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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 }

Section IV

Postwar Reconstruction: The Ripon ROTC Unit, 1945-1950

The end of the war had an immediate impact on Ripon College. For several years the character of college life and, in particular, the character of the ROTC program after it was reactivated were largely shaped by the war veterans who returned to complete their education. The veterans had seen the war as an interruption in their lives and as an experience that had given them great maturity. Most also had little interest in any further service in the Army so that despite the fact that the Army would exempt veterans from taking the Basic Course, few of the returning soldiers were interested in pursuing an officer's commission through ROTC.

The War Department authorized the reactivation of ROTC Advanced Courses throughout the country in November, 1945. Ripon reactivated its own Advanced Course on January 4, 1946, thereby giving the College a fully reestablished ROTC program. The restored Unit was, initially, quite small with only 18 cadets in the Basic Course and 14 in the Advanced Course. Even with such a small group the Unit managed to do well in its first annual inspection, scoring well above the national average for ROTC units and winning praise from inspecting officers for its success in dealing with a "difficult year." At the end of the following year, the officer group inspecting the Ripon Unit rated it higher than any other unit they visited, indicating that the program had already reestablished its traditional high level of quality.

In June of 1948, the Unit commissioned 11 new second lieutenants, all of whom were war veterans. With their graduation the dominance of the returning veterans passed and Ripon became once again a college for civilians in their late adolescence. As it did so the requirement for mandatory enrollment of freshman males in the Basic Course led the Unit to grow rapidly. It reached 76 by June of 1947, 112 by June of 1948, and 148 by June of 1949. These latter years, therefore, were characterized by efforts to rebuild the Unit.

In rebuilding, both the officers in charge of the Unit and the college administration sought to follow those practices that had made the unit so successful in pre-war years. This meant, in particular, the reestablishment of ROTC's leading role in social activities on campus. The Unit had its first postwar Military Ball in February of 1947, at which time an observer noted the large number of war campaign ribbons and medals worn by the cadets. The next year Military Week was reinstituted beginning with the traditional tea dance followed in a few days by a large afternoon battalion review that featured the presentation of the female sponsors of the battalion and its companies and culminating in the Military Ball. By the late 1940s, ROTC had succeeded in again becoming a major factor in college social life as evidenced by the fact that the Crimson returned to its traditional prewar practice of devoting an entire section of the yearbook to the personnel and activities of the ROTC Unit.

At the same time, efforts were made to regain the ascendency Ripon had enjoyed in regional rifle and drill competition. In 1949 the ROTC again took control of the men's and women's rifle teams which, since the end of the war, had been organized as independent club sports. While the men's team had an indifferent year with five wins and four losses, the women's team won all five of its matches.

In 1950, Lieutenant Colonel Roland L. Kolb '39, who joined the Unit as assistant PSM&T in 1947, and who was able to reestablish many of the unit's prewar traditions, was named PSM&T and became the youngest commanding officer in the Fifth Army. He was joined by Captain James Magellas '42 as assistant PMS&T. As two of Wisconsin's most decorated officers in the war, Kolb and Magellas represented the quality leadership that Ripon's prewar ROTC program had produced and both worked to complete the rebuilding of the Unit along prewar lines. Attention was once again focused on returning the rifle team to its prewar glory. Kolb's efforts to reconstitute the ROTC Band were frustrated by a lack of resources and personnel, but he did succeed in cooperating with the College to create a joint College-ROTC Band. Kolb and Magellas remained at Ripon only a year, but by the end of their tenure the reconstruction of the Unit along prewar lines was complete.