To improve the balance within Regular Army divisional forces after the Korean War, General Ridgway, who had become Army Chief of Staff in 1953, decided to revise the ratios among infantry, armored, and airborne units. In June 1954 the Fourth Army activated the 4th Armored Division, the first division to be equipped with the new M48 90-mm. tank. Ridgway planned to organize another armored division, raising the Regular Army total to four, but tank production lagged, preventing its formation until 1955. The 3d Armored Division was then converted from a training to a combat unit.[1]
Although total Army strength declined and the reserves were released, the Army remained committed to an active force of twenty divisions. The Department of Defense, therefore, authorized the activation of the 23d and 71st Infantry Divisions. Those units, dubbed "Wilson Divisions" after Secretary of Defense Wilson, who approved their activation while cutting the strength of the Army, made use of existing regimental combat teams. The 23d Infantry Division, the former Americal Division of World War II fame, controlled units stationed in the Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, and the southeastern United States from its headquarters at Fort Amador, Panama Canal Zone. The 71st, with its headquarters at Fort Richardson, Alaska, included units in Alaska and the northwestern United States. Because of their scattered divisional elements, the Army Staff labeled the divisions "static units," indicating that they were not capable of early deployment.[2]
With further cuts on the horizon for the Regular Army, the Army Staff had to economize on manpower if it was to maintain twenty divisions. A review of all divisional tables of organization resulted in slightly smaller divisions. For example, without a change in structure, the infantry division dropped from 18,212 men of all ranks to 17,452. In addition, the tables provided for a reduced peacetime strength division, with some 2,700 fewer men for each division in the General Reserve. Before its divisions were sent into combat, they would, of course, need sufficient time and personnel to be brought to war strength as required for sustained operations. The lessons of Task Force Smith and the deployment of other units to Korea in the summer of 1950 thus appeared to be already lost. General Reserve divisions adopted the new tables in the summer of 1955. In addition, because of the Army's severe manpower shortages divisions in Europe were also reorganized under the reduced tables that same summer, and the tables were applied to the 25th Infantry Division, posted at Schofield Barracks, the following year.[3]
Besides looking at the organizational tables for possible personnel cuts, the Army examined the individual replacement system. The system traditionally required the Army to maintain a large manpower overhead as a substantial percentage of its soldiers were always in transit. Lt. Gen. John E. Dahlquist, Chief of Army Field Forces, and Maj. Gen. Robert N. Young, the Army Staff's Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (G–1), believed that a unit replacement system would be more economical, improve esprit de corps, and provide more efficient units. In response, the Army Staff developed the Gyroscope program, which paired a division in the United States with an overseas division. Personnel from the paired
- ↑ Summary of Major Events and Problems, FY 1954, OCAFF, ch. 14, pp. 1–43 Ltr, TAG to CG, Fourth Army, 28 May 54, sub; Activation of the 4th Armored Division, AGAO-I (M) 322 (26 May 54) G–1, 4th Armd Div file, and Ltr, TAG to CGs, Second Army and Continental Army Command (CONARC), 9 Mar 55, sub: Change in Status of 3d Armored Division, AGAO-I (M) 322 3d Armd Div (8 Mar 55) G–1, 3d Armd Div file, both DAMH-HSO; "4th Armored Reactivated at Ft. Hood," Army Times, 26 Jun 54; "4th Armd Build-Up Underway," Army Times, 3 Jul 54; William R. Rock, 3d Armored Division (Spearhead), A History of the 3d Armored Division (Darmstadt, Germany: Stars and Stripes, 1957), pp. 45–46.
- ↑ Ltr, TAG to CGs, U.S. Army, Caribbean, and Third Army, 2 Dec 54, sub: Organization of the 23d Infantry Division, AGAO-I (M) 322 (17 Nov 54) G– , 23d Inf Div file, and Ltr, CGs, U.S. Army, Alaska, and Sixth Army, 27 Oct 54, sub: Organization of the 71st Infantry Division, AGAO-I (M) 322 71st Inf Div (12 Oct 54) G–1, 71st Inf Div file, both DAMH-HSO; Semiannual Report of the Secretary of the Army, 1 Jul–Dec 54, p. 20; "Scattered from Here to Yon, Two 'Wilson Divisions' Formed." Army Times, 20 Nov 54.
- ↑ Coakley et "Demobilization," pp. 88–89; TOE 7R, Infantry Division, 1955; TOE 17R, Armored Division, 1955; TOE 57, Airborne Division, 1955; Ltr, TAG to CGs, CONARC, and Second and Fourth Armies, 23 May 55, sub: Reorganization of 1st, 3d, and 4th Armored Divisions, AGAO-I (M) 322 (18 May 55) G–1, Ltr, TAG to CGs, CONARC, and Third, Fifth, and Sixth Armies, 23 May 55, sub: Reorganization of Certain Infantry Divisions, AGAO-I (M) 322 (19 May 55) G–1, Ltr, TAG to CGs, CONARC, and Third Army, 1 Aug 55, sub: Reorganization of the 11th Airborne Division, AGAO-I (M) 322 (20 Jul 55) G–1, Ltr, TAG to CGs, CONARC and Third Army, 26 May 1955, sub: Reorganization of 82d Airborne Division, AGAO-I (M) 322 (24 May 55) G–1, Ltr, TAG to CinC, U.S. Army, Europe. 9 Sep 55, sub: Confirmation of Reorganization of Certain Units. AGAO-O (M) 322 (16 Aug 55) G–1, and Ltr, TAG to CG, U.S. Army, Pacific, 5 Mar 56, sub: Change in Status of Certain Units, AGAO-O-322 (27 Feb 56) DCSPER (Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel), all AG Reference files, DAMH-HSO; Historical Data Cards for divisions, DAMH-HSO.
