The years of the nineteen twenties and the early thirties, although fast and moving for the adult world, were, for the cadets of Georgia Military Academy, a peaceful time between the wars. It was a time of patriotism, a love of country, and respect for ideals and authority.

These were also difficult times for Georgia Military Academy. Money was scarce, and tuition to keep the school going was hard to come by. Had it not been for a sizable number of Cuban students and the income which they provided, the school might have gone bankrupt. Even so, G.M.A. just barely survived.

Colonel Woodward had a great understanding and appreciation for the Cuban people. He envisioned a Pan-American University, similar to the service academies of West Point and Annapolis, to be located in the Miami, Florida area where students from Cuba, other Latin American countries, and an equal number of young men from the United States would be educated along the same pattern that he had developed at Georgia Military Academy. He wished for solid relations with all of the Americas; and his visions of educating the youth, he felt, were the appropriate way to go. Had his dream for this international academy become a reality, perhaps things might have been far better today.

Major N.J. Castellanos and his wife, Maria, later known affectionately as "Mama", were employed in 1926. Both had taught for several years at Candler College in Havana and were acquainted with many of the leading families of Cuba. This relationship was very helpful when Major Castellanos would return to Cuba each summer and would recruit students to attend the College Park campus. At the time, there were perhaps no more than seven day students at the school, and almost all of these, along with a majority of the American students who boarded, were on some type of scholarship. For the most part, all students from Cuba and from other foreign countries were paying full tuition.

For many years during the late twenties, Georgia Military Academy had strong ties with its Cuban friends; and in 1928, following several years of preliminary work, Colonel Woodward, with the help of influential friends in Atlanta and Havana, Cuba, organized what became known as the Havalanta Games between athletic groups in Atlanta and Havana. The first group to participate in these games was a group of Georgia Military Academy students, members of the band, the football and basketball teams, who went to Havana during Christmas 1927. Somehow, Colonel Woodward managed to transport the G.M.A. students to Tampa, Florida, where a Cuban gunboat was anchored to pick up the group. After several days of athletic participation, the Cuban government returned the G.M.A. students to Tampa.

The following year, the Cubans would bring a football team and a basketball team and would play G.M.A. The first game played under the lights at Grant Field, Georgia Tech, was reported to be the competition between G.M.A. and Cuba in 1928.

Cadets of the late twenties and early thirties recall today some of the living conditions of the Academy. There was no money available for additional buildings or for needed renovations. The outsides of the buildings were framed in groves of trees and shrubs; the insides were showing the marks of time.

All of the floors were soft pine and cadets had to oil them every year. The only source of light was a single drop cord with a sixty watt bulb in the middle of the room. Later, students were able to have study lamps which they purchased themselves. Each room had double decker beds, the smaller rooms had two single beds. The rooms were heated by steam heat, supplied by a central heating plant using coal fire and located under Memorial Hall.

The one thing that kept the facilities half way decent was the fact that the school was a military school and the Department of the Army inspected annually. Every aspect of cadet life was closely examined and became a part of the report that determined whether or not the school would remain a military honor school. This honor rating was, and continued to be for many years, an award which the cadets and the school vied for and received.

Every student had to paint his bed, and some of the metal beds had enamel a quarter of an inch thick on them. In addition, the cadets would paint their radiators with aluminum paint and had to cover their wooden desks with paper and thumbtack a fresh green blotter on it to cover up all of the marks from previous years. They would mop floors and re-oil their rooms and hallways and seemed to have an endless supply of Bon-Ami for washing dorm windows.

There seemed to be a pride, an unexplainable satisfaction in spending days, even weeks, in preparing for the "dreaded" R.O.T.C. purge for excellence. The cadets, whether from some built-in inner desire or from some loyalty built up by the Academy, desired their deserved recognition by the War Department.

During these days, the dining hall was set-up for family-type serving with white tablecloths and bowls of fresh vegetables and pitchers of milk. There was plenty of milk which came from the school dairy operated by Douglas Woodward. Students were waiters and had to wash the dishes afterwards.

Many cadets felt that they lived dependent on syrup, sorghum, which was lined up on every table. Toast was available for breakfast, and cadets felt they were fortunate if they sat near the hot coffee pot on which they could place their toast to melt the butter.

It was a time when some faculty members were working for room and board. Teacher salaries were very low, and in 1932, the faculty took a twenty-five percent cut in salary in order to keep the school going. Colonel Woodward went without a salary for a period of time. The school was in bad shape; and had it not 1/ The eagle on top of the front gate been for Robert W. Woodruff endorsing a loan for Colonel Woodward, the school might have folded at that time.

Following the school's new charter in 1932, Colonel Woodward's dreams continued.

Some of the fortifications of the Battle of Atlanta had their setting on the G.M.A. campus; and Colonel Woodward envisioned a building, hopefully erected by the federal government and historical societies, to house relics and memoirs of the Southern Heroes, busts and paintings of the men of the North. At the entrance to the building, he saw two life-size figures cut in marble, one carrying the Union Flag, the other carrying the Confederate Flag. He further contemplated that these figures would be represented as clasping hands emblematic of the healed conditions of the North and South.

Although these were difficult years, some minor renovations to existing buildings continued; and, with the help of patrons, a few additions appeared. In 1935, the eagle over the main gate to the campus was built and dedicated to Sergeant A.T. Johnson. This gesture was followed in 1936 with the construction of the William Randolph Hearst Rifle Range which was located near the site of the present-day lighted court behind Colquitt Hall. During the same year, a much needed swimming pool, located approximately between the present Richardson Hall and the Brand Middle School, was dedicated in honor of St. Elmo Massengale, Jr., '32.

Because of the ever present threat of war for the United States, Colonel Woodward made available the grounds and facilities of G.M.A. to the United States War Department for temporary use in the event of a national emergency. Fortunately, the need never developed.

The decade of the nineteen thirties ended with the construction of the President's new home, "The Oaks," located at the corner of Jackson Street and Rugby Avenue. During the same year, a new stadium with a quarter-mile cinder track, replacing the old Patterson Field, was built at the present site of Colquitt Stadium.

The school did survive; however, it stayed in debt until Colonel Woodward's death in 1939. At that time, there was an insurance policy on Colonel Woodward's life, and the school was the beneficiary. From that point on, the school operated generally in the black.

Excerpt from “The Woodward Story”, by Robert Ballentine, published 1990 by Jostens Printing and Publishing; content used with permission of the copyright holder, Woodward Academy Inc., College Park, Georgia, USA.