World War II—Army Specialized Training Program

In spring 1943 Nathan W. Dougherty, who was coordinating training efforts for military personnel on campus, received a call asking for housing and instruction in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering for approximately three hundred draftees selected to participate in the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). The university’s housing was already committed to training of cadets for the Army Air Corps, but the university housed the ASTP students in fraternity houses until it was able to acquire TVA barracks to provide housing for them. The ASTP students moved to the barracks in January 1944. One hundred ninety enlisted men arrived in November 1943. A second cycle of some 25 students arrived in February 1944, but the army discontinued the program on March 25, 1944, in order to redirect the men to be trained as ground troops for European campaigns.