Wartime is often devastating . . . for children, for students, for families, for nations. Since the founders of Emory University came together to form a hospitable institution of higher learning in 1836, wartime has shaped its existence. But unlike other universities that may not have fared as well during times of national strife, Emory University has not only survived but thrived while honoring and supporting the military service and commitments of its students and faculty.
Named two years in a row as a top “veteran-friendly” school by Military Times Edge Magazine, Emory has in its time endured the Civil War on its own grounds and has lost soldiers and gained veteran students from World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In addition, students with military commitments have served active duty in countless overseas and domestic posts before returning to complete their schooling. The Registrar’s office reports that in the 2011-2012 academic year 105 students are receiving veterans’ benefits, a 67% increase from the previous school year. A Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program has existed from time to time throughout the University’s history.
According to Elane Redman, assistant registrar, “Emory participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program. This program allows degree granting institutions of higher learning in the U.S. to voluntarily enter into an agreement with the VA to fund tuition expenses that exceed the highest public in-state undergraduate tuition rate. The institution can waive up to 50% of those expenses and the VA will match the same amount as the institution. All of the schools at Emory University have chosen to participate in this program. Twenty three veterans, or dependents of veterans, participated in the first Yellow Ribbon Program at Emory for the 2010-11 academic year. For 2011-12 Emory University has committed $703,340 to its veteran’s Yellow Ribbon Program.”
Emory’s commitment also extends beyond financial concerns. Onsite counseling efforts include veteran focus groups run by the Student Counseling Center. Barbara Rothbaum, professor and director of Emory’s Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program (TARP), together with Visiting Scholar and Nurse Scientist Ursula Kelly “are leading research that explores what it takes to help new generations of veterans adapt emotionally once they’ve physically returned home,” according to an Emory Health Magazine article that cites their successful rehabilitative use of combined 3D virtual reality therapy and drug treatment.
On the medical front, Asa G. Candler Professor Donald G. Stein PhD, Emory University department of emergency medicine, has pioneered research in long-term treatment of brain injury that can occur in soldiers as a result of hostile fire and blast-associated trauma. With the invention of a field delivery method for treatment, his work with progesterone may well revolutionize instantaneous treatment of these types of injuries.
Emory’s work to support soldiers on and off the battlefield continues. To appreciate how far Emory University has evolved since its inception 175 years ago, we reflect on how the realities of war have had impact upon the daily lives of its students.
War visits Emory
Imagine a day when students would be forced to retreat from campus to the safety of less turbulent ground. Back in the 1860s, this was the case as locked campus buildings were ransacked by marauders who damaged or stole equipment, books and other materials. Numerous buildings were transformed into hospitals for the sick and injured casualties of Major General William Sherman’s infamous March to the Sea during the Savannah Campaign of the Civil War.
With a wiped-out endowment, the school closed briefly, but reopened again in January 1866. As Vice President and Deputy to the President Gary Hauk 91PhD writes in his book A Legacy of Heart and Mind: Emory Since 1836, “What probably saved the college was the Georgia legislature’s passage of what amounted to a Confederate GI Bill. The state offered to provide funds for tuition and expenses of poor students who had been injured in the Confederate armies, and in 1866-67, enrollment jumped to 120, of whom 93 were veterans.”
Daily drills in the World War years
“When the United States entered World War I in 1917, faculty from Emory’s schools of medicine and nursing joined up and formed The Emory Unit, Base Hospital 43, under the command of Dr. Edward C. Davis 1930H,” reports Hauk in his historical book. “The unit – comprising 52 officers, some 200 men, and 96 nurses – served in Blois, France until January 1919, two months after the armistice that ended the war.”
Back here in Atlanta, The Campus yearbook editors and staff wrote that 1943 “has shown a proud people of a great nation cheerfully and willingly give up the little comforts of life without grumbling.” They pointed out Emory’s “speeded schedule” and “war courses,” and acknowledged, “We saw quite a hustle to join the reserves, and we noticed the empty niches of those who had been drafted. We have it pretty soft, though. While men die in the Philippines, Bataan, Guadalcanal, and the world over, we are allowed good food, a pleasant abode, and the right to absorb culture and to train for professions at will.” They concluded, “Colleges are actually at war, arming the youth of the nation with a most potent weapon to be directed at the Axis – intelligence.”
As a young Floridian, Walter Allen 46C hoped that a college education might be a part of his future. As war changed everything, “Every able-bodied man, most of us 17-20 years old, all went into World War II,” he recalls. “It was a United States thing, the whole country. Everybody was in World War II.”
