Chronology

UNC offers its faculty and laboratories to the national defense

Twenty months before Pearl Harbor, the university president telegraphed Washington putting UNC faculty, laboratories and equipment at the government's service; the trustees confirmed the step at their August meeting.

People: Frank Porter Graham

UNC makes physical training compulsory for every student

As part of its defense program the university began requiring physical training of students in all classes from September 1940.

UNC forms the Carolina Volunteer Training Corps and opens a War Information Center

In the month of Pearl Harbor the university organized a volunteer military training corps for students and set up a War Information Center.

UNC starts a pre-induction curriculum for students bound for the service

The university set up a course of study for all students entering military service; it later grew into the College for War Training.

The Naval ROTC moves out of Woollen Gym and Lenoir Hall into Swain Hall

By university decision the Naval ROTC left its quarters in Woollen Gymnasium and the basement of Lenoir Hall during June 1 to 9, 1942, and moved into Swain Hall, which its commander thought below the Navy's minimum standard.

Subject: Swain Hall · Woollen Gymnasium

Archie Royal Davis's plans for the Naval Armory are settled and building begins

After weeks of argument with consulting architect Arthur C. Nash, Durham architect Archie Royal Davis had his design for a Georgian Revival armory approved in mid-September 1942; R. K. Stewart and Son began building it late that year for about $41,000, meant as a temporary building to be replaced after the war.

People: Arthur Cleveland Nash · Archie Royal Davis

The Navy Pre-Flight School's armory is completed near the campus tennis courts

A semi-prefabricated armory and rifle range designed by Archie Royal Davis for the Pre-Flight School was finished near the tennis courts, a short walk from Navy Hall. It was a separate building from the NROTC Armory.

People: Archie Royal Davis

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

Pre-meteorology and aviation training units arrive at UNC

In the first half of 1943 the university took in pre-meteorology and aviation training units, adding to the Navy programs already on campus.

The Naval ROTC moves into its new armory on South Columbia Street

The NROTC took over its new armory in January 1943, with classrooms in use by January 7 and a drill hall whose mezzanine served as a ship's bridge for drills. It is the first NROTC unit's building in North Carolina and has housed ROTC training ever since.

The NROTC holds its annual dance to open the new armory

The Naval ROTC dedicated its armory with its annual Navy dance on the drill deck, with the Navy B-1 Band, the Black enlisted musicians stationed with the Pre-Flight School, named as the band. The drill deck stayed a favorite dance floor through the war.

Navy Hall opens as the Pre-Flight School's visitors' entrance and cadet lounge

Designed by Archie Royal Davis and first drawn as a temporary office and hostess building, Navy Hall opened in March 1943 with offices for the Pre-Flight School and recreation rooms for cadets; the public was invited in on March 21.

People: Archie Royal Davis

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

The Navy V-12 program opens at UNC with about 1,300 men

The Navy's V-12 college program, which paid for future officers to finish degrees, began at UNC with an entering class of about 1,300, straining dormitory and dining space already taken up by the Pre-Flight School. It absorbed the Naval ROTC until 1945.

The Navy B-1 Band leaves Chapel Hill for service in Hawaii

The B-1 Band, the first Black Navy unit whose members held a rating above messman, cook or steward, was sent from Chapel Hill to Hawaii after nearly two years of playing across the campus and town.

UNC holds a farewell assembly for the Navy Pre-Flight School

As the war ended the university held a formal assembly to say goodbye to the Pre-Flight School; Chancellor R. B. House had told the Navy that any peacetime Navy program should fold into the NROTC and the regular degree.

People: R. B. House

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

Navy officers move into the NROTC Armory as the V-12 program ends

With the Pre-Flight and V-12 programs closed and remaining V-12 men absorbed into an enlarged NROTC, the Navy officers who had worked in Navy Hall moved their offices to the NROTC Armory.

The old Pre-Flight Armory reopens as a Scuttlebutt snack bar and bookstore

Instead of razing it for a dormitory, the university turned the Pre-Flight School's armory into a second Scuttlebutt, a soda fountain, bookstore and student hangout in the lower quadrangle.

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

A bronze plaque honoring Lt. George Howard Jr. is placed at the Naval Armory

A plaque to naval officer Lt. George Howard Jr. was put up under the armory's portico, where it still hangs.

The Monogram Club opens the former Navy Hall to all students

After the war Navy Hall went to the Monogram Club of letter athletes; when it sat underused the university paid to renovate it, and on September 18, 1948 it reopened to every student with a basement dining room and the Circus Room lounge.

The university tears down the old Pre-Flight Armory on the day it was to meet student defenders

University officials bulldozed the former Pre-Flight Armory, then the Emerson Scuttlebutt, on the same day they were due to meet students petitioning to keep it, and did not come to the meeting. The administration said refreshments would move to the Monogram Club.

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

The Navy installs an "Attack Teacher" submarine-hunting trainer in the armory basement

A mock warship interior with sonar room, bridge and plotting room was built into the armory basement to train midshipmen in antisubmarine work; it was still in use around 1970.

The former Navy Hall becomes the Faculty Club

Because the Monogram Club building was again underused, the university turned it over to a Faculty Club in 1961.

Student Peace Union symbols are painted on UNC's military buildings and the armory gun

In one of the first antiwar acts on campus, someone painted the Student Peace Union insignia on several military buildings and on the antiaircraft gun in front of the Naval Armory.

Failing roof trusses at the Naval Armory are replaced with steel

In 1962 three of the armory's wooden roof trusses failed from a design flaw and poor 1942 lumber, and scaffolding held up the drill hall roof; Clancy and Theys Construction swapped in steel trusses one at a time, finishing in 1963 at a cost of about $25,500.

"Get out of Vietnam" is painted on the gun outside the Naval Armory

Overnight, someone lettered an antiwar slogan on the antiaircraft gun on the armory lawn; NROTC officers called it a childish prank.

UNC faculty publicly debate dropping ROTC, and a Faculty Council committee is named

An open faculty discussion of removing ROTC led to a Faculty Council committee under historian George V. Taylor, which proposed a Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense to take in naval and aerospace science while keeping ROTC as an option.

People: George Vanderbeck Taylor

Antiwar marchers lower the Naval Armory flag for the Kent State dead

During a 2,000-student march against the Cambodia invasion, protesters took down the flag at the armory to half staff for the students killed at Kent State; NROTC students pushed back and raised it again before the march moved on to South Building.

Students march on the Naval Armory and serve an eviction notice on the NROTC

Led by two 1969 West Point graduates, student protesters marched to the armory and served a mock eviction notice, arguing the revised ROTC curriculum only made military training easier to accept.

The former Navy Hall becomes UNC's admissions office

The university moved its admissions office into the old Navy Hall, then the Faculty Club, in 1971; it was renamed Jackson Hall in 1992.

N.C. State students join UNC's Naval ROTC in a joint program

NC State University joined UNC's NROTC unit in a shared program in 1979, before starting its own unit in 1988.

UNC renovates the Naval Armory to house all three ROTC branches

After a 1993 push from the Army and Air Force units, the university chose to keep the aging armory and spent more than $400,000 refitting it for Navy, Army and Air Force ROTC, closing the rifle range, cleaning up lead found there, and enclosing much of the drill deck for offices.

UNC tears down the Scuttlebutt, the wartime Navy canteen

The Scuttlebutt snack bar at Cameron Avenue and South Columbia Street, built as a Pre-Flight School canteen, was razed after more than fifty years of feeding students.

Subject: The Scuttlebutt