It was quite a change from living in an open barracks with about 50 other soldiers. We were housed in dormitory rooms with two to each room. We had classes most of the day with a break for an exercise period and sports activities. The studies were mostly science and math related, with a heavy emphasis on trigonometry which is a vital component of calculating trajectories of artillery shells.
Again, the school work was centered on math, and we learned to use survey instruments and plane tables in mapping. We often went to outlying areas in groups of 5 or 6 to get field experience in mapping and surveying. I can’t remember any Army-type drills during our stay or marching to our classrooms. It was more like being a civilian student, except for our uniforms.
Within two days of our graduation ceremony marking the end of our basic training, about ten of us were told that we were told being transferred into the ASTP, the Army Specialized Training Program, and were being sent to the Virginia Polytech Institute (VPI) in Blacksburg, Virginia. I think this was based on our academic scores and our Army tests. My recollection is that we were a very young group, from 18 to 25.
VPI was a military-type school located in the mountains of western Virginia not far from the West Virginia state line. The central part of the school was a quadrangle with a large open paved assembly area for the cadets, and it was surrounded on all four sides by three-story dormintories. Most of the VPI cadets had been commissioned and called up into the service.
We were there for about four months before most of us were transferred to Penn State for further training in surveying and mapping. At Penn State, along with other Army and Navy personal there for specialized training, we were housed in Fraternity Houses scattered throughout State College which the military had leased and taken over for the duration of the war. I was housed in one of the fraternities on Fraternity Row, located in a residential area of town. I think it was Sigma Pi, the one I have pictured here.