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Mirroring the College’s student body as a whole, more than two-thirds of us resided in New York State. Among us were a handful of service veterans, and also several 16-year-olds, and many other barely 17. 15, 1949, with the entry of this new Hamilton class of 162 men.

Notwithstanding this backdrop of the Korean conflict and of the other global tensions which made us aware of the likelihood that we would be at some time become obligated for military service, we enjoyed our situation as - for the most part - carefree youth, determined to enjoy and to gain the most from our college years. A large proportion of us who graduated on schedule in June 1953 volunteered to be called up in a summer draft call, served our two years, and, if undertaking graduate work, did so with the very generous assistance of the G.I.

Many of this group later returned to Hamilton to finish up their studies, and received their degrees with a later class. Our classmates who voluntarily or perhaps “involuntarily” dropped out of college were almost certain to be swiftly caught up in the draft. Many enrolled in summer officer training programs, notably the Navy’s program at Newport and the Marines’ one at Quantico. Others joined reserve and National Guard units, membership in which sometimes resulted in an early and unanticipated call-up to active duty. Hamilton offered a 12-week summer session in 1951, and some 70 students, including a number from our class, took advantage of this opportunity to accelerate their studies, particularly those planning graduate work. In early 1951, the criterion for student deferment from the draft was rank in the upper half of one’s class this provision was soon revised so that deferment was routinely granted to a student in good standing and making progress toward a degree. birthrates in the early 1930s, colleges recognized the vulnerability of their students to the demands of conscription. We anxiously followed these developments, for we were alert to their consequences, especially the nation’s need for a large and rapid military buildup. Coincidence, perhaps, but maybe the Reds understood that the Class of 1953 was coming after them. The truce held, and resulted eventually in an armistice, not signed until July 27, 1953, six weeks after our graduation. In November of 1951, the parties agreed upon a truce, with territorial lines drawn roughly at the 38th parallel. As battle lines seesawed up and down the Korean peninsula, the armies engaged in eight months of bitter and bloody fighting, reaching a stalemate early in 1951. In June 1950, following our freshman year, the Cold War turned into actual combat when the army of communist North Korea invaded South Korea, and U.S. In that September, the United States learned that it no longer held a nuclear monopoly, for the Soviet Union had developed an atomic bomb in China, Mao Tse-tung proclaimed the Communist Peoples’ Republic and the division of Germany into separate eastern and western republics was formalized. However, certain events during that very entry month marked in dramatic ways the onset of the Cold War.

We entered Hamilton in September 1949, four years after the end of World War II, eagerly anticipating a “normal” and productive college experience. My story this morning concerns this Class of 1953 and tells something of our college years on this Hill. Bates, Class of 1953Įxactly 100 years ago, Melancthon Woolsey Stryker wrote, as a refrain to the old song, “Bright Hamilton,” these words, which aptly describe the Class of 1953’s sentiments toward our alma mater as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our graduation: