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extremely effective against enemy planes, and are an important deterrent to aggresssion. A major task of the Armed Forces is to make our continental defense system equally effective against enemy missiles, by the so-called "antimissile missile" and its accessories.

The Army's oversea forces currently represent about 40% of its active strength. They are stationed in some seventy-odd foreign nations and in our oversea possessions. Two especially important contingents are in Europe and Korea.

In Europe is our Seventh Army, consisting of five divisions and supporting troops; the best equipped, best trained, and most combat-ready ground forces in Western Europe. They form the hard core of the NATO ground shield. The function of that shield is to prevent a surprise penetration by Communist ground forces, holding them at arm's length until NATO's retaliatory forces could strike at them with heavy atomic attacks. The Seventh Army, deployed along the Iron Curtain, is also a reminder to the Communists that aggression in this area would be met at once by the full power of the United States.

Similarly we maintain in Korea, in the Eighth Army, a corps of two American divisions deployed alongside the Korean forces. The Eighth Army faces a Communist force of some 700,000, separated from it only by the 4,000-yard strip of the demilitarized zone. At the time of the Korean armistice we committed ourselves to meet any renewal of hostilities with our full armed strength. Our divisions there are a guarantee to our South Korean friends of our ability and intention to discharge that commitment.

If our oversea forces became heavily engaged, we would have to come to their aid promptly and effectively. Also, there is required a combat-ready "fire brigade," all or part of which can be sent at once to an area where it is needed to protect the interests of the United States and our Allies. For this purpose the Army maintains in the United States what is called the Strategic Army Force.

One element of this is the Strategic Army Corps (STRAC). It is presently composed of the Headquarters XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; 82d Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; 4th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington; 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas; and supporting units. (These units, based upon the Army's worldwide commitments, are subject to change.) STRAC is the Army's mobile combat ready force, designed to meet the initial requirements of limited war or to provide initial reinforcements in a general war. Its mission is to be operationally ready on a moment's notice-hence its adopted slogan: "Skilled, Tough, Ready Around the Clock." Its effectiveness and speed of movement are dependent upon the availability of adequate air and sea lift. It has atomic capability.

At the present time, not all of STRAC could be moved by air in one operation in a short time. However, the kind of readiness that is its specialty was vividly demonstrated on 15 May 1958. The emergency grew out of serious disorders by organized mobs in the capital city of Venezuela, during an official visit of Vice President Nixon. A Communist revolt against the Venezuelan government appeared to be developing. President Eisenhower decided to move U. S. forces into positions where they could promptly assist the Venezuelan authorities if that became necessary. At 3:55 PM on 13 May the Commanding General, 101st Airborne Division, was ordered to alert a task force of two companies for immediate movement to Ramey Air Force Base, Puerto Rico. At 8:35 AM of 14 May, less than 17 hours later, this group of around 500 highly trained fighting men, armed and equipped for any situation that might arise, had completed its movement to Puerto Rico, a distance of 1,740 miles.

The remaining Strategic Army Forces, including certain designated Reserve and National Guard units, are planned as STRAC reinforcements and to reconstitute the strategic reserve in the

In a recent test in Texas, made under very difficult conditions, a Nike battalion (the one regularly stationed near Seattle) scored 13 kills against 14 "enemy" planes. This was with the Nike-Ajax missile, which is now being replaced by the far more powerful and efficient Nike-Hercules.

CONUS in the event that STRAC, or elements thereof, are deployed. These forces have been designed and developed to support not only the STRAC but the entire Army mobilization requirement in limited or general

war.

The decision to send this force out of the country would be a grave one. By its very nature it would be made in an atmosphere of world tension. Its immediate effect would be to strip the United States of nearly all the entire combat forces of the active Army. This brings us to a consideration of the fourth category of Army forces, the reserve components.

These units and personnel, which have become so vital an element of national defense, are discussed at length elsewhere in this volume. It is enough here to point out how they fit into the overall picture. In such a situation as exists today-a period of peace, though an uneasy peace-many individual reservists are on duty in the Active Army, supplementing the regulars. If the dispatch overseas of the Strategic Army Corps or any considerable part of it became necessary, reserve forces would be required at once to fill the vacuum thus created, and in effect to constitute a replacement for STRAC, ready in its turn to back up the oversea effort. The scale on which this would occur would of course depend on the nature and duration of the emergency. In a serious emergency-not to speak of a general war in the true sense-it would be a large scale. Units of all types and sizes from divisions to companies, as well as trained individuals, would be needed in quantity to build up new strategic forces, properly balanced and fully trained, in the first six months of the war.

This is "the primary and most important field for the reserves. Without

them, the Army can strike only one punch-that represented by its active forces. These have never been large in the past, and seem likely to become smaller in the future. If the Army is to be able to strike more than once, to follow up with repeated blows until an enemy is brought to the floor, we need ready reserves in large numbers.""

