Wesleyan University World War I service records

After World War I was over, the Wesleyan Alumni Council sent a form requesting military service records of students and alumni involved in the war. These forms were meant to be published as a permanent memorial to those who served. However, no evidence that this book was ever produced has been found. Wesleyan had a total of 1,169 men involved in the war effort, of whom 26 died. The majority of Wesleyan men were involved in the Army, S.A.T.C., and Navy. A few of the specific occupations were as chaplains, ambulance drivers, quartermasters, pilots, and engineers of chemical warfare.

The first page of the form requested basic biographical information of each man: name, address, marriage status, education, and occupation before entry into service. The middle section asked for the War Record: Date entered in service, location of training, promotions, location where stationed abroad, date of when they first went into action, injuries, date discharged from service, and occupation after the war. On the back of the form, sent to those who survived the war, was a questionnaire asking about their impressions on the war, what mental/physical effects they had, how their Wesleyan education benefited them, and their feelings toward universal training. The forms also requested that they send additional documents: a photo of themselves before the war and a photo of them in military uniform. Very few actually sent in photos. Among those who did was Captain Frank E. Wing, class of 1900, who made an album of the Red Cross in France from March 1918 to February 1919. There are also many letters of correspondence between Arthur B. Haley, who was in charge of creating this collection, and those who filled out the forms. The widow of Joseph H. Hefflon, class of 1894, transcribed a collection of letters from her husband and other YMCA men that were stationed with her husband. The letters tell her husband's story of immediately being torpedoed once shipped out, the way he served as a father figure and the respect that he developed with the other men, and then finally of his dying of pneumonia.

Of those who completed the questionnaire, almost all of the responses to the first question indicated a sense of patriotism, duty, and pride in enlisting to help their country. Many wrote that they regretted not signing up sooner. The most common responses to how Wesleyan benefited them were: training through R.O.T.C. and S.A.T.C., athletics, math, and languages. Philip Prescott Frost, class of 1902, wrote: "Hazing is a good introduction to the military discipline. Two fraternity brothers saved my life by getting me away from my officers and from the front after I was gassed and had gone back too soon. Credit Psi U."

Many who were in favor of universal military training cite it as good for the nation so long as the U.S. did not follow the German model of militarism common at this time. More than a dozen cited the Swiss model as a positive idea. A certain percentage, despite their patriotism, had strong feelings against universal military training. One example is Theodore Foster Comstock, class of 1913. Although he said he would not have "missed it for anything" he did not believe in universal military training: "Believe in maintaining a reasonable standing army of men fit for nothing else, but not in wasting the time of better men in training for war or in risking the development of a desire for war in the minds of men with military knowledge for which they have no immediate use."