Rifled Cannon
Dublin Core
Title
Rifled Cannon
Description
Claude Pepper is closely identified with the state of Florida, which he represented in the United States Congress for decades. However, he grew up and attended college in Alabama, where he volunteered for the Student Army Training Corps in 1918. From Pepper's autobiography:
During World War I, the draft age was twenty-one to thirty-one. But in 1918, Congress passed a law requiring all men eighteen to forty-five to register by September 12 of that year...and allowed students, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty years of age to volunteer--which, after passing the required physical examination, I did. With others in this age group, I was inducted on October 7, 1918...To me, the most immediate benefit of being in the army was financial; all expenses were taken care of. Of course, I was in a situation that could lead to my being killed, but like most eighteen-year-olds I didn't worry much about it.
In this photo, Claude Pepper and fellow Student Army Training Corps members from the University of Alabama prepare to fire a 16-inch rifled cannon from a gun emplacement during practice maneuvers. Claude Pepper later inscribed a brief note about the event on the back of the photo – "the fun I had in R.O.T.C."
During World War I, the draft age was twenty-one to thirty-one. But in 1918, Congress passed a law requiring all men eighteen to forty-five to register by September 12 of that year...and allowed students, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty years of age to volunteer--which, after passing the required physical examination, I did. With others in this age group, I was inducted on October 7, 1918...To me, the most immediate benefit of being in the army was financial; all expenses were taken care of. Of course, I was in a situation that could lead to my being killed, but like most eighteen-year-olds I didn't worry much about it.
In this photo, Claude Pepper and fellow Student Army Training Corps members from the University of Alabama prepare to fire a 16-inch rifled cannon from a gun emplacement during practice maneuvers. Claude Pepper later inscribed a brief note about the event on the back of the photo – "the fun I had in R.O.T.C."
Date
1916
Relation
Claude Pepper Papers
Identifier
03/MSS 1979-01
Files
Collection
Citation
“Rifled Cannon,” War Stories: Soldiers' Lives In Their Own Words, accessed April 30, 2024, https://warstories.omeka.net/items/show/6.