Texas AMC and WWI

Texas AMC and world war one. . World War I allowed the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas to expand beyond military training and directly contribute to the war effort with staff and students volunteering for service in large numbers. Students first served for other countries before the U.S. entered the war. As early as Sept. 1914, Georges Pierre Ferdinand Jouine, class of 1907, enlisted as a private in the French Army. In Mar. 1917, the school offered their programs and facilities for use during the war. By Dec. 1917, TAMC was designated a U.S. Army training base., Along with the normal instruction of its college students, the college became a base for three lines of intensive military training. In Dec. 1917, soldiers reported to train as radio mechanics. They were assigned to Goodwin Hall as their barracks, and received technical instruction from the Department of Electrical Engineering. The service training detachment of auto mechanics and carpenters was in operation by summer 1918. The third area of training was in the Signal Corps School of Meteorology, established in May 1918 to train men for aviation, gas and flame attacks, bombing expeditions and many other military and naval operations. The school operated out of the Civil Engineering Building and was the only one of its kind among allied nations during the war., With the U.S. calling on the male faculty to serve, for the first time in the college's history women served on the faculty teaching Botany and French. Despite an influenza outbreak in Sept. 1918, the college and community continued their support through Liberty Bond drives and increasing agricultural production until the war ended. More than 2,200 Aggies served, with at least 62 making the supreme sacrifice from a dedicated community of students, faculty and citizens during a time of war.