DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 50 



F. Equipment. 



The several departments have made considerable progress towards 

 replacement of equipment destroyed by fire in 1916, but nmrh remains 

 to be done as rapidly as funds and prices will justify. 



G. War Service. 



M. A. C. co-operated with the government of the United States in its 

 work of prosecuting the Great War by: 



(a) Releasing members of the College staff for war service with various 



branches of the Federal government. 



(b) By its hundreds of students and former students who Sv^rved in 

 militant and civilian capacities. 



(c) By its part in the Students' Army Training Corps (S. A. T. C) 



Sections A and B. 



(d) By radio code courses to our students awaiting call to service. 



(e) By extension work in food production and conservation, and in 



fuel conservation. 



1. S. A. T. C. Section A. This work was planned for men of 

 college caliber, the intention being to utilize the colleges as prehminary 

 trailing or selective camps for officers training camps and schools for 

 non-commissioned officers. 



Eight hundred and sixty students were duly enlisted in Section A 

 of the S. A. T. C, fifty of these being a naval unit. 



Inherent difficulties in the system, influenza and the armistice combined 

 to terminate this work by the end of the fall term, 1918. 



2. S. A. T. C. Sectio7i B. This work contemplated vocational 

 training for soldiers selected for their probable aptitude for the respective 

 vocations. 



On April 22, 1918, acting on a preliminary understanding with the Com- 

 mittee on Education and Special Training of the War Department, verified 

 by formal contract on May 3, active preparations were begun for re- 

 ceiving and training as auto-mechanics a detachment of 500 drafted men 

 for a period of two months beginning May 15th. The men came from 

 Wisconsin on the 16th and numbered 520. Instruction began on the 20th 

 with a complete equipment including 10 Clas* B army trucks and a 

 teaching and administrative ?3erso?iweZ of about 60 persons. It is a mat- 

 ter of pride that the organization worked smoothly and efficiently from 

 the start, both within its own inteiests and in those matters requu'ing co- 

 operation with the military authorities. 



The teaching and administrative staff was recruited from the reguhir 

 force of the engineering and farm mechanics departments, from oui own 

 engineering students under draft age, from auto-schools, from garages and 

 shops, and after starting, from the ranks of the soldiers themselves. 



Illustrative, demonstrative and working equipment was loaned by the 

 government, purchased, loaned by auto and accessory companies or con- 

 structed as could be done the quickest and the best. 



The instruction scheme divided the men into 8 platoons of 8 squads 

 each and the assigning of each platoon to one-week periods of instruction 

 in eight sub-divisions of the work as follows: 



1. General chassis repair. 



2. Chassis units repair, except engine and electrical units. 



3. Engine repair. 



