Bethany College had its very own unit of the Student Army Training Corps, or SATC. The SATC was created by Congress as part of the Selective Service Act of 1917. It’s purpose, according to the SATC Training Manual, was to utilize effectively the plant, equipment, and organization of the colleges for selecting and training officer candidates and technical experts for service in the existing emergency. The SATC was a voluntary program that inducted 200,000 men on its first day. These men were given private status, which gave them no way to avoid enlistment.
Tag: Kansas
Lindsborg is a small, Swedish town in central Kansas. The land was settled on in 1869 by Swedish immigrants, and became a city the following year. To this day, one-third of the townspeople are Swedish. Around the time of WW1, most of the city was still speaking Swedish as their first language, as the majority of the citizens were first- or second-generation Americans.
Where did it originate?
Black and white photograph of Garfield School in Topeka, Kansas, serving as an emergency hospital, possibly during the Spanish Influenza epidemic. Date: Between 1918 and 1919
The Spanish Influenza outbreak started, not in Spain like the name would lead you to believe, but was traced to Camp Funston, Kansas. The Spanish Flu started in March 1918 and continued through June 1920. More than 25 percent of the US population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic. If we take every combat casualty since the American Revolution to the Gulf War it would still not total the number of Americans killed by the Spanish Influenza pandemic. The flu spread to all corners of the world from the United States, Europe, Asia, Pacific Islands, and even the Arctic. Many sources refer to this viral infection as an epidemic, but generally an epidemic is slightly more infectious than predicted in a single region. This outbreak was officially a pandemic because the outbreak occurred in several regions across the world. It is becoming easier for epidemics to become pandemics due to globalization. The research of Spanish Flu has been beneficial to scientists, historians, and governments to develop a response to the threat of pandemics globally.