Oregon Agricultural College, OAC, is a land grant university.  As such, military science and tactics became part of the curriculum.  This in order for the school to receive land grants to help fund the establishment and development of the college.

All male students studied military classes for their first two years at school, taking part in military drills and parades in all the years of the school before 1917 – military classes would remain mandatory until 1961.  Many remained in the classes for their entire sojourn at the school.  With so many indoctrinated in the mysteries of military life, it should not surprise anyone that many students and graduates of OAC served in one branch or another during the first world conflagration the United States found itself involved with in 1917.