With today being Veterans Day, I thought I would take a look at how Iowa State worked with wounded Veterans following the Great War.  

Group of men standing on the steps of a building on the Iowa State campus. Some men are visibly missing limbs.
A group of disabled ex-service men trained along different lines in Agriculture. Each took over a farm of some kind on March 1, 1922. These farms varied in acreage from two to two hundred, Iowa State University. Department of Military Science, [RS13/6/1]. Box 7, Folder 14.

After the United States entered the war in 1917 the American Red Cross founded the Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men, but was soon overwhelmed by the number of veterans who had survived the war and had been disabled in some form. A year later in June 1918 the Veterans Rehabilitation Act (Smith-Sears Act) passed Congress and would provide federal funds to assist disabled veterans and the promotion of vocational rehabilitation with the goal to return these men to civil employment. The plan was to assist disabled veterans, both physically and mentally wounded during the war.  

Administered by the Federal Board of Vocational Education, the program looked to schools (many of them Land Grant institutes like Iowa State) to administer the training. Iowa State College had years of experience running vocational programs and Veterans could receive training in things like dairy manufacturing, beekeeping, mechanic work, corn breeding, welding, orchard management, floriculture, poultry husbandry, seed analysis, drafting, and meat cutting.  If students exhibited the skills and desire, they were given the option to enroll as full time students and pursue a bachelors degree.

  • E. F. Bird, wounded in hand and training in mechanical work, Iowa State University. Department of Military Science, [RS13/6/1]. Box 7, Folder 14.
  • Training ex-service men in the orchard, Iowa State University. Department of Military Science, [RS13/6/1]. Box 7, Folder 14.
  • Bernard Patsey training in dairy manufacturing, Iowa State University. Department of Military Science, [RS13/6/1]. Box 7, Folder 14.
  • Group in Beekeeping, Iowa State University. Department of Military Science, [RS13/6/1]. Box 7, Folder 14.
Veterans participating a variety of Vocational Education lines of work.

The one of the first disabled veteran students who arrived for the Spring 1919 semester was Frank Paladin of St. Louis, Missouri.  Paladin was wounded while in combat at Chateau Thierry by an exploding shell that left shrapnel is his left leg and torso and caused him to lose his left arm just above the elbow. He studied drafting and would serve as president of the Government Students Club, an organization to form close fellowship among the disabled veterans and to aid in gaining financial support from the Federal Board for Vocational Education.  

Man standing at a table with drafting instruments and vehicle part. Man has a prosthetic left hand.
Frank Paladin, first Veterans Bureau student to arrive at ISC. Lost left arm in France, Iowa State University. Department of Military Science, [RS13/6/1]. Box 7, Folder 14.

Iowa State would see over 2000 Veterans go through the program, with the peak being in 1921-22 with 819 enrolled. The program ended when the Iowa State Office of Veterans Bureau closed on July 1, 1925, and the last veteran from the program left in March 1926 when he moved to his own little farm.  

To learn more about the WWI Veterans who participated in the rehabilitation program access the Iowa State University. Department of Military Science records [RS 16/16/1].