page_title: Medical Cadet Corps
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Medical Cadet Corps / Background
caption_attribution_description: Medical team at work during the Battle of Normandy.
context_page_description: The Medical Cadet Corp is a program of the Seventh-day Adventist Church started in the 1930s in the United States with the intention of preparing young men of draft age for military service in noncombatant roles. The training included drill, first aid, military courtesies, organization of medical corps, defense against chemical warfare, principles of anatomy and physiology, physical exercises and character development. The program was temporarily suspended at the end of World War II. It was reactivated in 1950 and in the next few years was adapted internationally. The program was deactivated by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the early 1972 but continued independently in a few locations with an emphasis on rescue and disaster response.
  In 2016, the Medical Cadet Corps, a component of the World Service Organization that is under the umbrella of the General Conference Department of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries, was reactivated as a worldwide program.
context_section_description: When the Seventh-day Adventist movement was formally organized in 1863 during the height of the American Civil War, military conscription was one of the first major challenges to be addressed by the fledgling denomination. Even before 1863, Adventist beliefs about combatancy generally fell into one of three opinion groups: pacifists who felt any military service was a violation of God's command to not commit murder; militant abolitionists who felt that military service would honor God's will in ending slavery; and non-combatants who believed it to be their Christian duty to support the government in roles which did not violate the fourth and sixth commandments (see Ten Commandments). This latter position ultimately emerged as the denomination's policy and set precedent for future periods of conscription in the United States. When conscription became law in March 1863, most drafted Adventists took advantage of the option to purchase an exemption which cost $300 per person. This sum was not easy for many to come by and church leaders encouraged all members to contribute toward purchasing these exemptions for drafted members. In February 1864 the conscription law was amended to allow conscientious objectors to serve the military in noncombatant roles. A short time later this provision was revised so that it would apply only to recognized conscientious objectors. Church leaders quickly moved to acquire this recognition from state governors in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and finally the Federal government.
  Following the Civil War, the United States military returned to an all-volunteer force. The Indian Wars and Spanish–American War did not require large numbers of soldiers. Adventist denominational history is mostly silent in regard to these conflicts. When World War I erupted in Europe there was much more cause for concern. The Seventh-day Adventist Church looked at the issue in the Autumn Council of 1916 in the General Conference Committee for a way in keeping with the church's noncombatant beliefs, to allow the young men of the church to fulfill their obligations, and the medical military service was the direction they took.
  However, since 1863 the Adventist church had grown both inside and outside of the United States. Members in Europe were divided by political and battle lines, sometimes isolating them from the rest of the church. The war in Europe began so quickly it was difficult for the church to form a cohesive policy or to support drafted church members. In the United States, efforts to support drafted church members were more orderly and the government continued to make provisions for conscientious objectors. However, misunderstandings did arise between some Adventists draftees who took extreme positions and their company officers who often did not understand or respect the position of conscientious objectors. It is unknown how many Adventists were actually drafted during World War I. Charles Longacre, who was in charge of church military relations in the United States for most of World War I, claimed that 186 American Seventh-day Adventists were court-martialed during the war and 35 were imprisoned in disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth at the end of the war. The denomination's initiative to support draftees and the war effort in general was multifaceted encouraging church members to support government conservation programs, calling for pre-induction medical training, providing camp pastors, and planning to set up Servicemen's Rest Homes in Europe. The short time between the United States' entry into the war and its end meant that some of these actions were not implemented and the effectiveness of others is undetermined.
  The experience of American Adventists during World War I generated several lessons which shaped the church's response to the draft during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. First, Adventists working in the Medical Corps (United States Army) experienced the fewest conflicts regarding the keeping of Sabbath and bearing of arms. Second, pre-induction military 
caption: Medical team at work during WWII.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2004:12:29 18:14:29", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9019", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3015", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2480"}