





































Education for Victory:


Education for Victory:  Pre-Induction Training at Austin High School 
 

Whitney G. Blankenship 

University of Texas 

 

Abstract 

In the months after the bombing of Pearl 

Harbor, the United States began the difficult task 

of mobilizing the nation for war.  Every facet of 

American life would be touched as the country 

threw all of her resources into the war effort.  

American schools were no different from any 

other sector of the U.S. Home Front.   One of 

those schools, Austin High School, would 

implement the Victory Corps and pre-induction 

training at a startling level, taking to heart the 

governments rallying call of “Education for 

Victory.” 

 

In the months after the bombing of Pearl 

Harbor, the United States began the difficult task 

of mobilizing the nation for war.  Every facet of 

American life would be touched as the country 

threw all of her resources into the war effort.  

American schools were no different from any 

other sector of the U.S. Home Front. Almost 

immediately, schools rallied behind the war effort 

collecting scrap iron and saving pennies to buy 

war bonds.  At the high school level, mobilization 

would be even more radical, particularly once 

Congress began debating lowering the draft age 

from twenty to eighteen in 1942.  Soon after, it 

was determined that pre-induction training at the 

high school level was a necessity if the armed 

services were to continue to train and put soldiers 

into combat in anything close to the numbers 

needed for a U.S. victory over the Axis powers.  

In 1942, the U.S. Department of Education began 

publicizing pre-induction training for high school 

students and a few months later the Victory Corps 

were established to help facilitate the process. 

Almost as soon as the Victory Corps were 

announced in Washington, D.C., the state 

education departments and schools across the 

U.S. began the process of mobilizing and training 

their high school populations. In Texas, the State 

Superintendent, L.A. Woods, began working with 

federal Office of Education officials, University 

of Texas faculty and local school officials to 

mobilize the schools in Texas. One of those 

schools, Austin High School, would implement 

the Victory Corps and pre-induction training at a 

startling level, taking to heart the governments 

rallying call of “Education for Victory.” 

 

The Need for Pre-Induction Training 

Within two weeks of the bombing of Pearl 

Harbor the Office of Education Wartime 

Commission was formed. It was divided into two 

committees, one responsible for Higher Education 

and the other responsible for state and local 

education agencies. Goals for the committee  

included requiring state and local education 

agencies at all levels to help adjust to war time 

needs, informing the federal government agencies 

responsible for the war effort of ways in which 

schools and universities could be enlisted in the 

war effort and finally, analyzing the effects of all 

proposed changes on the educational system. 

Within eight months a second committee, the 

National Institute on Education and the War was 

created specifically to recruit schools into the war 

effort, a long-overdue decision, as public school 

officials had been flooding the U.S. Office of 

Education with requests for guidance on 

 

  



 

17 

 

mobilizing for the war effort (Smith 1944; Ugland 

1979). 

In August of 1942, the National Institute 

on Education and the War held a conference in 

Washington, D.C. to discuss the issue of pre-

induction training at the university and high 

school levels.  The meeting was attended by 

officials from the U.S. Office of Education and 

representatives of the U.S. War Department and 

the War Manpower Commission. It was at this 

meeting that the military pressed for the 

establishment of pre-induction training 

throughout the secondary schools and colleges of 

the nation. The assembled public servants were 

addressed by a number of individuals 

representing each of the departments, including 

U.S. Commissioner of Education, John W. 

Studebaker.   Lieutenant General Brehon 

B.Somervell, Commanding General, Services of 

Supply, War Department also addressed the 

assembly. Studebaker opened the conference 

noting that schools, particularly high schools, 

could not continue with “business as usual” but 

must be fully integrated into the war effort. He 

argued that the needs of the military would call on 

the active service of most men between the ages 

of 18 and 45 and therefore it was vital for high 

school boys to begin military training well before 

graduation (Studebaker 1942;  NY Times 1942; 

Mallon 1942). 

 Lt. General Somervell painted an even 

bleaker picture in his address to the conference. 

He began his remarks by stating that the army of 

1942 was built on specializations. Indeed, sixty-

three out of every one hundred men called to 

service would be assigned to specialized training. 

He went on to add that the army was unlikely to 

get the specialists it needed because there were 

not enough men who understood the 

fundamentals of electricity, auto mechanics or 

radio communications. He backed up his dire 

predictions with the previous year‟s induction 

statistics. Out of every 300,000 men inducted, 

4689 were needed who had specialized training in 

radio communications; the military got 135.  

From that same 300,000, 4501 medical 

technicians were needed, but only 166 were 

available. Combined with shortages in other 

specialized areas, the army experienced a net 

shortage of 838,040 men out of an army of 

4,000,000. In addition, more than 200,000 men 

had already been rejected due to illiteracy. The 

army took on the additional task of training men 

in their specializations in an attempt to overcome 

the shortage. The problem was that they simple 

could not train men quickly enough.  In response, 

he called upon schools to take up some of the 

burden of training by concentrating on the 

fundamental concepts of aeronautics, electricity 

and radio, along with other vital specializations 

needed by the army. It was imperative that 

schools take on this role “regardless of cost, time, 

inconvenience, the temporary sidetracking of 

non-war objectives, or even the temporary 

scrapping of peacetime courses.” Schools must 

take on the role of induction center “leaving the 

armed forces free to train men in the combat 

application of the training” received while in high 

school (Somervell 1942; Smith 1944). 

The concerns of the military expressed by 

Lt. General Somervell at the conference were not 

unknown to Commissioner Studebaker. Robert A. 

