An Army occupation of a Tennessee university in WWII, retold by its oldest living alumni

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The generation that answered the call to service during World War II has often been called America's most selfless generation, but Cumberland University's oldest living alumni are nothing if not a breath of fresh air.

Dr. Gordon Petty and James Bass, 99 and 98 years old respectively, both were students at Cumberland when the Nazi war machine was growing and America came under attack from Japan. Both enlisted, Petty in the Navy and Bass in the Army, answering the call to service when their country most needed them.

"I was old enough to realize that we had to win the war. If we didn't win the war, the whole war was going to be in trouble," Bass recalls. "We had to do it, and even though we were all kids when we went into the service. We grew up pretty fast."

Cumberland University also answered its country's call to service. With most men enlisting, enrollment dwindled to 200, so the University opened its doors to what would become the home of the Tennessee Maneuvers. The campus was a training ground for more than 850,000 soldiers because Middle Tennessee's terrain mirrored that of Western Europe.

Petty's ho-hum attitude about this service speaks volumes about a generation that simply did what it felt was right.

"Wound up just being a line officer, on a destroyer mindsweeper in the pacific," Petty said. "I didn't do anything spectacular. I just did my job. It was ordinary."

In July of 1942, Cumberland University Business Manager, Sam Bone, announced the Army occupation would not interfere with the academic school year but the campus would be shared. The Army occupation would last through 1944.

Not until they came back from war and continued their education as doctor and lawyer did Petty and Bass reconnect.

"You had to put aside this regimented life of a soldier and come back to civilian life," Bass recalled as Petty remembered, "I came home; I stopped off in Nashville, and applied for admission to Vanderbilt med school on the way home, still wearing the Navy uniform."

On the 75th anniversary of the Army's occupation, Cumberland University marked the tremendous sacrifice with re-dedication of their World War II obelisk monument. Undoubtedly, that is as special to Bass and Petty as any.

Lebanon's Veterans' Day Parade took off just steps from Cumberland's campus, complete with a flyover. Most in the parade will thank the likes of Petty and Bass -- a thank you well-deserved, indeed. However, few will note that Cumberland University became an Army base when its country needed it most as well.