It was intended to transfer, from time to time, well-qualified students who were inducted into Marine sections of the Student Army Training Corps to aviation duty, or to one of the two recruit camps, and in both cases men thus recommended, who proved themselves qualified to become officers, would be ultimately commissioned in either the Marine Corps Reserve Flying Corps or for general service in the Marine Corps. In either case after finishing their course in the Student Army Training Corps they would have been sent to a recruit camp for the regular course of training, because this would make it possible to imbue them with the necessary esprit de corps and indoctrinate them with the Marine Corps methods of procedure and training, both essential to the making of a Marine officer of the highest type. Owing to the ending of active hostilities there were no graduates from the Marine sections of the Student Army Training Corps at the different universities and colleges as they were ordered abandoned shortly after the armistice became operative.
Chapter VI.
TRAINING OF ENLISTED MEN IN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE.
IN UNITED STATES.
The Marine Corps system of training for the enlisted personnel during the war was thorough and excellent in every respect, and resulted in the turning out of men who proved themselves well fitted for the arduous duties of Marines.
For a short time after the outbreak of the war temporary recruit depots were opened at the navy yards at Philadelphia, Pa., and Norfolk, Va., with a capacity of 2,500 at the former and 500 at the latter. These were used until the regular recruit depots at Parris Island, S. C., and Mare Island, Calif., could accommodate the recruits. These two recruit depots were greatly enlarged both in size and scope, to take care of the temporary increase in strength authorized for the war, and were soon able to meet all demands made upon them.
At the beginning of the war the course of recruit instruction at the recruit depot, Parris Island, was of 8 weeks duration, and with but very few exceptions every recruit passing through this depot received 8 weeks instruction. At the Mare Island recruit depot, the recruits received 12 weeks training from April 6 to 28, 1917, 9 weeks from April 29, 1917, to June 21, 1918, and 8 weeks from June 22 to November 11, 1918.
The following table gives a list of the special schools at the Parris Island recruit depot and the number of graduates from each during the period between the outbreak of war and the date the armistice became operative:
| Noncommissioned Officers School | 2,144 |
| Field Musics School | 493 |
| Radio School | 143 |
| Signal School | 232 |
| Band School | 247 |
| Clerical School | 236 |
| Pay School | 78 |
| Cooks, and Bakers, School | 150 |
| Total | 3,723 |