similar committee for the Organized Reserves. He also arranged for joint meetings of the two groups where they discussed matters common to both.[1]
On 13 October 1945 the War Department published a postwar policy statement for the entire Army. It called for a ground military establishment consisting of the Regular Army, the National Guard of the United States, and the Organized Reserve Corps,[2] which were to form a balanced force for peace and war. The Regular Army was to retain only those units required for peacetime missions, which were the same as those identified after World War I. The dual-mission Guard was to furnish units needed immediately for war and to provide the states with military resources to protect life and property and to preserve peace, order, and the public safety. The Organized Reserve Corps was to supplement the Regular Army and National Guard contributions sufficiently to meet any projected mobilization requirements.[3]
After the policy statement was published, the Army Staff prepared a postwar National Guard troop basis, which included twenty-four divisions. It derived that number by counting the prewar eighteen National Guard infantry and four National Guard cavalry divisions, the Americal Division (which had been largely composed of Guard units), and the 42d Infantry Division. Most soldiers considered the 42d, initially organized with state troops in 1917, as a Guard unit. The fact that the new plan allowed each of the forty-eight states to have at least one general officer also helped earn its acceptance. In the end it was necessary to approve a 27-division structure with 25 infantry divisions and 2 armored divisions to accommodate the desires of all the states. During this process New York, for example, successfully petitioned the War Department for the 42d Infantry Division. When the allotment was completed, the Guard contained the 26th through 48th and the 51st and 52d Infantry Divisions and the 49th and 50th Armored Divisions. The number 39 was used for the first time since 1923. Although a 44th Infantry Division had existed during the interwar years, the postwar 44th in Illinois was a new unit, as were the 46th, 47th, 48th, 51st, and 52d Infantry Divisions and 49th Armored Division. The 50th Armored Division replaced the 44th Infantry Division in New Jersey.[4]
While the states and the War Department settled troop basis issues, the National Guard Bureau changed the procedures for organizing the units. In the past states had raised companies, forming regimental headquarters only when sufficient companies existed to make a regiment. Under the new regulations, divisional and regimental headquarters were to be organized first, and they were to assist the division commander in raising the smaller units.[5]
During the spring of 1946 the National Guard Bureau surfaced the complex problem of how to preserve historical continuity in the Guard units. In 1942 the divisions had been reorganized from square to triangular units, which left them only vaguely resembling the formations inducted into federal service in 1940 and 1941. Furthermore, the expanded troop basis of 1946 compounded the problem by adding units that had never before existed. To keep from losing the historical
- ↑ Ibid.; Memo, Army Service Forces for Cofs, 4 Aug 44, sub: Appointment of Committee under Section 5 of the National Defense Act of 1916, as amended, Memo, OCS for G–1, G–2, G–3, G–4, OPD, 3 Oct 44, sub: Committee to study policies affecting the Officers' Reserve Corps, the Organized Reserve Corps, and the Enlisted Reserve Corps, and Memo, OCS for CofS, 21 Sep 44, sub: Recommended War Department Policies for the Post War National Guard and Organized Reserve Corps, all National Guard Reference Paper files, DAMH-HSO.
- ↑ The 1920 amendments to the National Defense Act designated the third component of the Army as the Organized Reserves, but in all post-World War II planning documents the term Organized Reserve Corps was used and it was officially adopted in 1948. Therefore, to be consistent with the planning documents, the term Organized Reserve Corps is used hereafter.
- ↑ Statement, Approved WD Policies Relating to Postwar National Guard and Organized Reserve, 13 Oct 45.
- ↑ Memo, WDGCT for CofS, 2 Nov 45, sub: National Guard Troop Basis, WDGCT 320 Troop Basis (2 Nov 45), National Guard, Reference Paper files, DAMH-HSO; Report of the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, 1946, pp. 324–76; National Guard Troop Basis and Troop Allotments, 1 Sep 46, National Guard, Reference Paper files, DAMH-HSO; Ltr, Sec of War to W. G. Andrews, House of Representatives, 13 May 46, and DF, Chief, NGB, to TAG, 26 Jun 46, sub: Numerical Designation, 325.4–42 Div 3, AG 322 file, RG 407, NARA; Ltr, TAG to CG, AGE, and Chief, NGB, 17 Sep 46, sub: Allotment of 42d Infantry Division to the National Guard, AG 322 (17 Sep 46) AG-I-WDSNG-M (National Guard Bureau, WD Special Staff), 42d Inf Div file, DAMH-HSO.
- ↑ Report of the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, 1946, pp. 110–11.