Lovett, Assistant Secretary of War for Air, 

warned the commissioner that pre-flight training 

and conditioning was rapidly becoming a 

necessity. The Secretary of the Navy, Frank 

Knox, and the Director of the War Manpower 

Commission, Paul McNutt, seconded Lovett‟s 

opinion. According to their estimates, 80 percent 

of the 1.3 million boys currently enrolled in high 

schools would be heading into service upon 

graduation, and the other 20 percent, deemed 



 

18 

 

unfit, would be entering war industries.  All three 

men felt that it would be a disservice to these 

young men not to attempt to prepare them for 

what lay ahead. Physical conditioning was not the 

only concern of military leaders. Admiral Chester 

Nimitz, Chief of the United States‟ Navy Bureau 

of Navigation, added his concerns over the state 

of mathematics education in an address at the 

University of Michigan in October 1941 (two 

months before the United States‟ became 

officially involved in the war). He issued his 

remarks in a summary and article that became 

known as the “Nimitz Letter” that had appeared 

in Mathematics Teacher and American 

Mathematical Monthly.  In his remarks, Nimitz 

noted that there was a sixty percent failure rate on 

the mathematics test required for entry into the 

Naval Reserves. Additionally, 3,000 out of the 

8,000 college graduates who had applied for 

admissions to the commissioning program failed 

the entrance exam, and he attributed 75 percent of 

the failures in navigation courses to deficiencies 

in mathematics (Ugland 1979; Caswell 1943; 

Garrett 1999). 

Military concerns were not the sole 

driving force behind the push for pre-induction 

training in American high schools.  By the 

summer of 1942, the U.S. Congress was 

considering lowering the draft age from twenty to 

eighteen in an effort to increase the number of 

soldiers trained and in the field.  As part of the 

debate over the lowering of the draft age, an 

amendment to the draft bill was added in 

November of 1942 requiring the military to train 

all eighteen and nineteen-year-old draftees for a 

minimum of one year before being sent overseas.  

For a military already greatly overextended in 

their ability to train recruits, this was yet another 

obstacle to getting a large and well-trained force 

quickly into the field.  Secretary of War, Henry L. 

Stimson, argued that this would put “severe 

shackles on the war effort” by throwing off the 

War Department‟s combat plans, and would force 

the War Department to call up a larger group of 

men from the upper end of the draft age to fill the 

military‟s needs in the field.  Pre-induction 

training of younger potential draftees—while they 

were still in high school—could potentially 

preclude the need for the full year of training 

called for in the amendment and allow the 

military to meet its recruitment and training goals 

(Austin American Statesman  1942). 

Although military concerns were probably 

the most influential in getting pre-induction 

training into American high schools, there were 

calls for the mobilization of school children in 

general, and high school students in particular, 

from other sources. Educators at high schools 

across the country were concerned with the 

number of students who chose to drop out of 

school, usually to go to work in defense industries 

or to go into the military. In the 1940-1941 

school-year the Office of Education reported a 

high school enrollment of 6,714,000 students, 

which represented a 1.7 percent increase in 

students over the previous year. However, those 

numbers dropped during the first full year of the 

war to 6,496,000. By the 1942-1943 school year, 

high school enrollment had dropped 7 percent 

below the 1940 population to 6,142,000.  The 

majority of these losses, according the Office of 

Education‟s circular report, were boys (7.4 

percent, as opposed to a dropout rate of 4.4 

percent for girls).  Schools in the largest cities lost 

more than 8 percent of their high school boys and 

5 percent of high school girls between October 

1941 and October 1942 (Agency 1943).  Schools 

were trying to convince students to complete their 

educations, but they had a hard time competing 

with the allure of “doing something” for the war 

effort. As one young man from Indianapolis 

stated, “ . . .merely to dream of shooting a gun or 



 

19 

 

diving in a plane at unsuspecting Japs while 

learning of past . . .things will be harder to do 

than face . . .death itself” (Ugland 1979).  High 

schools simply could not compete with the 

excitement of war.  Educators began writing 

letters to the Office of Education asking for 

guidance on training boys for military service and 

retaining students (Ugland 1979). 

 

Pre-Induction Training Curriculum 

The needs of the armed forces combined 

with the requests of educators led to the 

introduction of pre-induction training into 

American high schools in early 1942. The goals 

of pre-induction training were to aid the progress 

of the war, aid in the preliminary training needed 

for post-induction training, aid armed services 

personnel in their ability to wage a modern war, 

and to help students gain the discipline, skills, 

knowledge and conditioning needed for success 

in post-induction training or wartime work. 

Despite the government‟s stated goals, there 

continued to be a great deal of confusion over 

what exactly would constitute pre-induction 

training. Some schools wished to replace physical 

education classes with military drill instruction, 

while the American Council of Science Teachers 

originally suggested that all boys take physics and 

math because of its importance to aviation 

(Mallon 1942; Hayes 1953; Giordano 2004; Jones 

1943). 

 Soon after the decision to include pre-

induction training was made, the War 

Department, Navy Department, Department of 

Commerce, Civil Aeronautics Authority and the 

Wartime Commission on Education joined 

together to create the National Policy Committee 

to direct the necessary curriculum changes.  The 

committee worked with educators to compose a 

curriculum to be used in pre-induction training 

based on the armed forces own training manuals.  

The completed work was enthusiastically 

endorsed by each of the participating agencies 

and the armed forces (Ugland 1979). Major Ralph 

C. Wenrich of the Civilian Pre-Induction Training 

Branch commented that, “With the lowering of 

the induction age to 18, the Army must look to 

the secondary schools to provide the foundation 

on which to build post-induction training. In order 

to assist the schools in meeting the urgent needs 

of the Army and those young men who will soon 

be soldiers, the War Department through its 

Civilian Pre-Induction Training Branch has 

defined those needs which may be met wholly or 

in part by the schools” (Weinrich 1942).   

