Army Specialized Training Program
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During World War II the US Army apparently suspended at least certain advanced elements of ROTC training (around 1943).
This was a particularly problematic situation for the numerous land grant colleges around the country, which have in their constitution the agreement to train "militia".
In addition, far-sighted military planners could look forward to a sudden and massive emergency requirement for junior officer replacements during the forthcoming amphibious invasion of the Japanese mainland.
So during the late part of the academic year 1942-3 a national testing program was conducted among the male college student bodies. The test instrument used at some, if not all schools, was Army OCT-X3, a IQ test of standard Stanford-Binet type. Selection was based upon approximately 1 standard deviation above the mean, or above.
Apparently at the same time enlisted men already on active duty were also tested, and accepted only at the rank of private.
Individuals who passed above the acceptable level were sent to Army Specialized Training Program: intensive (approximately 25 class-time hours per quarter) courses in engineering and science at land grant colleges around the country. This included many volunteers from the civilian echelons who were at least 17 but below 18 years of age.
Active duty students were shortly terminated prematurely, apparently due to unexpected casualty losses, and returned to active duty. Those who had sacrificed noncommissioned rank to qualify for the college training diversion were not necessarily reinstated, and often shortly went into combat as private soldiers.
The 17-year olds were continued in school until 18, at which time they were transferred from Army Reserve to AUS status and called up to Infantry Basic training. After basic, those who were willing were returned to the reduced number of land-grant schools still maintaining ASTP. At this stage, the pressure to train individuals, who were perhaps intended to be eligible for direct commissions and being dropped onto bloody beaches as emergency replacements, had been alleviated by the promise of the successful A-bomb technology. The continued presence of ASTP students was most likely an army subsidy of a few land grant colleges and military schools, whose male student bodies had been decimated by the diversion of about 14 million men into the various armed forces.
[Army Specialized Training Program]
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