The Army is able to place increased reliance on its reserves because of their growing effectiveness. This increase in effectiveness is the result of the socalled Reserve Forces Act of 1955, and action taken under its provisions. For the first time in our history we are developing reserve forces which would be ready for combat only a few months after mobilization. We may look forward to a time when these units will be at virtually 100% strength, with fully trained personnel, and capable of prompt action in an emergency.

Finally, the Army has the task of helping to create deterrent forces to Communism throughout the world by increasing the military strength of our allies, through training missions and other means. From the Army viewpoint, America's military aid program is of the utmost strategic value. It allows the development of efficient local fighting forces which can protect nearby areas from aggression, and either defeat the aggressor with their own strength or gain the indispensable time needed for the arrival of American help. The Army is giving assistance of this sort in some 44 free countries, and is directly or indirectly aiding in the improvement of over 200 foreign combat divisions. A complementary task is the stockpiling, in the territory of certain of our allies and with their permission, of enough critical equipment to supply their needs and ours until wartime production and shipments could get under way.

What is this modern American Army on which has been imposed such a staggering load of global responsibili

ties? What does it look like, viewed close up?

6 Quoted from a speech by General Maxwell Taylor, 27 June 1957.

It is, in every sense of the phrase, Big Business. It is an imposing sight; to no one more so than to an old-line regular like myself, who can remember it in the days before 1914, with its strength of 90,000, its horse-drawn 3inch field artillery and mule-drawn wagon transport, and its handful of eccentrics who had developed an interest in aviation. The Army of 1958 has changed past all knowledge, not only since that remote period but since World War II; for that matter, since the armistice in Korea.

The most spectacular change has been the recent "pentomic" reorganization of the combat divisions. In an era when a single artillery shell or missile with an atomic load has a radius of destruction measured in thousands of feet, it is obvious that neither the units, the weapons, nor the tactics of the past can remain unchanged. What is needed is a ground force which can be broken into small self-contained units, widely dispersed, fast-moving, and armed with immensely powerful weapons, yet capable of coordinated action under a single commander; and which can also fight with conventional weapons, in minor hostilities where atomic weapons and tactics might be out of place.

Shortly after the close of World War II the Army began an elaborate series of studies and tests to determine how these ends could be attained. The result can best be described briefly as follows":

"The new structure improves the Army's ability to fight effectively under conditions of atomic warfare without losing the capability to conduct conventional warfare.

"The atomic battlefield of the future will be wider and deeper than battlefields of the past. There will probably be a checkerboard disposition of units with considerable gaps between combat elements. Consequently, Army units are being organized and trained for allround combat.

"The problem of the ground commander will be to find the enemy, to determine his configuration, and then to destroy him by directing conventional or atomic fire upon him, using organic

Taylor Report, p. 8; italics mine.

weapons or calling down the fires of missiles deployed well to the rear. Thereafter, the commander will need instant mobility to exploit the effects of this destructive fire. . . . The new divisions are designed to accomplish these difficult tasks.

"The Army now has a completely airtransportable airborne division. (Its) major features are: Five battle groups as opposed to the conventional three. Each battle group has a headquarters company, a mortar battery, and five rifle companies. A major reorganization of the division artillery provides an atomic-capable Honest John rocket battery and five batteries of 105mm artillery.

"The new infantry division has five battle groups, [which are] administratively self-contained and air-transportable units organized essentially like the groups in the airborne division. The division retains its tank battalion, but the battle groups lack the tank companies that were common to the former regiments. A reconnaissance battalion replaces the former reconnaissance company to employ fully the division's nuclear firepower, and the artillery is completely reorganized to include an atomic capability.

"While the infantry and airborne divisions required major reorganization, the armored division, with its armorprotected mobility and its favorable firepower-to-manpower ratio, is well suited for the mobile, dispersed type warfare envisioned for the future. However, the division artillery now has an atomic capability.

"The new infantry and airborne divisions have the following advantages over their older counterparts: increased front-line fighting strength; increased mobility through Army Aviation and cross-country vehicles; atomic capability in the artillery; and greatly improved firepower."

This fearsome aggregate of destructive power represented by our combat divisions is the most dramatic aspect of today's Army. But in terms of manpower it is only a minority of the whole. Behind it is a complex supporting organization whose activities, when

closely studied, are as interesting and impressive as those of the strictly combat elements.