The curriculum published by the Office of 

Education included extensive course outlines for 

five major areas of study: Fundamentals of 

Electricity, Fundamentals of Machines, 

Fundamentals of Shop Work, Fundamentals of 

Automotive Mechanics, and Fundamentals of 

Radio. In addition to these vocational courses, 

pre-Flight Aeronautics, physical conditioning, 

and Pre-Induction Driver‟s Education were also 

included. The emphasis was not on creating new 

courses or series of courses, but adapting the 

regular curriculum to wartime needs. Each course 

covered the basic theory and skills needed by 

future inductees to succeed in post-induction 

specialization courses, and was organized into 

three general units of study for each course:  skills 

(what students should be able to do), theory (what 

students should know), and characteristics 

students should develop in order to be successful 

in the areas of specialization. However, the course 

outlines were just that, outlines.  The committee 

spent little time developing the curriculum as they 

assumed that changes would be made over time, 

although the curriculum was strictly limited to 

those skills identified by the armed forces as 

necessary (Smith 1944; Hayes 1953; Vocational 

Trends  1943).  



 

20 

 

To make up for the absence of a detailed 

curriculum, the Office of Education in 

conjunction with the War Department published 

numerous bulletins and pamphlets designed to aid 

schools in the implementation of pre-induction 

courses. The earliest pamphlets highlighted the 

goals of pre-induction courses and provided a 

breakdown of the areas of responsibility for pre-

induction training at the federal, state, and local 

levels. In keeping with the idea of local control, 

the federal government did not specify methods to 

be used, but rather made suggestions from which 

school officials could choose. Pamphlets 

published later also included checklists for 

administrators to use when setting up a pre-

induction program of study.   The Office of 

Education also produced a bi-weekly publication 

Education for Victory that included articles 

related to pre-induction training, information on 

additions, changes in the curriculum, lists of 

suggested audio-visuals, textbook 

recommendations, and training institutes for 

teachers.  Considering the vast amount of 

confusion about what constituted pre-induction 

training, these publications helped clarify the 

definition of pre-induction training for school 

officials while offering concrete guidance on 

materials and content (Education for Victory, 

September 1943;  Education for Victory, October 

1943; Education for Victory, December 1943; 

War Department 1943; War Department 1944). 

The pre-induction courses were more than 

just broad introductions to the course material; 

they were often highly specialized and technical 

in nature and required, in some cases, advanced 

math skills.  The New York Times reported that 

many schools were replacing traditional subjects 

with specific pre-induction technical courses, and 

that schools were increasingly emphasizing 

science and physics as well.  The article also 

notes that aviation training was prevalent at all 

levels of schooling, but that it had become 

particularly prominent in high schools. Pre-flight 

training programs and pre-flight aeronautics were 

gaining ground in schools across the nation. In 

these specialized courses students learned 

instrumentation and gliding, as well as air to 

ground communications, teletype operation and 

meteorology. Physics and mathematics classes 

emphasized problems related to modern warfare, 

such as navigation and plotting artillery fire.  The 

Office of Education published materials for 

students to use in pre-flight classes that would 

help them learn to identify the various airplanes 

used by the military. Students in automotive 

mechanics classes concentrated on learning how 

to repair specific military vehicles, rather than the 

family car. Pre-Induction Driver Education 

classes were required to learn the specifications of 

military vehicles, along with the ins-and-outs of 

driving in a convoy and military map reading. 

The Fundamentals of Radio classes included 

maintenance and repair alongside Morse code. 

This change in emphasis throughout the high 

school curriculum is consistent with 

Commissioner Studebaker‟s claim that math, 

science and physical conditioning should take 

precedence over English, foreign languages, and 

social studies. These traditional subjects were not 

completely abandoned, but they became 

secondary to the main curricular goal of preparing 

students for military service (Fine 1942; Giordano 

2004; Barger 1943; Quartermaster General  1943; 

Vocational Trends, April 1943; Ugland 1979). 

 

The High School Victory Corps 

By early 1943, nearly 2.25 million boys 

had completed pre-induction courses at their high 

school. Young men completing pre-induction 

coursework were considered ready for advanced 

work in army specialization courses. They also 

received guidance on the induction process, army 



 

21 

 

organization, and military procedures; they were 

now ready to serve in the armed forces of the 

United States upon graduation. Vocational 

Trends, a journal for teachers of vocational 

courses, reported that out of 1,373,377 

prospective inductees currently in high school in 

1943, over 100,000 had completed coursework in 

electricity and shop work, and nearly as many had 

completed training in radio, machines, and 

automotive mechanics.  In addition, 191,576 were 

involved in pre-induction Aeronautics and 

another 909,899 were enrolled in physical 

conditioning. These numbers were certainly 

helped by the introduction of the High School 

Victory Corps in late 1942. The Victory Corps 

was created by the Office of Education as a way 

to help schools organize the mobilization of their 

student bodies and efficiently move students into 

appropriate pre-induction courses (Vocational 

Trends, September  1943; NY Times 1942). 

 The Victory Corps was voluntary, and 

school administrators (as well as individual 

students) could determine how involved they 

wished to be in the program. Schools jumped at 

the chance to establish Victory Corps. One school 

superintendent noted in a memo to principals that, 

“Its chief value lies in its excellent provision for 

individual guidance by „channeling‟ efforts 

toward a definite goal” (Studebaker 1943). 