With his uncle Gardner B. Allen 28C 30C 33L a great influence in his life, the chance to enroll in Emory’s on-campus U.S. Navy training program for doctors and dentists was obvious for the younger Allen. He recalls with a laugh, “I didn’t know there was anything else in the world but Emory University. All I ever heard about was Sigma Chi.”
Emory helped the nation prepare for war by establishing a branch of the Navy’s College Training Program, more commonly called the V-12. Dormitories housed premedical Army and Navy students. And at the time, University enrollment boasted two military students for every one civilian.
In 1943 as a new Navy apprentice seaman, Allen donned his crisp uniform, moved into a triple dorm room and found himself running daily laps around fraternity row, rain or shine. Afternoons were reserved for field drills and calisthenics as well as lifesaving classes. Evenings were for studying, glee club and Sigma Chi. The $50 military paycheck he received while a student paid for Cokes, five cent rides on the trolley and the occasional date.
“We behaved. I don’t remember anybody misbehaving,” he says, recalling a time of dire national consequences. “No alcohol was allowed on Emory campus whatsoever. Nobody drank, never in the fraternity. Nowhere could you even have a beer. If you did and you violated the rules, there was no slap on the wrist. You were sent overseas.”
“During World War II the Forty-Third General Hospital again went into service, organized by Dr. Ira A. Ferguson 23M, and comprising Emory faculty,” writes Hauk in his book. “Emory Unit II, as it was called, served in Algeria and France.” In addition, Hauk reports that to recognize Emory’s participation in the war effort, a ship was christened M.S. Emory Victory (which served through World War II and in the Korean War).
The war ended at the beginning of Allen’s senior year. Though Allen never did get to serve the Navy overseas, he recalls many classmates who gave their lives in service. He reflects on the others, “Those boys who went overseas . . . they were men when they came back. We were still kids, and they were an entirely different kind of person.”
After the V-12 program disbanded in November 1945, Allen served the Navy and went on to become a successful entrepreneur and business owner. An active alumnus who has served as class representative and reunion chair, Allen has “the highest regard for Emory University.” As he describes his Emory experience during the War, “Emory teaches you how to live, the facets of life, not just the little things you knew when you came. It opens your mind and does it in the best way.”
Emory Veteran’s Club acknowledges need
Jump through time more than 60 years, when Emory students have nobly served their countries in military conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Captain Jason Neumann 12MBA is a 2004 West Point graduate and Army veteran who was deployed to Iraq for 15 months. His unit helped rebuild a significant bridge and commerce route the enemy had destroyed. This experience honed his task-oriented, process-driven approach to leadership, and he opted to leave the military to expand his knowledge about the business world. Emory University offered him “the same potential to do great service and learn,” he says, adding that “Emory has a long list of successful graduate veterans.”
On campus today, as president of the Emory Veteran’s Club he takes pride in “helping transition men and women from military to civilian life.” The club is advised by Andrew West 93C, U.S. Marine Corps reservist and center administrator, senior, for Emory’s Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute. The Emory Veteran’s Club has applied for a fully recognized University charter by defining its constitution, laws and membership criteria. With its motto of selfless service, Neumann believes the club is “in a great place and position to help veterans make the transition to full-time employment.” Student club members are active volunteers at the Veterans’ Administration Hospital in Decatur. In addition, “We are developing a legacy relationship with nearby military operations and want to connect to other veterans who retire in the Atlanta area. We want to build awareness of our veterans’ involvement within the community.”
As a recent graduate, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Smith 01MBA points out, “Emory, more specifically GBS, was supportive of my commitments. I spent my first year of the MBA program in a company command position, so my commitments were significant,” he explains. “As a ‘citizen-soldier’ National Guardsman, it was incumbent on me to proactively plan and coordinate my military obligations with my various professors well in advance. Like almost all things in life, a small amount of proactive preparation and communication goes a long way toward resolving most potential problems.”
Smith “also found Emory/GBS extremely supportive of the concept of military service and experience as a contributing factor to a richer classroom and adult learning environment.” He goes on to say that “In some ways the voice of military experience is now one of the smallest ‘minority groups’ in terms of the different perspective(s) that experience brings to the classroom. GBS did a great job of ‘sprinkling’ military experienced students throughout all of my classes.”
Throughout the past 175 years of its rich tradition, the educational and social experience Emory affords military veterans is both supported and appreciated by those who have and will continue to serve our nation’s armed forces.
Endnotes: An active Army reservist, Captain Neumann will be promoted to Major this month. He will participate in the Emory Abroad program in Barcelona for the spring term before graduation and full-time employment in investment banking in New York City.—Michelle Valigursky
