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From the first day of classes
in 1865, military training has existed at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Originally, MIT students were required to take part in compulsory
military instruction, including drill, under the terms of the Morrill Land
Grant Act of 1862. Students were to receive instruction in "military tactics."
The objective of the Morrill Act, passed in the midst of the Civil War, was
to provide a "means by which a democratic people could gain a competent officer
corps for a military reserve without endangering basic liberties." Since it
was feared that the war might establish a large, centrally-controlled standing
army, responsibility for creating such an officer corps would be assigned,
not to a military agency of the federal government, but rather to at least
one college in each state and under the jurisdiction of that state. MIT was
designated a Land Grant College and so established a Department of Military
Science and Tactics at its inception, as specified in its state charter.
Since this time, MIT has built a military heritage second only to West Point,
the United States Military Academy.
Today, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology hosts the best leadership development program in
the nation. Through the Army, Airforce and Naval ROTC programs at the Institute,
more than 12,000 officers have been commissioned from MIT, of whom 150 have
reached the rank of general or admiral.
The Paul Revere Battalion,
an Army ROTC unit, was established at MIT in 1917, shortly after the passage
of the National Defense Act of 1916. This is believed to be the first ROTC
unit in the Nation. During World War I, there were more Regular Army Officers
serving in the Army from MIT than from any other school except West Point.
Of the 1538 military participants in World War II from the Institute, 1335
were commissioned officers.The battalion now consists of students from MIT,
Harvard University, Tufts University, Endicott College, Gordon College, Salem
State College and Wellesley College.
The Battalion's history
would fill many pages with individual actions of bravery on the battlefield
as well as scientific and technical achievements in military laboratories.
The history does not stop here, but continues to be made by the men and women
of the Paul Revere Battalion whenever the call may come.
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