Apparently, other school officials agreed; 53.2 

percent of schools across the nation participated 

in the program, and the Office of Education 

estimated that by 1943, 70 percent of all high 

schools were participating.  Schools in Texas 

were no exception. Although pre-induction 

classes were already in place in many Texas‟ 

schools, the establishment of the Victory Corps 

brought new life to the program, as state and local 

officials began the task of fine tuning and adding 

to the existing pre-induction programs under the 

Victory Corps mantel (Ugland 1979). 

 

Pre-Induction Training on the Local Level: 

Austin High School 

Local officials throughout the state began 

looking for ways to mobilize their student 

populations, while at the same time preventing 

students from dropping out to work.  Austin 

Independent School District in Austin, Texas was 

no different. Within one month of the U.S. 

entrance into World War II, Austin I.S.D. had 

already established a public evening-school that 

would allow adults to earn high school credits 

while continuing to work.  The classes met on 

Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, three 

hours each night for twelve weeks.  The classes 

were tuition-free; however, the district did charge 

a $1.50 registration fee.  All classes would meet 

at Austin High School, be taught by Austin High 

teachers, and would include both commercial and 

academic subjects. However, night schools were 

only just the beginning. Since they were primarily 

aimed at working age adults, additional changes 

would be necessary to the curriculum of 

traditional high school students. By late spring, 

the Board of Education announced that Austin 

High School would teach pre-flight aeronautics 

and aviation, as well as classes in metalworking.  

By September of 1942, the Austin-American 

Statesman was reporting that high school shops 

would convert to twenty-four hour 

establishments.  This would allow traditional high 

school students to use the shops during the day 

and the adult education classes to use them in the 

evenings (Austin American Statesman, January 

1942). Interestingly, Austin I.S.D.'s African-

American high school, Anderson, was not 

mentioned in the discussion regarding pre-

induction training.  

At Austin High School, teachers and 

administrators looked for ways to keep students 

engaged in school as their contribution to the war 



 

22 

 

effort. For many students “business as usual” in 

school did not satisfy their longing to help the war 

effort. Many students were lured into the work 

force by the worker shortage and high wages 

offered. School must have seemed like a very dull 

place compared to working and earning money or 

fighting on foreign fields. Austin High students 

were not immune to these feelings of restlessness. 

In an effort to convince students that staying in 

school was their best choice, school officials 

brought Mrs. Grace Sloan Overton to speak on 

war issues to student leaders.  In her address, Mrs. 

Overton encouraged boys to stay in school as 

long as possible, to go to college if they could, 

even if it meant having to leave for overseas duty 

before they had finished their course of study.  

She also acknowledged that the decision to lower 

the draft age made sense economically and 

sociologically.  She reasoned that young men of 

eighteen or nineteen would be less likely to leave 

behind an economic hole in a family or industry 

because young men had fewer connections than 

older draftees did. Furthermore, by staying in 

school and completing their pre-induction 

training, boys would be more likely to get the 

specialization they wanted once inducted into the 

armed services. Acknowledging the need for 

young men in the armed services, while at the 

same time appealing to students‟ self-interest by 

emphasizing the connection between high school 

coursework and the ability to “choose” their 

specialization once inducted, Mrs. Overton 

attempted to alleviate some of the impatience felt 

by the students.  Her advice was similar to that  

given by others at the time (Austin Maroon, 

November  1942).  

An article in Vocational Trends in January 

of 1942 reminded students that staying in school 

was vital because World War II was a specialists‟ 

war. The article argues that specialists‟ jobs go 

first to those who are already trained in that area; 

therefore, staying in school and taking pre-

induction coursework was the best way to get the 

specialization of your choice, rather than being 

assigned a specialization by the army. Similar 

arguments were made by representatives of the 

armed forces (Vocational Trends, September 

1942).
 

Other publications emphasized the 

importance of specialized training in a modern 

war and reminded students that, “You are in 

school now, rather than in the armed forces or at 

work only because Uncle Sam believes that you 

will be a more useful war worker after you have 

had more training. You are on loan to your school 

until you are prepared for a war job (Spencer 

1943).” If appealing to self-interest did not work, 

then perhaps reminding students that school did 

not last forever and that they would be even more 

valuable to the war effort would raise retention 

and participation in pre-induction programs. 

By the fall term of 1942, Austin High 

School was awash in pre-induction courses. The 

school newspaper, the Austin Maroon, reported 

that, whereas most high schools only offered one 

or two pre-induction classes, Austin High School 

would offer all of the courses suggested by the 

army. Although a number of courses were already 

in place, Superintendent Dr. Russell Lewis 

reported to the Board of Education in January of 

1943 that additional courses would be added to 

achieve this goal: Navigation, Radio 1, aircraft 

drafting and automotive mechanics(Minutes of 

the Austin Independent School District Board of 

Education  1943). These courses along with those 

already offered (such as Physical Education and 

typing) would round out the program. This was an 

impressive goal given that by the fall of 1942 the 

suggested course list had expanded to include 

Code Practice and Touch Typing, Army Clerical 

Procedures and Pre-Induction Driver Education, 

Pre-Flight Aeronautics, Fundamentals of 

Electricity, Machines, Shop-work, and Radio and 



 

23 

 

Automotive Repair. The list would grow even 

longer with the establishment of the Victory 

Corps at Austin High (Austin Maroon  1942; 

Vocational Trends, December 1942). Although it 

is unclear whether AHS was able to meet their 

lofty goal, the wide array of course offerings 

reported to the school board suggests that the 

district came close to meeting its lofty goal. 

