for American Legion Post #142; Hominy, Oklahoma.
>>> by Gary Lanham

Plans are underway to support our kiddos for the annual Main Street Treats, Main Street in Hominy.
The event will take place 31 Oct 2013 (Thursday) starting at 1730 hours
(Jerry for you and me that’s 5:30 pm).

We expect goblins from Cleveland, Fairfax, Wynona, and Hominy. I 
was a new guy with the Post last year and have to say the Auxiliary 
ladies gave me a true lesson on the history of the Morris Fields Museum 
we set up in front of. It was an awesome experience for me. The kids 
were ecstatic and inspirational; we look forward to this year’s event.

If you have the time be sure to come out to the Fairfax Veteran’s Day 
Parade. This year will be special. This is more than a parade. 
Veteran’s will be treated a free breakfast Woodland High School (at the 
school), and free dinner for veterans and their families at the Senior 
Citizens/Fairfax Veteran’s Building at the south west end of town. In 
between there will be tournaments, prizes and ribbons for the best 
floats. The parade will begin Saturday November 9th at 11:00 AM with 
line up at 10:00 AM near the Baptist Church on South Main Street. Plan 
on being there to cheer our local heroes.

We had a few special things pop up at our first Thursday evening 
meeting for October. I spoke of a teaser for this week. Babo Carter 
(Service Officer) showed up with some very old army units in an 
original formal group photo from 1918 and 1941. These were found by his 
wife’s relative in a Hominy home. Your humble correspondent was hot on 
the trail of investigation, and thanks to Google and links I am 
reporting those findings. The first photo was taken in 1918 up at 
Kansas University. My initial guess was that the listed S.A.T.C. was an 
early form of the R.O.T.C. program. With humility it turns out I was 
correct.

The early history of military training on the University of Kansas 
dates to the Spanish American War. During this War, 75 KU students and 
graduates joined the 20th and 22d Kansas Volunteers Regiments. The 20th 
fought to the battle cry “Rock, Chalk, Jayhawks!” The first KU casualty 
was during this war, 1LT Alfred C. Alford, KU Class of 1896. During the 
same conflict, a former KU student was honored with the Medal of Honor; 
COL Frederick N. Funston.

In the years between the Spanish American War and World War I, 
Chancellor Strong strongly advocated against formal military 
instruction as part of university activities. Upon U.S. entry into the 
war, Chancellor Strong reversed his decision; and in 1918 the 
forerunner of ROTC was established as the Student Army Training Corps 
(SATC) with MAJ B. T. Scher as Commandant. SATC was an emergency 
measure created in World War I to facilitate training draftees. In 
order to commission, students had to complete an additional 3 weeks of 
training that followed SATC instruction. SATC was quickly abolished in 
the same year (1 December 1918) as it’s founding due to many logistical 
and pay issues and its failure to integrate with academic classes.

The sour taste left by SATC delayed ROTC from forming on campus until 
the fall of 1919. This picture of young men in a place in our history 
resides temporarily at our Post. More research on the cadets could 
possibly reflect a link to Hominy. I have been in touch with the 
Spencer Center at KU and they are very excited about our find. Time 
will tell. I will cover the 1941 Troop F 7th Cav from Ft Bliss next 
week.

Our regular meetings are the 1st and 3rd Thursdays (next 17 Oct 13) of 
each month at 1900 hours (7:00 PM). This coming meeting on Thursday 
evening (17 Oct) will showcase beans, ham, Mexican and regular 
cornbread plus all the fixins starting 6:00 PM with the formal meeting 
at 7:00PM (1800 and 1900 hours). Our Monday morning Koffee Klatch 
meetings are run by Post Adjutant Eli Prater and Jerry Sebert. Over 
biscuits and gravy (or waffles) we will keep up on each other’s 
mischievous doings. It runs generally from 7 am to 9 am. If you are a 
veteran come join us. And if you have a good story it may end up in 
print.