Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Department of Naval Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records #40083, University Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

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.

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.

• College students--North Carolina--Chapel Hill--Political activity.
• Education, Higher--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Military education--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• United States. Navy. Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
• Universities and colleges--North Carolina--Departments.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Dept. of Naval Science and Tactics.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Dept. of Naval Science.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Curricula.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Politics.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Naval Science.
• Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Protest movements--North Carolina--Chapel Hill.
• World War, 1939-1945--North Carolina--Education and the war.

• Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense Records (#40090)
• College for War Training Records (#40074)
• Office of President: Frank Porter Graham Records (#40007)
• Office of the Vice President for Finance Records (#40011)
• University Archives started archiving selected websites of the academic and business units of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of North Carolina General Administration, and student groups and organizations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in January 2013. To see if websites for this department or related departments have been archived visit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Harvested Websites (#40417).

Efforts to locate a Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps unit at the University of North Carolina began in June 1940, when the Board of Trustees expressed its desire to establish military training on the university campus. The Committee on Military Training, chaired by then Governor Clyde R. Hoey, was formed "to consider at once the desirability of installing military training at Chapel Hill and to what extent, if any, military training should be required of students at Chapel Hill." The committee's resolution calling for the establishment of military training at the university was presented to and passed by the Board of Trustees in August 1940.

Application for the establishment of a unit of the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps was immediately made to the Navy Department. On 12 September 1940, it was officially announced that the federal government had authorized the NROTC unit at Chapel Hill, appointing Captain Robert S. Haggart as Commanding Officer and Professor of Naval Science and Tactics. (The Department of Naval Science and Tactics became the Department of Naval Science in 1945).

In 1941 the threat of World War II nearly tripled the NROTC enrollment. In September, 188 naval midshipmen began intensive military training. They drilled on Emerson Field dressed in all-white imitation "cracker jack" uniforms. Cadets were equipped with new Springfield rifles and officers with sabers and .45-caliber service revolvers. NROTC classes were held in Woollen Gym and included courses in astronomical mathematics, navigation, boatcraft, signaling, and regulations.

During 1942 the University of North Carolina expanded its military training program with the addition of a Navy Aviation Eastern Pre-flight Training School as part of the Navy Department's efforts to turn out 30,000 pilots a year. The final expansion was the establishment of the Navy College Training Program (V-12 Program) in July 1943. In order to provide classrooms, housing, and dining facilities for 1,875 pre-flight midshipmen and up to 1,330 V-12 trainees, university officials undertook a major building and renovation program. They built the Navy Armory, Miller Hall, Nash Hall, Navy Hospital (which later served as the student infirmary), and Kessing Pool. In addition, the university renovated ten dormitories, built additions to Lenoir Hall and Woollen Gym, built the Navy Field, and began clearing land for Finley Golf Course.

The pre-flight program was dissolved in 1945 and the V-12 program in 1946; those enrolled in them continued their training under the NROTC program. The decade of the forties saw the evolution of the NROTC from a temporary, wartime program to a permanent institution at the university.

The decade of the sixties, however, threatened the future of NROTC. The Vietnam War and growing peace movement were accompanied by student protests and faculty skepticism about the desirability of ROTC on college campuses. A committee was appointed, chaired by Professor George V. Taylor, to investigate ROTC involvement on the campus. The final report of the Taylor Committee (December 1969) recommended that a separate curriculum on war and defense be established and that the "ROTC departments and offerings be continued at the university in affiliation with the curriculum on war and defense."

The Faculty Council adopted the recommendations put forth in the Taylor report in April 1970, solidifying ROTC's place on campus and establishing the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense, which began instruction in the fall of 1972.

Records include correspondence and reports, as well as articles and clippings related to the University of North Carolina's Department of Naval Science and to the university's Navy Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. Included is material relating to military training during World War II and later, to the establishment of the department as a permanent part of the curriculum, and to the restructuring of the department after the creation of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense as a result of student protests during the Vietnam War.