 In November of 1942, the Superintendent 

of Austin I.S.D., Russell A. Lewis, announced 

that the Victory Corps was on its way to Austin 

High School. Although no definitive plans had 

been made at the time of the announcement, 

Lewis expected the Victory Corps to resemble the 

organizational outline set forth by Dr. John Lund 

of the U.S. Office of Education at a meeting of 

state educators earlier in the year. Under the 

Victory Corps banner, pre-induction training 

would be reorganized to fit into the five divisions 

of Air, Land, Sea, Production, and Community 

Service.  New courses would be brought in and 

older courses would be revamped to emphasize 

the war effort. Physical fitness classes were 

already in place, but would be reorganized to 

better fit the Victory Corps model. A specialized 

guidance program would also be instituted to 

inform students of critical manpower needs, 

including the armed services. Other areas of 

concentration were to include first aid training, 

military drill instruction (only for students who 

were in ROTC), and increasing competence in 

science and math.  Membership in the Victory 

Corps (specifically in the Air, Land and Sea 

divisions) would require students to pass rigid 

examinations and physical fitness courses. In 

adopting the Victory Corps, Austin High School 

was similar to many urban high schools during 

the war. As a voluntary program, urban schools 

were more likely to be able to provide teachers 

with the necessary experience for the vocational 

courses and urban schools, with their larger 

populations, were also more likely to have a 

demand for the expanded training opportunities 

provided by the Victory Corps (Austin Maroon, 

December  1942; Ugland 1979). 

Once the announcement was made, a 

committee of teachers and administration officials 

was created specifically to look into the Victory 

Corps program and make recommendations for 

implementation at Austin High School.  These 

recommendations would need to include 

curriculum revisions to physical education, math, 

and home economics courses.  The committee 

members worked with Superintendent Lewis and 

T. N. Porter who were in charge of the local 

public education war effort program. Committee 

members included George H. Wells, principal of 

Austin High School, W.A. Guinn, assistant 

principal, T.B. Barnette, coordinator of science, 

Addison Lee, head of the biology department, 

Sam L. Martin, coordinator of industrial 

education, Mrs. Gladys Hudnall, head of the 

homemaking department, Mrs. Florence Richer, a 

home economics teacher, Miss Irene Randerson, a 

math teacher, Miss Cicely Goff, head of the math 

department, Standard Lambert, head of boys‟ 

physical education, and Miss Vivian Liddell, head 

of girls‟ physical education. The development of 

the Austin High Victory Corps program was not 

going to be a top-down implementation, but 

would include input from the people who would 

be running the program on a day-to-day basis. 

Many of members of the committee would also 

take on leading rolls within the organizational 

structure of the Victory Corps once it was in 

place. The work that the committee put in 

throughout December 1942 would allow the 

committee to adapt the federal recommendations 

to Austin High‟s particular needs. Specifically, 

the school would be organized under a military 

system with both voluntary and compulsory 

membership. The majority of students would be 



 

24 

 

involved in the general membership category, 

with others joining the ranks of the Land, Sea, 

and Air divisions. The only compulsory part of 

the program was physical education (Austin 

American Statesman, December  1942; Austin 

Maroon, December  1942). 

The committee continued to work 

throughout the rest of December and into January. 

Although a final decision on the Victory Corps 

was expected by December 9, committee 

members were reluctant to name a date for the 

beginning of the program, although they hoped to 

have it in place by the beginning of the spring 

term. Additional experts from the Office of 

Education had been brought in as consultants to 

the December 9 meeting to address issues related 

to the development of the physical education 

course of study.  It is likely that Austin High 

School physical education teachers would have 

attended the institute held at the University of 

Texas earlier in the year, and were familiar with 

the armed services‟ methods of teaching physical 

training. Bringing in additional consultants 

suggests that the committee planned to expand 

Austin High‟s physical education program, or at 

least adapt it so that teachers would be more 

efficient in serving the large numbers of students 

who would be required to take physical education 

(Austin Maroon, December 1942). 

 Despite the delays, the committee finished 

its work in time for the Victory Corps to be in 

place for the beginning of the spring term in 

1943. Miss Liddell, a member of the committee, 

was appointed head of the Victory Corps fitness 

classes. In addition to the new fitness classes that 

were required of all Austin High students, 

Aircraft Drafting was offered for the first time.  

The drafting class was deemed suitable for 

students who planned to go into some branch of 

aircraft design or construction. Navigation was 

also offered by the math department. Aeronautics 

had been put into place the previous fall and was 

already a rousing success.  It, along with the other 

pre-induction courses, would follow the 

guidelines and course outlines provided by the 

Office of Education and War Department. Miss 

Liddell stated that, “There is a place for every 

student in the Victory Corps, and by next fall a 

majority of the student body should be wearing 

branch service insignia.”  She estimated that there 

should be about a thousand applications for 

general membership based on the size of the 

fitness classes. Within weeks of the beginning of 

the term the governing committee, made up of 

faculty members, was formed and rules for 

membership were established (Austin Maroon, 

February  1943; Victory Corps, February 1943). 

 Austin High‟s Victory Corps program was 

by all accounts a successful program. Based on 

the fitness classes, it seems the majority of the 

student body participated in one form or another. 

If Austin High followed national trends some 

twenty-two percent of the eligible students were 

enrolled in pre-induction programs one year after 

the Victory Corps began. According to an Office 

of Education survey, slightly more than half of 

the students who participated were enrolled in the 

general membership, 10 percent in community 

service and the rest divided between the air, land, 

sea, and production divisions. The survey also 

indicated that girls joined in equal numbers to 

boys, although officially they were discouraged 

from joining the service divisions because it was 

thought they would be a distraction to the boys 

and would interfere with instruction. But, it is 

also likely that Austin High School beat the 

national statistics. The fact that it offered all of 

the pre-induction courses available would surely 

attract a number of students with a wide range of 

interests. In schools with only one or two pre-

induction classes, students who were not 

interested in electricity or shopwork would most 



 

25 

 

likely not have participated in those programs. 

