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Section I: The Development of the ROTC program in America, 1862-1916

Section II: The Golden Age of ROTC at Ripon College, The 1920s and 1930s

Section III: Ripon College and its ROTC Unit during World War II

Section IV: Postwar Reconstruction: The Ripon ROTC Unit, 1945-1950

Section V: An Era of New Challenges: The Ripon ROTC Unit in the 1950s and 1960s

Section VI: The Ripon Battalion in Crisis: The Ripon ROTC Unit, 1967-1970

Section VII: The Ripon Battalion as a Volunteer Organization: The Ripon ROTC Unit 1970-1991

Concluding Observations

Appendix: ROTC Personnel, Ripon College, 1919-1995

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{ ROTC History at Ripon : Faith and Courage }

Concluding Observations

The project of writing this history was begun in 1991, the last year in which the Ripon Battalion enjoyed independent status. Looking back on the preeminence once enjoyed by the battalion on this campus and its earlier national stature, those of us involved in the project found it all but impossible to avoid interpreting its history within the classic framework of a "rise and fall." In fact, that vision became so dominant in our thinking that explaining the causes of both the "rise" and the "fall" became the focus of most of our research, of our many discussions, and of our writing.

However, while it is true that within a certain time frame the Unit was created, that it enjoyed an era of fame and dominance, and that it then seemed to fade, on reflection, we think now that encapsulating its history within the concept of a "rise and fall" is quite misleading. Instead, it seems to us far more accurate to see the unit as an organization which was particularly well-suited for Ripon even though the program was not designed for small, liberal arts colleges. Despite the handicaps facing it, the Ripon Battalion enjoyed tremendous success within only a few years of its founding and continued to be extremely successful up until it was all but discontinued during World War II. Although that degree of success was never quite recaptured in the decades following the war as the climate in the nation and on the campus became less supportive, in comparison with units at other universities and colleges, the Ripon Battalion remained throughout its entire history uncommonly successful in terms of the percentage of the student body recruited to participate in the program, the performance of its cadets in the program and in military activities such as the rifle and drill teams as well as in summer camps and, finally, in the quality of many of its officer graduates. The fact that Ripon has graduated more general officers per capita than any other school in the country outside of the Military Academy at West Point is no coincidence. Therefore, if there is an historical pattern to be seen in the experience of the Ripon Battalion, it is one of a series of successful adjustments to new and increasingly more difficult challenges. The fact that as this history goes to press the Unit is once again growing in size is testimony to a pattern of resilience.

Hence, the real question that historians of this Unit must face is what were the characteristics of this College and of this ROTC program that accounted for the latter's initial triumph and its later resiliency in the face of recurring difficulties that seemed increasingly insurmountable? The answers to such a question are complex, but in writing this history it seems to us that one could point to four causes for this success. The first would be the officers and enlisted cadre assigned to the Unit. Although not all of them were gifted and enthusiastic, an unusual number were. They provided enthusiastic leadership tempered with the agility of mind and cooperativeness needed to adapt their program to changing circumstances without destroying its integrity.

The second would be the college administration. Although Evans' successors as president did not share his philosophic zeal for the ROTC, they were all supporters of the Unit. As President William R. Stott, Jr., pointed out in remarks made at one recent commissioning ceremony, the ROTC was seen to be of value to the College not merely in terms of scholarships but as the means by which the ideals of the liberal arts that Ripon stands for could be expressed in the development of a military force truly based on the citizen soldier.

A third factor, the support of the faculty and student body at Ripon, was less consistent than that of the administration, but clearly more important. It was, indeed, the withdrawal of that support in 1970 and its decline rather than the ending of the ROTC requirement that made the meeting of officer production quotas so difficult in the subsequent two decades. But even in those last two decades, cadets and cadre in the program could still feel they were part of a college community that was far more cordial and sympathetic to its military members than were many other academic communities in the nation. In this regard, it is instructive that both Colonel Leo Eberhardt and Colonel Max Vancil, the two officers who had to bear the brunt of campus protest and opposition to ROTC in the late 1960s and early 1970s, still chose to live in Ripon after their retirement from the military.

Finally, many have said that there is within what might romantically be called the Ripon psyche a deep commitment to both service and leadership. One source of this twin commitment is, surely, the small size of the College which provides leadership and service opportunities to anyone who wishes to take them. Another source may be that a large number of our students come from the small towns of the Upper Midwest where citizen involvement and leadership in local projects is still cherished as a function of citizenship. And there are, no doubt, other sources as well. For whatever reason, to the degree that Army officers have seen themselves as leaders with a strong service ethos, they have felt unusually comfortable on this campus and have found that they could work with great success with all elements of a college community that also seemed to be unusually committed to service and leadership. Thus, while the ROTC program currently on campus is now smaller than it has been in previous decades, the resources and the resilience necessary for a future renaissance remain in place as well.