Students' Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.), University of Denver Records

Through the National Defense Act of 1916, the U.S. Congress authorized the formation of a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) to help supply the leadership the army would need in the event of a sudden involvement in a large scale war. Students enrolling in ROTC units, which were to be established on a voluntary basis at colleges nationwide, would receive instruction in military subjects in addition to their normal academic studies. Upon graduation... they would be awarded reserve officers' commissions. The University of Denver participated in this first phase of training with 566 men, 15 of whom were killed in combat and 18 wounded.

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In 1918 the ROTC was replaced by a more formal relationship between the military and the university, called the Students' Army Training Corp (S.A.T.C.). At that time Colonel John C. Gresham, U.S. Army Retired, was appointed by the War Department as Professor of Military Science and Tactics. The S.A.T.C. was divided into five platoons, with the 5th being a unit of the Naval Reserve. Professor Etienne B. Renaud was a battalion commander and Professors Ira E. Cutler and David S. Duncan were instructors.

There were 400 men inducted into the S.A.T.C. over its short duration at the University. They lived in barracks, trained and attended college classes. A building was erected adjacent to the gymnasium that served as a hospital. That building was too small for the number of influenza cases during the epidemic of 1918-1919, when cases were transferred to the ''Aurora Hospital.''

The S.A.T.C. unit has barely begun when events in Europe signaled that the war would soon be over. The first orders to stop accepting new recruits came in early November 1918. All of the University of Denver S.A.T.C. members had been demobilized or transferred by early 1919.