LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) - Dozens of World War II-era veterans received honorary master's degrees at the site of their training as young soldiers in preparation for the war in Europe.
Between 1941 and 1944, more than 850,000 Army soldiers trained in a series of military maneuvers spread across 22 counties of Middle Tennessee. Cumberland University in Lebanon served as field headquarters to oversee the massive training exercises.
Seven decades later, veterans in their 80s and 90s were given diplomas for honorary master of military arts degrees during a morning ceremony on the lawn of the university Tuesday.
University President Harvill C. Eaton said the veterans deserved the degrees for what they learned during the maneuvers, which prepared them for the battlefield.
According to author Woody McMillin, who wrote a book about the Tennessee maneuvers, the area's landscape of rivers and countryside was similar to the areas of France, Belgium and Germany where the soldiers were heading to war.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
