The Army Specialized Training Program was a military training program instituted by the U.S. Army during World War II at a number of American universities to meet wartime demands for junior officers and soldiers with technical skills. The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead...

After U.S. entry into the war the Army apparently suspended at least certain advanced elements of ROTC training (around 1943). This was a particularly problematic situation for the numerous land grant colleges around the country, which have in their constitution the agreement to train "militia". In addition, far-sighted military planners could look forward to a sudden and massive emergency requirement for junior officer replacements during an anticipated amphibious invasion of the Japanese mainland. However ASTP differed from the U.S. Navy's V-12 commissioning program in that producing technically-trained personnel and not officers was its primary goal. ASTP was approved in September 1942 and implemented in December. The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) is a training program of the United States armed forces present on college campuses to recruit and educate commissioned officers. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... The V-12 Navy College Training Program was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II. Between July 1, 1943 and June 30, 1946, over 125,000 men were enrolled in the V-12 program in 131 colleges and universities in...

So during the late part of the academic year 1942-1943 a national testing program was conducted among the male college student bodies. The test instrument used at some, if not all schools, was Army OCT-X3, a IQ test of standard Stanford-Binet type. Selection was based upon approximately 1 standard deviation above the mean, or above. Enlisted men already on active duty were also tested, and accepted only at the rank of private. Individuals who passed above the acceptable level were sent to Army Specialized Training Program: intensive (approximately 25 class-time hours per quarter) courses in engineering and science at land grant colleges around the country. This included many volunteers from the civilian echelons who were at least 17 but below 18 years of age. IQ redirects here; for other uses of that term, see IQ (disambiguation). ... Stanford may refer: Stanford University Places: Stanford, Kentucky Stanford, California, home of Stanford University Stanford Shopping Center Stanford, New York, town in Dutchess County. ... Alfred Binet (July 11, 1857 – October 18, 1911), French psychologist and inventor of the first usable intelligence test, the basis of todays IQ test. ... In probability and statistics, the standard deviation of a probability distribution, random variable, or population or multiset of values is defined as the square root of the variance. ...

Active duty students were shortly terminated prematurely, due to casualty losses, and returned to active duty. Those who had sacrificed noncommissioned rank to qualify for the college training diversion were not necessarily reinstated, and often shortly went into combat as private soldiers.

The 17-year olds were continued in school until 18, at which time they were transferred from Army Reserve to AUS status and called up to Infantry Basic training. After basic, those who were willing were returned to the reduced number of land-grant schools still maintaining ASTP. However by November 1943 the Army recognized that its replacement training centers were not producing nearly enough new soldiers for the Army Ground Forces, particularly in light of the impending invasion of France. ASTP was not only one of the easiest programs to reduce or eliminate, it also provided a large pool of already-trained soldiers. Army reserves are a part of an army which is normally activated only during emergencies such as a war. ... U.S. Army recruits learn about bayonet fighting skills in an infantry Basic Combat Training at Fort Benning, Georgia. ...

From a wartime high of 150,000, ASTP was immediately reduced to approximately 60,000 and the remainder, having already completed basic training, were sent to the AGF. Even though they did not have the experience to qualify for NCO rank, the Army anticipated that their superior training and intelligence levels would result in advancement to leadership positions.

In the spring of 1944 ASTP levels were further reduced at the direction of Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall. The Army sucks RTC's continued to experience serious shortfalls in producing casualty replacements, necessitating the use of divisional service troops and Army Service Forces troops as infantry replacements. When the Army was faced with the choice of immediately reducing its strength by three divisions or discontinuing ASTP altogether, it chose the latter.

Largely a failure, one secondary benefit of ASTP was a financial subsidy of land grant colleges whose male student bodies had been decimated by the diversion of about 14 million men into the various armed forces, and another was a softening of university resistance to lowering the draft age from twenty to eighteen. However many otherwise qualified potential officers were routed through ASTP who might have gone to Officer Candidate School, to the Army's detriment. In the United States armed forces, Officer Candidate School (OCS) or the equivalent is a training program for non-commissioned officers, soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and recent college graduates to earn commissions as officers. ...

Army Specialized Training Program