A Word to UNC-CH Students Headed into War, 1918

From the editorial page of The Tar Heel, Chapel Hill, N.C., Nov. 6, 1918. The people leaving UNC-Chapel Hill aren’t graduating. They’re going to war, and this brief editorial wishes them the best.

A Word Before Parting

To you who go—we would say a word of farewell. Many of you are those we have known here when things were not as they are now. Many of you are new men who see to-day a Carolina outwardly changed—we say “outwardly” because the pulsing, vibrant heart of the old school still beats giving to you all something imperishable—a glorious, glowing idealism. Remember, knights errant, you are the sons of an alma mater whose history is the pride of all her sons.

Go, then, sons of Carolina, with the benediction of the old school. She will be proud of you, whether as “soldier and gentleman” or “officer and gentleman” for we know you will not fail her.

Goodbye, good-luck, and—we add this last quite fervently—God bless you.