Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the College for War Training of the University of North Carolina Records #40074, University Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Periodic transfer from the offices that create these records.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: University Archives Staff

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, February 2021

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Education, Higher--North Carolina--History.
• Military education--North Carolina.
• Universities and colleges--North Carolina--Departments.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--History.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). College for War Training.
• World War, 1939-1945--North Carolina--Education and the war.

The University of North Carolina's College for War Training, established in 1942, grew out of the Committee on the University and National Defense, chaired by Dean of Students Francis Foster Bradshaw. Bradshaw became dean of the college, and Guy B. Phillips of the School of Education was its executive officer.

The College for War Training and the Committee on the University and National Defense sought ways to implement and coordinate the university's efforts to meet the demands placed on it by the United States' involvement in World War II. As the unit responsible for the university's role in the war, the college advised on curriculum and program adjustments; was the liaison with the various branches of the military that established units on the campus; handled personnel matters related to the war, including the military status of the faculty, staff, and students; assigned space to the military units; and was the office responsible for planning for the education of returning veterans and the implementation of the GI Bill.

In May 1942, the United States Navy established a Pre-Flight School, one of four such schools for the physical conditioning of cadets for air service, on the University of North Carolina campus. The cadets who attended the Pre-Flight School were enrolled in the V-5 Naval Aviation Preparatory Program. The V-12 Navy College Training Program was established on campus in July 1943. Other wartime programs on the campus included the Army Specialized Training Program, created to meet the need for soldiers with technical skills; the University of North Carolina Flying School, which was part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program of the Civil Aeronautics Administration; and the Carolina Volunteer Training Corps, a student organization.

Records of the College for War Training, dated June 1940-June 1945, consist of the files of Francis Foster Bradshaw, who was chairman of the Committee on the University and National Defense, 1940-1942, and dean of the College for War Training, 1943-1945. Included are correspondence and other files relating to the establishment and administration of the College for War Training. These records reflect the university's role in the creation of the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps (NROTC), the V-12 and V-5 naval programs, the Army Specialized Training Program, the Carolina Volunteer Training Corps, and the University of North Carolina Flying School.

There is also correspondence about the Selective Service Act and the passage of the GI Bill, and there is considerable correspondence with other colleges and universities about their war programs and plans for the post-war era. There is also some material that derives from the work of three university committees appointed to coordinate the university's efforts in the national emergency. These committees were the University and National Defense Committee, the Committee on War Programs, and the Committee on Post-war International Problems. Dean Bradshaw's file of printed and mimeographed material, which illustrates the response of higher education in the United States to the national emergency, has been retained and is filed chronologically with the papers. These records contain nothing about the actual administration of the United States Navy's Pre-flight School at Chapel Hill.