Indeed, the Austin Maroon reported that by the 

end of March the Industrial Department at Austin 

High reached an all time high enrollment of 932 

students! The department offered thirty-nine shop 

courses and twenty-one drawing courses, 

including courses in printing, mechanical and 

architectural drawing, along with the traditional 

pre-induction classes. This suggests that students 

participated at higher rates than students at other 

schools (Austin Maroon, February 1943; Ugland 

1979; Austin Maroon, March 1943). 

 Although the variety of classes offered 

most likely played a role in the numbers of 

students who participated in pre-induction 

training, another equally enticing draw was the 

equipment available to students, and the hands-on 

learning opportunities presented as a result.  Sam 

Martin, the department head, told the Austin 

Maroon that equipment in the shops represented 

between 80 and 90 thousand dollars and was the 

finest available.  This equipment represents either 

a sizable outlay of capital by the Austin 

Independent School District or a large number of 

donations from the community, as the federal 

government had made it very clear that training 

devices and materials would not be supplied by 

the government or armed forces, and schools 

would have to work with what they had. The fact 

that the equipment was put in place by the school 

district—whether through specific appropriations 

or by soliciting donations—indicates a 

commitment by the district to the success of pre-

induction programs.  The ability to use the shops 

for the evening classes in addition to the high 

school classes provided an additional incentive 

for the district to make the effort to set up well-

equipped classrooms. From the student‟s point of 

view, the ability to train on the latest equipment 

would give them an edge over their peers once 

they left school. The hands-on method of training 

allowed students to cover three years worth of 

work in two years. Beginning “real” work early 

on in the class would also be attractive to 

students, and would have the side benefit of 

helping students feel they were learning 

something that was beneficial to the war—a 

feeling that was most likely not shared with more 

traditional courses such as English or Social 

Studies.  Since retention of students was one of 

the reasons for the implementation of pre-

induction training, it would seem that in this 

respect Austin High School could be said to have 

established a successful program (Austin Maroon, 

March 1943). 

The shop classes were not the only 

successful part of the pre-induction program at 

Austin High School.  The aeronautics class 

introduced in the fall of 1942 was especially 

popular among boys, and participation in the pre-

flight program grew. This is not surprising 

considering the romantic notions many young 

men had about the excitement and glamour of 

being a pilot. By the end of 1942 the Army, Navy, 

and Marines needed 100,000 cadet trainees, and it 

was estimated that even more would be needed in 

1943. Any young man who wished to qualify for 

flight training was advised to begin preparation 

while still in high school.  The pre-flight program 

required potential recruits to take a physical 

before entering the Air Division of the Victory 

Corps, thus ensuring that they met the minimum 

physical requirements set up by the armed 

services. The full course required a year of 

physics and three years of math, completion of 

the pre-flight aeronautics class, auto mechanics, 

radio, electricity or other courses that would 

prepare students to repair, service, and maintain 

air craft, and continued participation in a physical 

fitness program and military drill. Guidelines 

published in educational bulletins emphasized 

that the courses should be taught as late in the 



 

26 

 

program as possible due to their difficulty (Austin 

Maroon, March  1943; Vocational Trends, 

October 1942; Curtis 1942; Hannah 1943).   

The success of this program is indicated 

by the fact that sixty Austin High students were 

admitted to a pre-induction program sponsored by 

the Civilian Air Patrol Unit in October of 1943.  

To qualify students must be in the last two years 

of high school and would train at the municipal 

airport.  They would complete coursework related 

to meteorology, navigation, radio, aircraft, engine 

maintenance, and the fundamentals and 

regulations of flying. Civil Aviation Patrol 

volunteers taught all classes. Young men who 

were past seventeen years of age were placed in 

the Army Air Corps Enlisted Reserves, allowing 

them to be immediately placed into aviation cadet 

training upon turning eighteen. It is unclear 

whether the program was considered part of the 

Austin High pre-flight program or was an 

ancillary program outside of the school day. This 

program closely followed the guidelines set out 

by the Texas State Department of Education, 

including the opportunity to gain hands-on flight 

experience if time allowed, so it is possible that 

the program was provided for especially talented 

and mature young men over and above the normal 

aeronautics class. Another explanation might 

involve the lack of teachers with aeronautics 

training. By utilizing the volunteer instructors of 

the Civilian Air Patrol, the school would get 

expert teachers, and students would receive more 

in-depth training than they might otherwise have 

had. As with most things, the truth is probably a 

combination of these two explanations. In any 

case, the selection of these young men to 

participate in such an advanced program hints at 

the success of the pre-aeronautics courses at 

Austin High School (Austin Maroon, October  

1943; Woods 1943; Ugland 1979). 

After the 1942-1943 school year, 

references to the Victory Corps or to pre-

induction classes at Austin High School 

disappear. Although it can be assumed that the 

programs continued until the end of the war, it is 

likely that public and, to some extent, student 

interest waned after the initial successes of the 

program. By the end of 1943, the tide of the war 

had changed and Americans were no longer afraid 

of total defeat as the invasions of Africa and Italy 

made front-page news.  Under Studebaker, the 

Office of Education continued to request 

additional appropriations from Congress to fund 

the Victory Corps and pre-induction training, 

although the funding rarely came through. The 

change in the worldview coupled with the lack of 

sufficient funding led to a decrease in interest on 

the part of the public. Students who were once 

enthusiastically joining in lost their enthusiasm as 

the novelty of the program wore off.  As Allied 

victory became more certain the program 

continued to weaken. The Office of Education 

figures show a seventy percent decline in 

participation among school districts in urban 

areas (Ugland 1979).  

