ASTP AT OSC
(The Army Specialized Training Program)
As conducted in Oregon State College
(Now Oregon State University)
Prepared by Raymond E. Kitchell

ASTP Patch

Purpose

A veteran of the 89th Infantry Division in World War ll who attended ASTP at OSC, with the indispensable cooperation and assistance with OSU staff, particularly Larry Landis Archivist and Chris Bell, Associate Dean of Research, College of Engineering where the majority of ASTPers matriculated, has prepared this story. The support and encouragement of Paul. G. Risser, President of OSU, is also gratefully acknowledged. Given the historic impact of the program on both GIs and the institutions they attended and the more than 50 years that has since passed, it is hoped this paper will of interest to both contemporary students and alumni of OSU as well as many ASTP Veterans, World War II historians, academicians, war buffs, and all Oregonians who should take pride in this critical period of service and growth. Most inputs for this article have been provided by the vets themselves, with pictures and personal stories, and gleaned from the archives of OSU. More than just a nostalgic trip down memory lane, it is hoped that this story will again highlight the huge and continuing impact that ASTP and the GI Bill had not only on veterans and the country at large but also on the cooperating institutions themselves of which OSU is an excellent example.

The article has been prepared with the expectation that it will be published, fully or at least partially, in the OSU Alumni News and perhaps picked up by other interested organizations in Oregon (e.g., local and state publications) and elsewhere, particularly historians, and will receive worldwide distribution on the Internet by publication in the website of the 89h Infantry Division WWll at www.89infdivww2.org It will also be published in The Rolling W, the magazine of The Society of the Eighty-Ninth Division WWll. In summary, this article is intended to: (a) record and circulate a summarized history of the ASTP at OSC, and (b) highlight the impact the ASTP had, followed by the GI Bill, not only the GIs themselves when they re-entered civilian life, but on OSU and its student body with the premise that this was not unique. It is intentionally not copyrighted.

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