From Korean War to first women to join cadets, ROTC had long history at Cal Poly
Cal Poly once hosted the largest ROTC program in the western United States.
Now it’s an end of an era at Cal Poly.
The U.S. Army announced it will be closing 10 university Reserve Officers Training Corps programs nationwide and reorganizing others after reducing their civilian workforce by 12%.
But Cal Poly has had long had an association with the military.
The former polytechnic high school and later junior college offered a limited military training component that ended in 1933 when funding became tight.
As early as Nov. 5, 1918, George E. Glendenning complained in a letter to the editor of the Daily Telegram that a student guard from Cal Poly had aimed a rifle at him.
His letter to the editor was critical of the “irresponsible boy.”
The campus was under quarantine due to the deadly Spanish Influenza outbreak and Glendenning had wanted walk by campus along the railroad track toward San Luis Obispo.
When the campus was at risk of being closed during Great Depression budget cuts, President Julian McPhee explored all options to bring funding to the campus.
In an Oct. 8, 1940, story, the campus was turned down for an ROTC program, but soon they would host an aviation cadet program for the U.S. Navy.
Cal Poly would train over 3,600 people during World War II.
Post-war, dozens of trailers would be located on campus to house families who had a father earning degrees under the G.I. Bill.
In 1956, women would again be admitted to Cal Poly after a cost-cutting move had banished them from classrooms in 1929.
Approval for a Cal Poly ROTC program came during the Korean War.
Kenneth D. Krosse, a sophomore from Vacaville, was the first student to sign up as a cadet.
A Sept. 17, 1952, Telegram-Tribune story said that ROTC students were draft-exempt as long as they continued satisfactory work.
During the Vietnam War, the school had almost 600 ROTC cadets, according to a Sept. 23, 1965, Telegram-Tribune story.
Though the Cal Poly program was popular, the ROTC was the target of protesters during the Vietnam War. The university did not, however, have the sometimes violent clashes that other universities experienced.
During the 1968 annual ROTC review by Cal Poly President Robert E. Kennedy, demonstrators were locked out of the football stadium.
A protester carried a sign in all caps: “DUE TO REACTIONARY ADMINISTRATIVE GAS THE DEMONSTRATION WILL BE HELD OUTSIDE THE STADIUM.”
To offer a complete picture, Kennedy also had an open dialog with protest groups, holding question and answer sessions and designating defined spaces for protest.
Kennedy and predecessor McPhee were supporters of ROTC.
Today ROTC provides a stipend and money for books and tuition.
On completion of training, graduates would have a officer’s commission as a second lieutenant.
This story published April 18, 1974, by Lucinda Jonsson centered on the first women to join the cadet ranks.
Two times-have-changed notes: Calling women, girls is not common usage today, and the uniforms pictured lack the camouflage patterns that we usually see today.
Long hair in step with ROTC
Nowadays, it’s not unusual to see the ROTC cadet in rough army fatigues with an M-14 rifle slung easily across the shoulder, sporting longish hair, sideburns and even a mustache.
But tresses that hang below the shoulders? That’s still a little offbeat — but not if the cadet happens to be female.
Melody (Toni) Cortner, 20, one of the first women to join Cal Poly’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), almost blended in among male cadets during a recent Saturday leadership workshop at Camp San Luis.
In truth, some of the men have hair that matches hers in length. But despite that and the cadets’ all-over green sameness, the petite, 5-foot-4-inch sophomore in computer science was not hard to spot.
And although she chose to fall in formation at the tail end of the marching lines, Toni kept pace with her lanky male companions as they moved — in full combat dress — through the field exercises on the cow-studded hills near Chorro Reservoir.
Up until September 1973, women officers for the Army were recruited in their junior and senior college years and trained in Women’s Army Corps (WAC) summer camps, said Col. William Black, an instructor in the Cal Poly program.
“Then, the Army decided to handle women the same way they handle men officers” and accept them into ROTC, he said. Now each college or university administration makes its own decision to admit or exclude women in the program.
Cal Poly, with 150 cadets, is the largest ROTC unit in California, said Capt. Hank Wendling, another instructor. Eight of the cadets are women.
Only two young women showed up for the Saturday workshop. Since all are freshmen and sophomores, none are required to participate in the monthly outings. But most of them come anyway, said Wendling.
The focus of this workshop is ambush strategy. Battalions divide into teams to take turns setting up traps and “dry gulching” each other, said Black.
As she walked with her team in a loose formation, Toni talked about joining ROTC.
