tions resulted in a cellular maintenance structure. In the 1st Cavalry Division and 101st Airborne Division an aircraft maintenance detachment was activated to support each company-size aviation unit.[1]
When the 101st was reorganized as an airmobile unit, confusion and contention reigned over its designation. Instructions from Washington renamed the division the 101st Infantry Division (Airmobile) because the designation was thought to accurately describe its mission. Officers in Vietnam opposed the change, and after much discussion the Army Staff sent new instructions redesignating both the 101st Airborne Division and the 1st Cavalry Division as "air cavalry." In July 1968 Westmoreland replaced Harold K. Johnson as Army Chief of Staff, and Westmoreland directed that the divisions retain their historic designations.[2]
Ever conscious of ways to save personnel, U.S. Army, Vietnam permission in September 1968 to reorganize the 23d Infantry (the Americal) along the lines of other infantry divisions to save over 500 personnel spaces. The request proposed that the 11th, 196th, and 198th Infantry Brigades be redesignated as the 1st, 2d, and 3d Brigades, 23d Infantry Division, and that a complete division base be organized. Westmoreland, as chief of staff, approved the reorganization of the division but not the numerical redesignation of the brigades. He directed that the brigades be attached rather than assigned as organic elements of the division. His reasons for retaining the separate brigade designations included the complexity of the units' histories and the desire not to change the designations of units serving in Vietnam. On 15 February 1969, the 23d was thus reorganized with a division base resembling that in other infantry divisions, except for the attached brigade headquarters and the omission of the organic cavalry squadron. The 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry, an element of the 1st Armored Division, had been serving with the "Americal" because General Haines, the former 1st Armored Division commander, had wanted the squadron to represent "Old Ironsides" in Vietnam. The staff chose not to tamper with this arrangement.[3]
To increase firepower, some divisions and brigades received an additional battalion or battalions of infantry without upsetting their structure. As noted above, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 173d Airborne Brigade each had an additional infantry battalion assigned in 1966. The following year the 173d was assigned a fourth infantry battalion, and after the 1968 Tet offensive the 9th Infantry Division and the 11th, 198th, and 199th Infantry Brigades each gained an additional infantry battalion, At the peak of the buildup the combined arms teams in Vietnam fielded eighty-three infantry and armor battalions.[4]
Divisions and brigades deployed to Vietnam with infantry, light infantry, airborne infantry, and airmobile infantry battalions but, responding to the demands of the conflict, U.S. Army, Vietnam, reorganized most of them under modified light infantry tables of organization. Each of these battalions consisted of a headquarters and headquarters company, four rifle companies, and a combat support
- ↑ Tolson, Airmobility, p. 197; Msg, ACSFOR, DA, to CinC, USARPAC, 907931, 6 May 69, sub: Activation/Inactivation/ Reorganization of Units in RVN, and GO 577, USARPAC, 1969, both 1st Cav Div file, DAMH-HSO,
- ↑ Draft SS, ACSFOR for CofS, undated, sub: Redesignation of 101st Air Cavalry Division, FOR PP FP, and Msg, ACSFOR, DA, to CinC, USARPAC, 877510, 26 Aug 68, sub: Redesignation of Airmobile Division, 101st Abn Diy file, DAMH-HSO.
- ↑ Cover Sheet (OPS 28) ACSFOR, 15 Nov 68, sub: Reorganization of the 23d Infantry Division (Americal), FOR OT OR PO, and GO USARV 113, 69, both 23d Inf Div file, DAMH-HSO.
- ↑ Richard P. Weinert, The Role of USCONARC in the Army Buildup, FY 1968 (Fort Monroe, Va. U.S. Continental Army Command, 1969), p. 71; Ltr, TAG to CG, CONARC, and other addresses, 7 Mar 67, sub: Activation of STARF Units, 7 Mar 67, AGSD-C (M) (14 Mar 67) ACSFOR, Ltr, TAG to CG, CONARC, 20 Oct 67, sub: Activation of STRAF Units, AGSD-C (M) (16 Oct 67) ACSFOR, and Ltr, TAG to CinC, USARPAC, 2 Oct 67, sub: Activation of Units, AGSD-C (M) (22 Sep 67) ACSFOR, all AG Reference files, DAMH-HSO. In addition to the infantry battalions assigned to divisions and brigades, one nondivisional infantry unit served in Vietnam in a military police role.
