Student Army Training Corps, Yale University, records

The Yale Battery was organized in the fall of 1915 under the direction of General Leonard Wood. It rapidly grew into four batteries, which were mustered into the Connecticut 10th Field Artillery of the National Guard.

After the National Defense Act of June 3, 1916 provided for the establishment of R.O.T.C. units on college campuses, Yale moved to replace these militia batteries with a regular R.O.T.C. program. In Feb. 1917 the R.O.T.C. program at Yale was instituted, under the direction of Captain Robert Danford. The Yale Naval Training Unit (originally the Motor Boat Patrol), was also officially organized at this time, under the direction of Mather Abbott.

In the spring of 1918, existing R.O.T.C. programs were suspended and replaced with the Student Army Training Corps. This was a program designed to establish military training units in the colleges and to substitute specialized instruction for the normal curriculum. All students, except those with 4-F draft board ratings, were to belong to it; all non-militarily useful courses were to be suspended for the duration of the war; students would be subject to military regulations. The existing R.O.T.C. programs (Army & Navy), would be co-ordinated by the S.A.T.C.

The S.A.T.C. began at Yale Oct. 1, 1918, after a summer of intensive preparation by the University and War Department. However, the program only existed for the fall of 1918. After the armistice on Nov. 11, the S.A.T.C. appeared to have lost its purpose, and it was ordered demobilized by Congress in Nov. 26, 1918. The R.O.T.C. programs were re-established at Yale in February of 1919.

The papers are divided into 2 series: Series I contains the papers of all Army Training Programs at Yale (the Battery, the S.A.T.C., and the R.O.T.C.), and Series II concerns Naval Training Programs. The papers are arranged alphabetically by topic, and chronologically within each topic. Correspondence in all cases includes general memoranda sent by the War Department as well as Yale correspondence. The S.A.T.C. material also includes, under correspondence, the bulletins sent to S.A.T.C. units by the Committee on Education and Special Training (War Department).