Randolph Duke
THE DUKE
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2012
- Messages
- 2,484
I don't have anything against aggy other than they create a fictitious narrative of who they are and then try to demand others accept it. I think they have history and traditions that would establish their school as a fine institution, but they have some unexplained need to try to embellish their narrative to the point I believe the record needs to be set straight.
While we are talking military matters, aggy LOVES to perpetuate they myth they graduated more officers during WWII than both the service academies combined. This simply isn't true. During WWII, West Point and Annapolis continued to educate cadets in their traditional manner, the main adjustments being shifting emphasis of curriculum from strategy to tactics and accelerating the course of education from four years to three. What aggy did was host a Officer's Candidate School program run by the military on their campus. This school turned out the fabled "90 Day Wonders." It is true that more officers went through the 90 day program hosted on the campus, but they certainly didn't earn degrees from tamu in 90 days. Comparing the number of individuals completing a 90 day program not run by the university, but only hosted on their campus to the number of individuals completing a full degree course of study at the academies may make aggy feel proud and on it's face be something that appears impressive, but its just another way aggy twists the truth as an institutional policy (approximately 5,000 aggy grads were serving as officers in the military on Dec. 7, 1941. Approx 7,000 actual aggy graduates served as officers during WWII, so during the war years, aggy graduated approx 2,000 officers. Enrollment for both West Point and Annapolis at the beginning of the war was 2,000,so aggy graduated close to the number of graduates as the academy each year, but no was did they provide more than pth academies combined). For the record, Michigan State also hosted an OCS program during WWII and more individuals went through that program than the one hosted on the aggy campus. If you want another example of how aggy's attitude toward all things aggy is different than other, actually respected schools, I will point out that aggy proudly boasts that 7 CMOH recipients were graduates of their school. Harvard has more than twice that number (17, in fact) of CMOH recipients who were graduates of their university, but few people have any idea of this. Why not? Because the idea of being a citizen soldier who serves our country and then quietly goes back to civilian life was originated by our forefathers and is still respected by some. Then again, there are those who have to get in your face whenever they can and remind you they were in the military once.
I wasn't saying that aggy didn't have an ROTC program and I said nothing about their status as a SMC. What I was trying to point out is that the number of individuals receiving college educations and then becoming commissioned officers from tamu isn't appreciably different than the number following exactly the same course of action at the University of Texas. The difference is that at aggy, they run around in silly, made-up uniforms and act like they are making some great contribution that isn't being made by the students at a lot of other universities out there, but in a quieter, more respectful manner. Its a distinct cultural difference that is seen in many other aspects of aggy and at other universities, including UT.
Hence, we are right back at where we started, discussing the differences between aggy and Texas.
(Source for aggy was time numbers: Colleges and Universities in World War II By V. R. Cardozier. Available in google books, p.16)
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