By 1944, the Victory Corps section of 

Education for Victory was cut and pre-induction 

training, along with the Victory Corps, was 

considered a dying program. Schools and students 

were beginning to look to the future and a world 

after the current conflict. Some elements of the 

pre-induction program were carried over into the 

new post-war world; for example, the aeronautics 

course was changed to Aviation Education in 

Texas with the stated goal of preparing students 

to live in the “Age of the Air.” For the most part, 

however, by 1944 “Education for Victory” had 

been replaced by education for the future (Ugland 

1979; Woods 1943).  

 

Afterward: Questions and Considerations 



 

27 

 

Although Austin High School seems to 

have had a typical response to the war, it was 

atypical in other ways, such as the number of pre-

induction classes and the number of students 

participating in Victory Corps.  Due to the 

fragmentary nature of the records currently 

available, a number of questions remain.  A more 

detailed account of the committee deliberations 

tasked with adapting the Victory Corps 

curriculum to Austin High School would help 

answer questions regarding the difficulties (or 

lack thereof) of adapting the federal program to 

Austin High‟s particular situation.  For instance, 

Military Drill was part of the national guidelines 

recommended for Victory Corps‟ schools. 

However, drill was always very controversial; 

many people felt it was a little too close to the 

Hitler Youth and would undermine democratic 

values. Others believed that in order for the U.S. 

to win the war, our students must be immersed in 

the same type of militaristic culture as the enemy.  

Did the committee run into problems over the 

decision to include military drill? And, if so, how 

were those problems overcome? Another question 

concerns the validity of the claim that Austin 

High offered all the pre-induction classes. This 

could be checked with access to student and/or 

school records. The participation levels of 

students would also be helpful in determining 

how successful the Austin High program was 

when compared to schools and districts of similar 

size.  The Victory Corps coordinator, Miss 

Liddell, estimated that there would be 

approximately one thousand applications for 

general membership, but figures for the other 

divisions have not been found.  A more complete 

picture of the Austin High pre-induction program 

might be obtained through interviews with former 

students as well as access to school and district 

records from the time period (Ugland 1979). 

 A secondary story is that of the teachers 

who made the Victory Corps and pre-induction 

training possible at Austin High School.  At a 

time when there was a severe teacher shortage 

due to the number of people being drafted or 

leaving education to work in war industries, 

Austin High School seems to have been relatively 

stable. What difficulties did the district face in 

finding qualified teachers for the pre-induction 

classes? What adaptations had to be made to the 

program when no qualified teacher could be 

found for the more technical classes?  What was 

the turnover rate during the war years? Often the 

success or failure of a program is dependent on 

the teachers who implement it in the classroom. 

Being able to answer the questions related to 

faculty participation would provide a more well-

rounded picture of the overall success of pre-

induction classes at Austin High School 

(Giordano 2004; Educational Digest 1942; 

Vocational Trends, January  1942).  

 For the most part, the federal government 

did not fund pre-induction and Victory Corps 

programs. All monies were expected to come 

from the district, and schools were encouraged to 

adapt the courses they already offered to pre-

induction guidelines as far as they could.  The 

extent of Austin High‟s program suggests a large 

financial commitment to the idea of pre-induction 

training.  But, exactly how much money was 

allocated to Austin High School‟s program, and 

how much went into the evening school program 

for adults?  Did the two programs operate on 

separate budgets?  Did one receive a larger 

appropriation than the other? Since Austin High‟s 

teachers were also teachers in the evening 

program, and since the well equipped shops were 

used by both high school and adult students, it 

would seem that there would be at least some 

overlap in budgets. In addition, the two different 

programs may also have affected the extent of 



 

28 

 

community donations to the program. How much 

of the equipment was donated by area businesses? 

Were there any strings attached to the donations, 

such as requiring the Austin High shops be used 

for training war workers in the evenings?  

Another problem associated with the two 

programs is the degree to which the evening 

program increased or decreased participation in 

the Austin High pre-induction classes. Given that 

one of the goals of including pre-induction 

training at the high school level was to keep 

students in school, did the availability of night 

classes (which counted toward a diploma) pull 

students out of full time schooling and into full 

time war jobs?  Or, did Austin High students use 

the evening program as another way to accelerate 

their training, while still allowing them the 

flexibility of working part time? 

 Finally, Austin High School was the 

district‟s White school. There is no mention of 

pre-induction programs at Anderson, the district‟s 

Black high school.  Were pre-induction classes a 

part of the curriculum at Anderson?  If so, what 

classes were offered and how were they funded? 

If not, were black students allowed to attend the 

evening school? In what ways did the Anderson 

faculty and administration mobilize their 

students?   

The story of pre-induction training within 

the Austin Independent School district in general, 

and Austin High School specifically, has only 

been partially explored in this paper. The 

availability of only fragmentary evidence and lack 

of access to district and school records leaves us 

with an incomplete picture. The questions that 

remain, if answered, will help to further our 

understanding of the war years in Austin, Texas 

and its impact on the students of Austin High 

School. 

References 

 

“60 Austin High Boys Take C.A.P. Training at 

Municipal Airport." Austin Maroon, October 

8, 1943. 

Agency, Federal Security. 1943. "Some Early 

Effects of the War Upon Public Schools." 

edited by O. o. Education. Washington D.C.: 

Government Printing Office. 

