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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
A sense of urgency gripped educators and federal government officials in the summer of 1942. Word of the imminent lowering of the draft age meant that little time would remain between a boy's graduation from high school and his induction into the armed forces. In July, Robert A. Lovett, Assistant Secretary of War for Air, advised John W. Studebaker, U.S. Commissioner of Education, that “the need for pre-flight training and physical conditioning is every day become more apparent.” In September, an officer from the Navy Department warned that the country could not afford to lose any time in toughening and training all high school youth. Government estimates forecast that 80 percent of the nation's 1,300,000 high school boys between 16 and 18 would enter the armed forces shortly after graduation. The 20 percent physically unsuited for the military, and many girls, likely would enter industrial work and essential community occupations. Consequently, Paul McNutt, Director of the War Manpower Commission, added his voice to the chorus asking that adolescents in the schools compose a trained reserve.
1 Lovett, Robert A. to Studebaker, John W., July 15, 1942, file, Endorsements, series, HSVC — Subject Files 1942 43, Records of the Office of Education. Record Group 12, National Archives Building (hereafter cited RG 12, NA); Hendry, Charles E. to West, James E., September 25, 1942, file, Boy Scouts of America, series, HSVC — Correspondence with Cooperating Organizations, RG 12, NA.Google Scholar
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