The A. & M. in Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College might as
well stand for Athletic & Military. In other days nine out of ten
of its students played football on one of its many school teams; all
but the bedridden turned out for “yell [not cheer]
practice,” its rough, tough, blacksmith-armed Aggie teams romped
over opponents. And last week, of 699 graduates in the class of 1942,
565 went out with Army commissions; of the remaining 134, more than
half have already signed for Army and Navy aviation. Texas A. & M.
turns out more officers than West Point. Unlike most U.S. colleges in
the last two decades, Texas A. & M. never gave pacifism a lookin.
Only college with nine branches of R.O.T.C., it enrolled every Aggie in
one of them for at least two years, ran the whole school on military
discipline. Seniors wear breeches, boots and spurs; freshmen are
“Fish,” from whom upperclassmen tolerate no nonsense. On Dec.
7 Texas A. & M. had among its alumni 5,135 reserve officers . Texas Aggies figure large on
the roll of U.S. heroes in World War II. An Aggie “sighted sub,
sank same.” Another directed the
coastal defense at Corregidor.
Aggies have won D.S.C.s like football games. Twenty-eight of them died
on Bataan and Corregidor. The Aggies are proud of their military
record. They like to recall the example of the Class of 1917, which
held its commencement at a training camp, joined up as one man. As early as June 1940 Texas A. & M. offered its full facilities to the
U.S. Immediately after Pearl Harbor the Aggies were the first major
U.S. college to go all-out on a twelve-month schedule, first to switch
shops and laboratories to a 24-hour day. The four-year course was cut
to two years, eight months. Doubling military instruction, the Aggies
added Army mess management to animal husbandry, inaugurated courses in
explosives. Architects shifted to camouflage. A. & M. organized
Statewide courses for civilian defense. Readying itself to train 1,000 to 3,000 flyers, navigators, bombardiers,
A. & M. is now finishing an airport, planning a doubling-up program
to fill dormitories four or five deep. Says Aggie President Thomas Otto
Walton: “What does the Government want done? We will do it.”