The Army numbers roughly 900,000 men in uniform. About 70% are volunteers; the other 30% were brought in by the operation of the Selective Service system. They include individuals of every social and educational stratum, who contribute the many different aptitudes and skills needed in the military service. Assisting the uniformed personnel are over 600,000 civilians, either directly hired by the Government or employed through contract agreements with foreign countries in our commands. Officers and enlisted men of the Ready Reserve, not at the moment on extended active duty, number another million.

oversea

This mass of personnel poses an enormous and continuing problem of training and education, the more SO because of the rapid turnover. Yearly the Army must give basic training to nearly 300,000 men, and continue unit training in its various organized elements. It operates a system of 35 schools, whose courses run from those intended for the lowest grade specialists to those providing for the intellectual and professional development of senior officers. About 500 courses are taught, and 140,000 students are graduated every year. Among them are military students from upwards of 50 foreign nations.

To supply and equip itself, the Army must spend $5,000,000,000 a year in the United States alone-taxpayers' money poured back into our agriculture and industry. It procures, stocks, and distributes about a million different kinds

of individual items. Its customers are scattered all over the world: uniformed and civilian personnel at home and overseas, reserve personnel, other military departments under the "single manager plan," our allies in the Mutual Assistance Program, and the American public in case of any local disaster. It operates 48 general depots with 100,000,000 square feet of storage space. In the item of food alone it buys three and a third billion pounds a year, at a cost of three-quarters of a billion dollars, and serves hundreds of millions of meals in its messes in accordance with scientifically devised master menus. It has a construction program running to hundreds of millions a year. It transports annually, by rail, truck, ship and air, millions of men, millions of tons of materials. It operates a worldwide radio and teletype net, which at the peak of World War II had a capacity of a hundred million words a day. In its posts and installations it provides housing and utilities, medical care, and shopping, educational, recreational, and religious facilities for hundreds of thousands of its members and their families.

Finally, in scores of arsenals, research centers, laboratories, test centers, and civilian institutions, the technical services of the Army operate an unending program of research and development; creating, testing, and putting into production improved missiles, improved small arms and artillery, improved surveillance techniques, more effective applications of nuclear physics to both destructive and creative ends, and better devices and procedures in transportation, medicine, signal communications, and a long list of other fields.

So much for the Army in its material and mechanical aspect. It is a vital aspect, for modern war is a war of machines. But behind the machine stands always the man; and, in the end, he is the most important element of all. In carrying out its tasks, the Army is committed to a set of principles by which it lives, and which are reflected

8 Taylor Report, pp. 5-6; italics mine.

in its day-to-day leadership, training, and routine. For a summary of them I cannot do better than quote again from the Taylor Report":

"1. The Army is in the first line of defense of the United States. By its oversea deployments, it presents to the enemy the United States soldier as an

initial obstacle to his aggression, covering the forward bases of the three Services.

"2. The Army is the versatile member of the defense team, with a flexible system of weapons at its command. While possessing atomic weapons of great power, it retains the ability to vary the application of military force to the needs of the moment, to make "measured" rather than "mass" retaliation.

"3. The Army is a progressive Service, looking ahead to the future. While respecting experience and avoiding fads, the Army concerns itself with the next war, not the last one.

"4. The Army respects its civilian leadership, and traditionally abstains from any suspicion of involvement in politics. It respects the role of Congress, and responds quickly and accurately to the legitimate requests of its members.

"5. The Army, by the nature of its requirements, attaches the greatest importance to human values. It recognizes man as the basic element of military strength. Hence, it works constantly to improve the moral, physical, and intellectual capacity of its men. It creates for them an environment of decent, clean living and of intolerance of vice, dissipation, or flabbiness.

"6. In the Army, authority imposes its weight by the professional competence of its leaders rather than by the arbitrary or despotic methods of martinets. Second only to accomplishing

his military mission, the officer's duty is to the welfare of his men. Rank is a badge of responsibility, not of privilege.

"7. Because of the essentiality of its mission and the complexities of its tasks, the Army must have its share of the best manpower. It offers a worthwhile career for every talent.

"8. The Army strives to get the most defense for the money from the resources provided to it. It spends its money prudently for the essentials of defense in accord with good business practices. It is constantly self-critical, trying on its own initiative to uncover inefficiency and malpractice.

"9. The Active Army is aware of the importance of the civilian components and supports wholeheartedly the program to strengthen and improve them. It insists, however, on getting a fair return in efficiency and combat readi

ness.

"10. In its inter-Service relationships, the Army is a loyal member of the national defense team, resisting encroachments on its own legitimate responsibilities, but scrupulously avoiding trespass on those of the other Services. It is open-minded, and will listen to reason on any subject.

"11. The Army does not forget its old soldiers after they retire. It remains interested in their welfare, and wants them to serve in their civilian communities as loyal, informed representatives of the Army."

Such, in brief outline, are the nature, the missions, and the conceptual foundations of our Army. The purpose of this

book is to describe them in detail, both in historical perspective and as they exist today.

Washington, D. C. 1 October 1958.

GORDON R. YOUNG

Brig. Gen., U.S. Army Retired

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