Victory Corps General Membership Certificate

Courtesy Collin Makamson

On September 25, 1942, Commissioner of Education John W. Studebaker announced the launch of a nationwide initiative "designed to mobilize secondary school students for more effective preparation and participation in wartime service." This voluntary organization, aimed at the country’s more-than-six-million students attending some of its over-28,000 high schools, was called the High School Victory Corps and was conceived to prepare young Americans for service "in the armed forces tomorrow through learning in the classroom today." More than a patriotic or extracurricular service group, the High School Victory Corps program emphasized an entirely supplemental war-time education, complete with its own uniform, insignia, physical fitness regiment, and command structure. In order to participate in the High School Victory Corps, students – both male and female – were required to enroll in a war-effort class (such as first-aid, marksmanship or navigation), pass a physical fitness inspection and volunteer in at least one extracurricular wartime activity. By the time of the program’s conclusion in June 1944, thousands of young people had passed through the Victory Corps’ ranks.