THE NOTRE DAME HERITAGE WITH THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES

• The military tradition at Notre Dame dates back to 1858 with the Notre Dame Continental Cadets, a company composed of Notre Dame students.

• Eighty-nine Holy Cross sisters left Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College to serve as nurses during the Civil War.

• The Civil War made a legend of Father William Corby for his dramatic granting of absolution to the Irish Brigade as they prepared to join the battle of Gettysburg.

• With the death of former student John Shillington in the explosion aboard the battleship Maine in 1898, Notre Dame had a personal stake in the Spanish-American War and a campus monument (located in front of Pasquerilla Center).

• The coming of World War I - and a national draft of young men - marked a fundamental change in the nature of military training at Notre Dame. With a military program, the University was assured of enrollment, government subsidies for the program, even government rental of campus facilities.

• Eight priests enlisted as chaplains in World War I and two of the eight, Father Matthew Walsh and Father Charles O'Donnell, became presidents of Notre Dame.

• In all, 2200 students entered the uniformed services during World War I. Forty-six students were killed in action. They are memorialized at the east entrance to the Sacred Heart Basilica beneath the chiseled motto, "God, Country, Notre Dame."

• In September of 1941, three months prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps became the University's first ROTC detachment. An estimated 12,000 officers completed their training at Notre Dame between 1942 and 1946.

• ROTC has flourished at Notre Dame since the Vietnam War. Each unit has been recognized as among the best in the nation by its respective uniformed service.

• For years Notre Dame's Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force ROTC Units have worked closely and participated in many events together. Recently, the relationship was formalized with the establishment of the US Notre Dame Command. USNDCOM is the first unified command in ROTC in the nation.

back to top