now faced with another war.  A national crisis of this duration was a threat to Central and all small colleges and universities when the male population, student and faculty, begin to leave the campus for the services.  Possibly, the only place where mobilization was a negative was in higher education where academic leaders were not overjoyed to see college-age men and women leaving schools for jobs in industry or the military (Klein 2013:631).      

Central College President Harry S. DeVore felt Central was vulnerable based on the composition of the student body.  As he wrote to the War Manpower Commission, “The ratio of boys and girls has kept up through the years [at Central] with the enrollment of three boys out of every five students.”    He was pointing out Central would be more secure if the student body was three girls in every five students, then drafting males would have lesser impact on enrollment.   He correctly feared the Draft “will hit us very hard and we are in greater need of being used in the war effort” (DeVore to Elliott December 21, 1942).  

World War II Navy Officer Program 

The Navy maintained the value of a college-educated leader.  Principles of navigation and propulsion were not easily grasped in a few months, so the Navy insisted it required the equivalent of civilian professionals to understand its technical ships.  With a two-ocean war to fight and hundreds of new ships under contract, the Navy was concerned about finding officers with the math and science background necessary in specialty areas like navigation and engineering, but the draft and patriotism meant fewer men completing college and fewer potential officers.  When Navy planners scanned ship production schedules for the years 1944 to 1947 they saw rows of new ships and no officers to man them (Hair 2007:8; Herge 1948:17). 

...The Navy program allowed students to complete a college education at a V-12 school before training at a midshipmen’s school.  Compared to the Army, the Navy V-12 college training program lasted the duration of the war and accomplished its goal of educating navy officers in many schools spread geographically across the nation.  Aside from some planning errors, the V-12 program successfully matched officer procurement with Navy ship construction (Cardozier 1993:52).   

V-12 Navy Visit to Central 

Central College hosted a Navy inspection team on 1 April 1943.  Lieutenant-Commander Hardy Steeholm from the Ninth Area Naval Command and Lt. Grant H. Brown of Great Lakes Naval Training Station toured campus with President DeVore and Dean Puckett.  The officers found the McMurry Hall men’s dorm suitable, but the Navy would double the capacity from the normal 210 men to Navy standards for 340 men.  This necessitated some alterations to shower and toilet facilities, but the advantage was to keep the unit in one building (Central College Bulletin May 1943).  Since a well fed crew meant a happy ship, the Navy considered food very important.  To accommodate the dining of so many men, the dining hall would be converted into a cafeteria.  The medical department on campus and the Fayette hospital were also inspected. Givens Hall was selected by the Navy for the V-12 Infirmary (Devore to J. W. Fristoe May 1, 1943).   Of special note to the Navy men were the Morrison Observatory and the city pool (Central Collegian, April 2, 1943). 

Program announced 

The much anticipated decision by the Navy came in the mail on 30 April and was warmly received as Dean Puckett, students, and faculty in the college church (Central Collegian April 30, 1943).  What Dean Puckett did not know at the time was how select a company of schools Central had joined.  The initial group of interested schools was reduced to 500 and from these only 131 colleges and universities in the nation were selected.  In Missouri there were seven schools selected for the V-12 program (Schneider 1987:10-14).  He also did not know the level of training Central was authorized to conduct.  Of the seven schools in Missouri only Central College and two others were tasked to conduct basic and premed and predental training.

Considering the global war, the draft, and rationing, the campus was as prepared as it could be on 1 July, 1943 as Central waited its first class of trainees.  Tension was magnified by the overdue arrival of freight cars with the government bedding and furniture.  The trainees arrived first and helped unload their own beds and carted their possessions to campus (Central College Bulletin November 1945).  When all had arrived, Central was host to 346 trainees from 30 states, the majority of which, 138, hailed from Missouri (Fayette Advertiser, September 7, 1943).  

Benefits of hosting a program 

As a V-12 Naval Training unit, Central was not responsible for the cost of running the program on campus; the Navy covered the expense of messing navy students, the cost of instruction and faculty and the cost of operating and maintaining buildings used by the Navy.  In general the Navy paid the costs of salary, supplies, repair, maintenance, utilities, and insurance but not depreciation (Fowler May 20, 1943).  Speaking at a Navy College Training Program Conference, J. A. Fowler, Counsel for the Bureau of Naval Personnel, congratulated the participating schools and remarked, 

"Only about 500 [out of 1,650] came through this screening process and are being used by the Army and Navy.  There is no question but that the other 1,150 are extremely envious of you for your participation in the program. Large numbers of them have tried to get in on this program.  The greater number of them will be confronted by a serious situation, will have to put drastic curtailments into effect, perhaps some will even be forced to close up. Whenever you find yourself magnifying your own troubles, just give a thought to those other colleges (Fowler, May 15, 1943)."

