opposition saved the 157th (Pennsylvania), 187th (Massachusetts), and 205th (Minnesota and lowa) Infantry Brigades. All their expensive armor and mechanized infantry battalions, however, were eliminated, leaving each brigade with only three standard infantry battalions. In the western part of the country, the poorly manned 191st Infantry Brigade fell out of the force, with its headquarters being inactivated in February 1968 at Helena, Montana. The following June an armor battalion was restored to the 157th Infantry Brigade to increase its capabilities.[1]
Concurrent with reorganizing the reserves, Secretary of the Army Stanley Resor authorized a new Selected Reserve Force in 1967 to lessen the heavy burden of the accelerated training program. All units in the original force retained their equipment but lost their priority for new equipment. The new "selected reserve" force, designed specifically to reinforce the Army in Southeast Asia, consisted of the 26th and 42d Infantry Divisions and the 39th, 40th, 157th, and 256th Infantry Brigades. But two years later the secretary abolished the force, seeking to bring all National Guard and Army Reserve units to the same readiness level.[2]
The Defense Department did not question the number of training divisions in the Army Reserve, but they were reorganized to conform to Regular Army training centers. In 1966 the Continental Army Command developed new tables of organization that eliminated regiments in training divisions and replaced them with brigades (Chart 41). The division fielded two basic combat training brigades, each consisting of four battalions with five training companies each; an advanced individual training brigade, three battalions with three to six companies or batteries of field artillery, armor, infantry, and engineers each; and a combat support training brigade, two battalions of five companies each, and a committee directorate, All basic training instructors were concentrated in a committee group. Along with the division headquarters and headquarters company, the division had support and special training companies and a noncommissioned officer/drill sergeant academy. These changes enhanced the training division's ability for self-sustainment in both reserve and active duty status, but it could not train as many men under the new structure. All thirteen divisions were organized under the new tables by 1968.[3]
Retrenchment
On 8 June 1969, President Richard Nixon announced that 25,000 men would be withdrawn from Vietnam as part of a "Vietnamization" effort, which involved transferring increased responsibility for conducting all aspects of the war to the Republic of Vietnam. An underlying cause was the disillusionment of the American people with a war that seemed permanently stalemated, Popular sentiment favored the return of U,S. forces from Vietnam and a retrenchment of U.S. involvement in world affairs, particularly in Asia.[4]
- ↑ Office of Reserve Components, "Annual Historical Summary, 1 Jul 67–30 Jun 68," p. 4, DAMH-HSR; Historical Data Cards, 157th, 187th, 191st, and 205th Inf Bdes, DAMH-HSO.
- ↑ Ltr, TAG to CinC, USAREUR, 25 Apr 68, sub, SRF II Troop List, AGAM-P (M) (16 Nov 67) ORC-OPT-OP, Army Reserve file, DAMH-HSO; "CONARC Report on US Army Reserve 68," Army Reserve Magazine 25 (Mar 1968): 4–5; "SRF Born 27 September 1965; Died September 1969," National Guardsman 23 (Sep 1969): 12–16; Department of the Army Historical Summary, 1970, p. 70.
- ↑ TOE 29–7T–3, Division (Training), 1966 "Things to Come: CONARC Present Plans for the New Year," Army Reserve Magazine 13 (Dec 1967); 8–9; Notes, "Training Division Reorganization, 1967–1968," Division General files, DAMH-HSO.
- ↑ Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Richard Nixon, 1969 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971), p. 443.
