My apologies if this has been discussed previously....

I received an email today that made the following claim:

"LSU (The Ole War Skule) in Baton Rouge has the distinction of contributing the most officers to WW II after the U.S. military academies."

This got my attention because I thought I'd remembered from my campusology that Texas A&M claimed that distinction. Looking online, I found the following LSU page:

http://www.lsu.edu/highlights/031/salutes.html

which seems to support the statement in the email without citing any information source.

Then, I went to a Handbook of Texas page:
http://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/TT/kct8.html

Which said:
The university thus provided more officers for the armed forces during the war than both of the military academies combined.

The key phrase that seems to be missing here is "...than any other college/university".

So, I'm no further along in confirming or refuting the LSU claim. In fact, due to the fact that both colleges claims are superbly wordsmithed, it appears to me that both schools' claims may be correct. But the questionS remain in my mind:

Did LSU contribute the most officers for WWII after the service academies? Did TAMC produce more officers for WWII than any other college INCLUDING the service academies?


John in San Antonio

[This message has been edited by DogCo84 (edited 7/27/2008 7:57p).]

The LSU website cites having 5K officers in WWII. Our cush question was 18K total served with 13K as officers if I remember correctly. I salute LSU's legacy. We had more.

"Recall.....Step off on Hullabaloo..."

The campusology has been updated. Now the total number of Ags that served in WWII is estimated at over 20K, and the officers at over 15K.

I think the total # of folks that served in WWII was about 13 million, with an officer/enlisted ratio of 1/10, so let's estimate about 1.3 million officers. If the Ags were 15,000 or so, then one out of every 87 officers in WWII was an Aggie....

Even if you go with the old number of 13,000, then 1 out of every 100 officers was an Aggie...

Maybe LSU is considering us as a military academy?

quote:

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Maybe LSU is considering us as a military academy?

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That is exactly what an LSU Grad claimed when I had this same argument with him a few years ago.

LSU like near all Universities before the 1960's, were ROTC was a mandatory course for all male students.

So the likelihood of LSU having more Officers than A&M is very likely based on student body size.

LSU best known officers from WWII are:

Lt. General Claire L. Chennault
Lt. General Troy Middleton

LSU is coed before even WWI, and more than 50% female student members took some nursing and most of those became officers.

The ratio of male to female is near 85% to 15% on average before WWII.

My High School Principle was a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps in WWII. He was at the Marine barracks on Dec 7 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He too was a LSU grad, just one of many that were in service.

My favorite LSU grad story form WWII:

Lt. Earl “Blue” Archer having run out of ammo kept attacking a Japanese Battleship at Leyte Gulf to draw fire so others could drop bombs, on one pass flying upside down; he fired his six shot .38 cal pistol at the Battleship; becoming the only pilot in WWII to score six pistol hits against an enemy Battleship.

Also one of the members of the most decorated platoons in US military history is a LSU student. The LSU student left school to join the Army in 1942 and was a Sgt of the I&R Platoon of the 394th Infantry Regiment of the 99th Infantry Division. This is the platoon that held up the 3rd Parachute Division and killed or wounded over 500 Germans in a 20 hour fight.

Thank you to all the LSU students and grads who served and continue to serve today. You have a history much longer than Aggieland, since your school has its origins in antebellum universities.

But the specific question on the table is sheer numbers. As stated above, the estimate for A&M has long been 18,000 total, more than 13,000 as officers, and those numbers have recently been revised upward.

From the LSU Department of Military Science web site on the history of the unit:


http://appl003.lsu.edu/artsci/milscience.nsf/$Content/Unit+History?OpenDocument

quote:

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During World War II, LSU was one of the top four schools producing officers for the U.S. Armed Forces. (The other schools were Texas A&M, West Point, and An-napolis). LSU had more than 5,000 former students serving as officers, including 16 who achieved the rank of Brigadier Gen-eral or higher. In all, 12,000 individuals from LSU served, and over 500 died in this great conflict.

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Hats off to LSU, but they need to do more homework prior to making bold statements.....A&M had more.

well they could still have the most officers AFTER the academies. Doesn't say they had more than the academies.

Which means that they aren't above us since we had more officers than the totals combined from both academies.

If you guys like nibbling LSU's foreskin, go ahead, I HATE the MFs!!!!

see follow on post

[This message has been edited by rwtxag83 (edited 8/10/2008 3:55p).]

I just clicked the link, and they are claiming in a bold box on their website, as well as in the text that they sent more officers than any school 'other than' the academies, not after them. This is a quote from Randy Gurie, Dircetor of Special Events and Student Life Development:

quote:

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“Those of us associated with LSU today are fortunate beneficiaries of a nationally and internationally recognized research university that was founded as a military institution and proudly boasts of having sent more officers to active duty in World War II than any institution other than the military academies.”

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And they have this boxed in bold at the top of the page:



Quick Fact

LSU sent more officers to active duty in World War II than any institution other than the military academies.

They need to change the wording. They clearly made great sacrifices, but not what they are claiming.

From the 10th Edition-Summer 1944 "The Officers Guide":

quote:

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"There are 52 land grant institutions and of that number all but 3 require male students to pursue military training for at least the first years of their academic work.

The value to the nation of the military instruction provided by these institutions is attested by the fact that, in 39 colleges and universities from which statistics are available, there were 50,554 who served in the World War; of that number 28,447 served as commissioned officers."

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Some of the 52 institutions wich receive federal aid under the Land Grant act are:

Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas
Louisiana State University
University of California, Berkeley