Every college has them: the military students, often seen drilling in formation. Every high school has them, too, in the junior form. Their training is part of a centuries-old tradition: colleges today may be thought of as bastions of liberal thought and anti-military sentiment, but in the late decades of the 1800s they were popularly thought as the best preparers of a civilian defense worse. Congress did its part by granting many of the schools land in exchange for military training of a corps of reserve officers.

On this day, June 3, in 1916, Congress established the Reserve Officers Training Corps, under the rubric of national defense via civilian defense training. In the event of wartime, it was though, the ROTC graduates could be called up to bolster the ranks of the military.

Fifty years after its founding, the ROTC was reformed to meet the nation’s postwar needs. As nuclear weapon reduced the need for standing armies, the program’s focus shifted to army recruitment and professional officer training. The training still focuses on the basics: physical training, discipline and teamwork through drilling, with the more career-focused training coming after the actual enlistment.