As if the tanks and bombers weren't enough the Marines were teaching Navy boys how to release mortars.

Maybe Auburn wasn't the safest place to be during this period, tactically speaking.

Students in the Marine R.O.T.C went into the Corps as a 2nd Lt., the Navy students were given commissions as Ensigns under the Holloway Plan -- designed to incentivize naval training at civilian universities to produce more officers. They received $600 per year, plus free uniforms, tuition, books and fees. They then had to make three summer cruises and accept a post-graduation commission.

Some 16 percent chose the curriculum that pointed them to the Marines in either regular or reserve service.

I'll forever have a hard time wrapping my head around this: some of these young men were headed for war and they knew it. That changes the college experience somewhat. When I was a freshman NATO and the U.S. marched into Bosnia and our world remained largely peachy, but this was a different period altogether.

Their older brothers have assumed the moniker as the Greatest Generation, but there's certainly a lot to be proud of in this section of the Glomerata as well.

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