Which officer-training program was started under the Early 1900s Defense Acts?

• A. ROTC
• B. OCS
• C. West Point program
• D. Naval ROTC

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is recognizing how the military established a formal officer-training pathway that could feed the service through colleges, not just through traditional academies. The National Defense Act of 1916 created the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, a program run on civilian college campuses to train and commission officers. This made officer training more widely available and integrated with higher education, beyond just the service academies.

West Point already operated as a military academy long before that period, so it wasn’t started by the early 1900s defense acts. Officer Candidate School developed later as an alternative route to a commission, especially around the World War II era. Naval ROTC is the Navy’s own version of the ROTC concept, but the program started by the early defense acts that institutionalized college-based officer training is ROTC.