When Congress funded a Regular Army of 150,000 enlisted men for 1922, the Acting Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord, directed a new war plans group to prepare an outline for stationing these troops. If possible, he wanted units to have adequate housing and training facilities as well as to be located where the men could assist in the development of the reserve components. The recommendations called for the Second and Ninth Corps Areas each to have an infantry division, the Eighth Corps Area to have both infantry and cavalry divisions, and the remaining corps areas each to have a reinforced brigade.[1]
As the existing divisions and brigades moved to their permanent stations in 1922, the Army organized the 16th and 18th Infantry Brigades to complete the Regular Army portion of the plan (Table 8). To fulfill mobilization requirements for nine Regular Army infantry divisions, the adjutant general also restored the 8th and 9th Divisions to the rolls in 1923, but they remained inactive except for their 16th and 18th Infantry Brigades. The stationing plan allowed the regulars to support the reserves, but only the 2d Division was concentrated at one post—Fort Sam Houston, Texas.[2]
The last large unit recommended for the Regular Army in 1920 was a black brigade scheduled for service along the Mexican border. However, only four black regiments, two cavalry and two infantry, remained after the war, and the War Department decided that they should not be brigaded. In 1922 two of them, the 10th Cavalry and the 25th Infantry, served along the border. Of the remainder, the 9th Cavalry was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, the home of the Cavalry School, and the 24th Infantry was posted to Fort Benning, Georgia, where the Infantry School had been established.[3]
The post-World War I Army also maintained forces in the Philippine Islands, China, the Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, Germany, and Hawaii. To assure that these areas were adequately garrisoned, the War Plans Division examined their manning needs. Based upon its findings, March approved the formation of the Panama Canal, Hawaiian, and Philippine Divisions. In 1921 the commanders of those overseas departments organized their units as best they could from available personnel and equipment. The infantry and field artillery brigades and many of the other divisional elements had numerical designations that would be associated with the 10th, 11th, and 12th Divisions. These elements, all table of organization units, could be assigned wherever needed in the force. Because the divisions themselves were not expected to serve outside of their respective territories, they had territorial designations. The division headquarters were at Quarry Heights, Canal Zone; Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; and Fort William McKinley, Philippine Islands. Personnel for the Hawaiian and Panama Canal Divisions came from the Regular Army, but the Philippine Division was filled with both regulars and Philippine Scouts, with the latter in the majority.[4]
Section V of the National Defense Act prescribed a committee to devise plans for organizing the National Guard divisions. Formed in August 1920, this group consisted of Regular Army and Guard officers who represented their embryonic
- ↑ Memo, WPD, 5 Jun 20, sub: Committees for Working out Army Reorganization; Memo Operations and Training Division, G-3,/1575 for DCofS, 27 Dec 21, sub: Comments on Report of Board of GS officers relative to distribution, shelter, and training areas for the Army (basic report attached), AGO 320 file, 27 Dec 21, RG 407, NARA.
- ↑ Ltr, TAG to CGs, all Corps Areas and Depts; Chief of Infantry; CG, American Forces in Germany; CG, Fort Benning, Ga.; and COs of Exempted Places concerned, sub: Organization and Redistribution of the Infantry, AGO Central file 1917–25, 320.2 (7-15-22) RG 407, NARA; WD GO 10, 1923.
- ↑ Memo, WPD for Dir, WPD, 10 Jul 20, sub: Committee Report on Army Reorganization; "Brief History of the 24th Infantry," 27 Sep 26, Ms, 24th Infantry file, DAMH-HSO; Historical and Pictorial Review Second Cavalry Division, United States Army (Baton Rouge, La.: Army and Navy Publishing Co., 1941), p. 50.
- ↑ Memo, WPD for Dir, WPD, 9 Jul 20, sub: Strength of the Foreign garrisons required and their special organization. Available troops to be considered in the connection (Report of Committee No. 3), 9 Jul 20, AWC 52-21, MHI; WD Cir 149, 1921; WD GO 15, 1921; Ltr, TAG to CG, Philippine Dept., 22 Oct 22, sub: Completion of overseas garrison, 320 (10-7-21), 12th Inf Div file, DAMH-HSO; Returns, Panama Canal, Hawaiian, and Philippine Divisions, divisional files, DAMH-HSO. The National Defense Act continued departments in the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippine Islands, and the Panama Canal Zone.