“It’s really kind of exciting ... kind of an adventure being one of the first women in ROTC,” she said.
But she didn’t join for the adventure.
“I’d heard about the benefits. You get $100 a month while in school as a junior and senior. And it’s a guaranteed first job ... guaranteed experience in your field — when you graduate. And the retirement, if you’re in that long, is good.”
At first, the guys seemed surprised to see her and her sister cadets in military science classes and in battle formations, she said. “But now, I’m just one of the guys.”
Lining up with the men, she looks considerably smaller and more dainty than the average cadet. And, in fact, some problems accompany this.
The women’s fatigues and equipment have to come from the WAC headquarters in Georgia, said Toni, and many of the items for the college programs haven’t arrived yet. For maneuvers, she had to wear oversized men’s pants, and she lacked the waffle-textured men’s combat boots.
“These were designed for marching from the barracks to the mess hall,” she quipped about her smooth-soled women’s lace-up shoes.
The other girl participating did not even muster a partial costume, but wore blue jeans and a work shirt.
A more serious difference is that, although they complete the same military science courses as the men, the women are not required to do any combat-related training. By law women are not allowed in the artillery, infantry or armor divisions upon graduating, said Black, so they only take weaponry and the other armed training by choice.
And he, for one, would not like to see that change. “I’d hate to see a woman in the mean, miserable conditions of actual warfare. Women are smaller — it’s more difficult for them physically,” he said.
But he and Wendling admit the young women have kept up with the demands of ROTC sessions without problem.
Student team leader Ralph Meachum said, “I haven’t seen anything women couldn’t do just like men. If the equality thing really applies, it should include all phases of service.”
But some male cadets even worry about the mean, miserable conditions of the leadership workshop, it seems.
“The first time out I forgot my jacket,” Toni said. “Almost everyone asked me, ‘Toni, need a jacket?” “Toni, are you cold? You okay?’”
So the guys extend a little special treatment? “Definitely,” she said, without appearing to mind.
That day there were plenty of eager hands to help loosen the sticky shoulder strap on her weapon. And when a tight spring made it tough to insert the blank ammunition cartridge into her gun’s magazine, half a dozen men offered assistance.
“This happened last time, too, when we were on the rifle range,” she lamented. “Why is it I always get the one that won’t work?”
The team saunters down the road, then scrambles to hide in thick bushes at the barked commands of its leader.
Team leaders are seniors who are at the top of the merit lists, said Black. The purpose of the workshops is to teach leadership and organization, not a particular battle technique such as ambush strategy, the instructors carefully emphasize. The women the instructors say, should have no problem moving into leader roles as upperclassmen. And they point out that the Air Force battalion commander at UCLA is a woman.
The male cadets seem to have no objection: “I think it’s a lot of fun” having girls in the group, said Bill Sommermeyer, a junior. “The guys keep it down when they’re here.”
And he sees few problems with a female team leader. “It would just depend on the girl. If she assumed the authority and responsibility, okay. But if she relied on the fact she was a girl rather than the fact she was an officer, guys might get pushy.
“It takes more tact and initiative to handle a lot of guys. If the girl is sharp she’ll know that. And most of the girls we’ve got seem pretty sharp.”
He and fellow cadet Kelly Shane proudly mentioned that Toni was a princess for the ROTC homecoming court — an honor based on looks, charm and composure, they said.
The enemy team appears and enters the “kill zone” of the ambush. With great screams and crackling rifle fire, the hidden team springs the trap.
More gun troubles. Toni’s jams and won’t fire.
“Just go bang, bang,” joshes a fellow cadet.
“Here, fire mine,” offers the team leader, “its more fun when it works.”
Now it is her team’s turn to be ambushed. After waiting for the other team to lay its traps, the cadets fan out, fording streams and clambering up the steep hillsides.
But before the ambush can be completed, their progress is interrupted by a stream of weekend horse fanciers out for a ride, and by a ragged looking band of cattle from the nearby hills.
To avoid what is shaping into hand-to-hoof combat, Toni’s team circles around and re-ambushes the enemy — much to the dismay of the first team’s leaders.
The maneuvers had gone on for four hours. But even with the sweat and caked-on mud from sliding on soggy hills, the girls didn’t quite melt unseen into the line of men. Perhaps when there are more of them.
The team returns to formation and marches back to the starting point, singing songs to a cadence:
“Around her thigh, she wore a purple garter...”
The women’s voices, for the time being, are drowned out by the men’s.
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