Books About the ASTP
Scholars in Foxholes:
The Story of the Army Specialized Training Program in World War II
(ISBN-0-89950-346-2; Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc.,
1988)
(ISBN-0-9644740-2; Reston, VA: Cotu Publishing, 1998)
by Louis E. Keefer
First published in 1988 and then published as a revised edition in 1998, this story of the ASTP is the major work on
the subject to date. The author was an
ASTPer at West Virginia University.
The Short Life of the
ASTP
(ISBN - 1561673773; Baltimore: American Literary Press, Inc., 1997)
by Francis N. Iglehart
While this 99-page book contains very little information on the ASTP, it does provide a good look at the life of an ASTPer at Hendrix College (Arkansas) who fought with the 393rd Infantry Regiment of the 99th Infantry Division during WWII.
"Soldiers at CPS 1943-1944" in
Tacoma:
Voices of the Past (Volume II)
(ISBN-0-9629616-5-5; Tacoma: Tacoma Historical Writers, 1999)
by Charlotte A. Plummer Medlock
(Winner of the Tacoma Historical Society's 2003 Murray Morgan Award for significant contribution to the preservation and communication of local history.)
The story of the men of the ASTP at the College of Puget Sound as written by a student who was there at the time.
Unsung Valor:
A GI'S Story of World
War II
(ISBN-1-57806-214-4; Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000)
by A. Cleveland Harrison.
This WWII memoir includes two chapters about life in the ASTP at the University
of Mississippi. The book won the Eisenhower Center for American Study's Forrest
C. Pogue Prize in 2001.
Dear Captain Et Al.: The Agonies and the Ecstasies of
War and Memory
(ISBN - 0-7388-1854-2 (Hardcover) and ISBN - 0-7388-1855-0
(Paperback); Xlibris Corp., 2001)
by Allan Wilford Howerton
The story of Company K of the 335th Infantry Regiment of the 84th Infantry Division, as told by an ASTPer. The opening chapter describes the arrival of a group of ASTP men to the Division's training camp, and their eventual acceptance as members of the Division by the other soldiers.
Got to Go Now: An Oregon
GI Writes Home During World War II
(ISBN-0759693552; Bloomington, IN: 1st Books Library, 2002)
by Edsel V. Colvin
The story of an ASTPer at the University of Oklahoma who fought with the 103rd Infantry Division, as told through his war letters.