"Austin High Gets Ready to Set Up Victory 

Corps." Austin American Statesman, 

December 14, 1942. 

Barger, Clarence G. Automotive Mechanics II. 

(New York: American Book Company, 1943). 

Caswell, Hollis L. "Reappraising Pre-induction 

Needs." School Executive 63, no. 1 (1943): 

35-36.   

Commission, Educational Policies. 1942. 

Education Can Help Win the War. Education 

Digest (8):51. 

Curtis, Francis D. 1942. Pre-Flight Aeronautics in 

the Secondary School. Education Digest 8 

(December):21-23. 

Defense Shortage: Teachers. 1942. Vocational 

Trends, January, 17. 

Department, U.S.War. 1943. Pre-Induction 

Training. edited by C. P.-I. T. Branch. 

Washington DC: Government Printing Office. 

Essential Facts about Pre-Induction Training. 

1944. edited by C. P.-I. B. W. Department. 

Washington D.C.: Government Printing 

Office. 

Fine, Benjamin. 1942. Nation's High Schools Key 

to War Effort. New York Times, November 

15, 1942, E9. 

Garrett, Alan W. 1999. Mathematics Education 

Goes to War: Challenges and Opportunities 

during the Second World War. In Annual 

Meeting of hte National Council of Teachers 

of Mathematics. San Francisco, CA. 

Giordano, Girard. 2004. Wartime Schools: How 

World War II Changed American Education. 

New York: Peter Lang. 



 

29 

 

Group Hopes to Have Corps by Spring. 1942. 

Austin Maroon, December 17, 1942. 

Hannah, Stanford. 1943. Fitting Pre-Flight 

Courses into the Curriculum. Educaiton 

Digest 8:45. 

Hayes, Russell. 1953. Analysis of Plans for Pre-

Induction Training, Stout Institute. 

High School Airmen. 1942. Vocational Trends, 

10-11. 

Industrial Department Reaches All-Time High 

Enrollment of 932. 1943. Austin Maroon, 

March 25, 1943. 

Jones, R.D. 1943. President's Message: Pre-

Induction Training. Paper read at American 

Council of Science Teachers. 

Keep Level Head, Don't Get Hysteria, Stay in 

School. 1942. Austin Maroon, November 5, 

1942. 

Lewis Announces Austin High to Have Victory 

Corps. 1942. Austin Maroon, November 9, 

1942. 

Mallon, Winfred. 1942. Schools become Adjuncts 

of Army. New York Times, August 29, 1942, 

13. 

Minutes of the Austin Independent School 

District Board of Education. January 11, 

1943. Austin Austin Independent School 

District, 176-177. 

New Bulletins Issued by Office of Education. 

1943. Education for Victory, 16-17. 

Pre-Induction Training in High Schools. 1943. 

Vocational Trends, 23. 

Senate Scored for Passage of Limit on Draft. 

1942. Austin American Statesman, November 

6, 1942. 

Smith, Paul Wenger. 1944. Pre-Induction and 

Other Industrial Arts Texts: A comparative 

Analysis of the Two Types of Textbooks 

Used for Industrial Arts Coursework in 

Secondary Schools during World War II-- 

Content, Organization, Projects, Information, 

Physical Make-up and Evaluation, University 

of Minnesota. 

Somervell, Behon B. 1942. The Teacher's Job in 

Total War. Paper read at National Institute on 

Education and the War, August 28-31, 1942, 

at Washington D.C. 

Spencer, Lyle M. 1943. Youth Goes to War. 

Chicago: Science Research Associates. 

Studebaker, John W. 1942. What the Schools Can 

do to Help Win This War. Paper read at 

National Institute on Educaiton and the War, 

August 28-31, 1942, at Washington D.C. 

———. 1943. Back to School Message from U.S. 

Commissioner of Education. Education for 

Victory, 1. 

Students Will Get Credit in High School for 

Work at Night. 1942. Austin American 

Statesman, January 11, 1942. 

Times, New York. 1942. Army Sets Goal for War 

Education. New York Times, August 23, 1942, 

23. 

———. 1942. Bill Gains in Senate for War 

Education. New York Times, April 30, 1942. 

Training Institute in Pre-Induction Driver 

Education. 1943. Education for Victory, 16. 

Ugland, Richard M. 1979. Education for Victory: 

The High School Victory Corps and 

Curricular Adaptation During World War II. 

History of Education Quarterly 19 (Winter 

1979):435-451.  

U. S. Army, Quartermaster Corps, Military 

Division. 1943. Pre-induction driver 

education in schools and college. Instructor's 

manual Detroit, MI: G. M. Photographic. 

Victory Corps-espondence. 1943. Austin Maroon, 

February 25, 1943. 

Victory Corps Classes Produce Better Manpower 

At Cost of Sore Muscles, Additions to 

Curriculum. 1943. Austin Maroon, February 

8, 1943. 



 

30 

 

Victory Corps Plans Studied by Committee. 1942. 

Austin Maroon, December 3, 1942. 

Visual Aides: Army Air Forces Films Available 

for Pre-Flight Training. 1943. Education for 

Victory, 8. 

Weinrich, Ralph C. 1942. Pre-Induction 

Orientation in Schools. Occupations, 161-162. 

Woods, L.A. 1945. Aviation Education in Texas 

Public Schools. edited by State Department of 

Education. Austin  

You and the War. 1942. Vocational Trends, 12-

13. 

Your Course and Your Career: Fundamentals of 

Radion. 1943. Vocational Trends, 22. 

Your Course and Your Career: New Courses in 

Our High Schools. 1942. Vocational Trends, 

15. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


