Captain Partridge's Academia

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With the stroke of his pen, President Woodrow Wilson created the Reserve Officers Training Corps or ROTC when he signed the national defense act of 1916. However the story of ROTC started as far back as 1819 when Captain Alden Partridge established a program of military instruction called the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy which later became Norwich University. At the Academy, Partridge originated a system of education that combined civilian and military studies in order to produce citizen soldiers. The cadets at his school had rigorous educational courses and tiring physical training exercises. Captain Partridge’s academy became so successful that his practices spread to other schools in the United States. In 1964,