The Navy agreed to select colleges that were distributed geographically, and it guaranteed at least 200 men, whom the institution had to accept but could drop if they failed “traditional academic standards.”  Further, the Navy agreed to use the local curricula with a minimal portion devoted to officer training under the physical training department of the school.  Comparing the non-degree seeking Army goal for the ATSP, the Navy proclaimed, 

"This is a College Program [the V-12]; Its primary purpose is to give prospective naval officers the benefits of college education in those areas most needed by the Navy. We desire, in so far as possible, to preserve the normal pattern of college life. We hope that the colleges will give regular academic credit for all or most of the Navy courses, and we desire that college faculties enforce all necessary regulations to keep academic standards high (Jacobs May 14, 1943)."

V12 Routine at Central 

The nerve center for the V-12 trainees was housed in the Navy offices in the main campus administration building – Brannock Hall.  Typically trainees steered clear of those offices and limited their routine to McMurry, classes, and athletic fields.  In the remodeled McMurry hall, now christened “Navy Barracks,” trainees slept in double decked bunks and sought first aid at Givens Hall, now the Navy Infirmary (Central College Bulletin, October, 1943b).  On a typical day the trainees rose at 6:00 am, with early morning calisthenics on the college tennis courts from 6:10 to 6:30.  They returned to clean their rooms and prepare for morning chow at 7:00 and first class at 8:00 am.  Classes continued until noon with a mail call and chow followed by more classes at 1:30 pm.  Evening chow was at 6:00 pm, and from 7:30 to 9:30 every evening from Monday to Friday a mandatory study hall.  The end of the day occurred when Taps sounded at 10:00.  During the summer months three-days-a-week were set aside at 5:00 pm for non-swimmers and Wednesday afternoon was devoted to military drill.  Every Saturday began with a cleanup and an inspection at 2 pm.  Weekend liberty began after the inspection and lasted until 10 pm Sunday (Central College Bulletin December 1943).   

The academic routine mirrored, by design, the typical college curricula. Trainees were expected to take a minimum of 17-hours including physical training.  In addition to class time each trainee was expected to devote 2 hours of study time for each class hour (Navy V-12 Bulletin No. 101, November 1, 1943).  If needed, the V-12 commander could adapt this routine for students in academic trouble.     

Ending the Program 

As the war neared an ending, with Germany conquered and Japan reeling from the final blows, it was obvious to all the end of the V-12 Program was neigh.  The unit was gradually reduced, and all offices were consolidated into the Navy barracks in January 1944 (Swope to DeVore December 18, 1944).  On 18 July 1945, the anticipated word arrived, the program would be terminated on 31 October, 1945.  Representatives of the Navy visited campus between 1 September and 31 October to finalize the details (Fechteler to DeVore July 18, 1945).The Central Collegian reported all V-12 units in Missouri were to be consolidated into the NROTC unit at the University of Missouri (Central College Bulletin November, 1945).   

...Through seven official Navy inspections the V-12 and Central “never received an adverse report, and” he proudly reported, “the college has been classed among the top ranking institutions having V-12 programs.” (Central College Bulletin November 1945).    In the opinion of one inspecting officer,  

"This unit bears all of the earmarks of intelligent Navy administration and interested College cooperation. It is taut, it is smart, and continues toreflect credit upon the Naval uniform. "(Brown to Chief of Naval Personnel  February 17, 1945)

For the remaining ninety-two V-12 trainees with one semester completed at Central, the end of the war meant a transfer to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.  President DeVore and Dean Puckett presented certificates of achievement to all trainees on behalf of the college. (Central College Bulletin November 1945)  After the ceremony the transferees boarded chartered busses for their new destination while other V-12 trainees were discharged from the Navy.  With this the V-12 Program officially ended at Central College.  A program that was started by colleges in stress played a part in training the officers that might have fought if the war had not ended so abruptly.