Penn State NROTC Unit History
The following information was found at the Paterno Library, University Archives. There is an entire file of NROTC paperwork dating back to the original V-12 unit in 1943. For more information please contact 814-865-7931.
The NROTC program was started nationwide in 1926 to offer students the necessary Naval Science courses for commissions in USNR upon graduation. NROTC did not come to Penn State until World War II, but it was a very different program from the one we have today. During World War II, active duty sailors and marines were sent to PSU (as E-1s) to take a variety of different courses, depending on their rate. These included: deck, engineering, aviation and NROTC. This was the Navy's V-12 program. The NROTC students at the time were not called Midshipmen and they took no Naval Science courses. They were not commissioned at Penn State. Upon graduation, they went to a Midshipman School to take NS courses and receive their commissions. Over 1000 Navy and Marine students trained in the V-12 program during the war.
The current NROTC unit was begun on November 1, 1945 under PNS Captain William T. McGarry, USN and XO Commander C.M. Holcombe, USN. However, due to postwar cutbacks and a lack of college freshmen (the war had just ended), all staff members, except the CO and XO, were released into inactive duty. All ensigns commissioned at that time were also released into the reserves. On September 5, 1946, Congress passed the Holloway Bill after realizing that the Naval Academy was too small to commission enough officers for the Naval Service. This law breathed new life into the NROTC program. The first class of freshmen was admitted to the program in 1948 at Penn State’s Forestry School in Mont Alto, PA. This class was commissioned in 1951. The Holloway bill also changed the scope of the NROTC program. A midshipman could now be commissioned as a career officer in the regular Navy, rather than as a reserve officer. These students were termed "Regular Program." They received scholarships and a fifty-dollar per month stipend. Their commitment to the Navy upon commissioning was fifteen months. There was also the Contract Program, a predecessor to today's college program. Students received no pay and were commissioned in the USNR, inactive duty. These early NROTC units boasted up to three hundred Midshipmen. The original unit activities from 1948 that are still with us today are Quarterdeck Society, Rifle Team, The Sea Lion, Highline and the Drill Team.
A predecessor to NSI was founded in 1967. This allowed college juniors to join NROTC later on in their college careers. Linda Sue Rutledge, the first female scholarship MIDN nationwide, was admitted to the program in 1973. Freshman orientation training at Fort Indiantown Gap dates back to the late 1960s.