ASTP 1943-1944

In the spring of 1943, some 380 soldiers - among the nation's best and brightest military draftees - were assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at Providence College. The Army paid their room, board and tuition costs while they attended classes in mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, geography and English, taught by the college's Dominican faculty, that ran simultaneously but separately from the college's normal curriculum. Most of the soldiers lived in Aquinas Hall, five to a room, while others lived in the original Guzman Hall. They used the college's athletic fields for training exercises.

The goal of the program, initiated by Secretary of War Henry Stimson and conducted at more than 120 colleges and universities throughout the nation, was to provide specialized training to prepare these soldier-scholars for military tasks in engineering, mathematics, medical/dental areas and foreign languages, and to ensure that there would be sufficient numbers of doctors, dentists,lawyers, and other skilled and well-educated professionals after the war ended.

In March of 1944, the program was abruptly canceled and the soldiers were reassigned to the 328th infantry regiment of the 26th Yankee Division. The War Department had determined that the soldiers enrolled in the program, whose presence at Providence College had enabled the college to continue operating, were needed to reinforce troops stationed at the front lines.