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Camp Shelby, Mississippi, home of the 37th and 38th Divisions, 1941
complete table of organization unit, the staff decided that the division would carry a name rather than a numerical designation. Titles such as "Necal" and "Bush" surfaced, but Patch turned to the men assigned to the task force for suggestions. Pfc. David Fonesca recommended "Americal" from the phrase "American Troops on New Caledonia," and on 27 May 1942 Patch activated the Americal Division.[1]
Another Reorganization
With the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December the "great laboratory" phase for developing and testing organizations, about which Marshall wrote in the summer of 1941, closed, but the War Department still had not developed ideal infantry, cavalry, armored, and motorized divisions. In 1942 it again revised the divisions based on experiences gained during the great GHQ maneuvers of the previous year. As in the past, the reorganizations ranged from minor adjustments to wholesale changes.
The Chief of Infantry, Maj. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges, proposed the principal change in the infantry division, the addition of a cannon company to the infantry regiment to provide it with artillery that could move forward as rapidly as the troops advanced on foot. The Chief of Field Artillery, Maj. Gen. Robert M. Danford, opposed the idea, contending that all cannon should be in artillery units. McNair, appointed Chief of Army Ground Forces (AGF) in March 1942 and responsible for organizing and training all ground combat units, also objected. For five years the division had been in a state of flux in an effort to make it light
- ↑ Francis D. Cronin, Under the Southern Cross, The Saga of the Americal Division (Washington, D.C.: Combat Forces Press, 1951), pp. 4–29; Ltr, TAG to CG, U.S. Army Forces in New Caledonia, 24 May 42, sub: Constitution and Organization of AMERICAL Division, 24 May 42, AG 320.2 (5–23–42) MR-M-OPD; and GO 10, US Army Forces in New Caledonia, 1942, 23d Infantry Division file, DAMH-HSO.
