After the United States declared war in 1917, mobilization of troops began and the selective draft was instated for men above the age of eighteen.  In order to keep young men in college while also preparing them for the front lines, the Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.) was established in the spring of 1918.  Colleges around the United States became training grounds for young soldiers. “It was a regular branch of the United States Army.  Carthage male students appeared in army uniforms and Army command was established on campus”(Lentz, 136). “The unit was to be made up of at least one hundred able-bodied men students of from eighteen to twenty-one years of age whom the college guaranteed to produce.  The college undertook to house and feed the men according to standards prescribed by the War Department and to furnish suitable accommodations for military instruction and drill.  The government on its part would furnish uniform, military equipment and supplies and pay the soldier students’ tuition”(Spielman, 104). The S.A.T.C. was demobilized after the Armistice in November of 1918.

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