filling up this framework through military training in schools, colleges, and summer camps. 3. Activities The primary purpose of the department is to provide for national defense. More specifically, the Army must provide an adequate organized, balanced, and effective mobile force which shall be ready and available for emergencies within the continental limits of the United States or elsewhere, which must patrol the 1,500 miles of Mexican border, and which must constitute a nucleus for a complete and immediate mobilization for the national defense in the event of an emergency declared by Congress. It must provide adequate defense for our coasts and oversea possessions. To this end, garrisons are stationed in Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines, Panama, Porto Rico, and China, both as a safeguard for Americans who have settled there and as an added protection for the continental United States and for its commercial and political interests in the Far East. Much of the training in the Army is of a technical nature. Nearly half of the enlisted men need some form of technical skill in order properly to perform their functions in the team. To provide training in all these lines, post schools, unit schools, and special service schools are maintained. Each school or group of schools is presided over by a commandant selected for the purpose, who is assisted by a competent staff of officer instructors. The following are some of the many types of skilled workers needed in the Army: Tractor drivers, chauffeurs, auto mechanics, battery repairmen, tire repairers, ignition and carburetion experts, teamsters, wagon masters, wheelwrights, shoemakers, saddlers, blacksmiths, horseshoers, cargadors, highway and construction men, bridge builders, dynamo tenders, steam-engine tenders, firemen, sheet metal workers, concrete workers, canvas workers, brick masons, stone masons, painters, carpenters of all kinds, plumbers, pipe fitters, welders, interior wiremen, radio electricians, telephone electricians, telegraph electricians, riggers, instrument repairers, linemen, switchboard operators, clerks, stenographers, typists, bookkeepers, draftsmen, photographers, motion picture operators, lithographers, printers, topographers, surveyors, machinists, foundrymen, pattern makers, shoemakers, pharmacists' assistants, X-ray operators, farriers, buglers, bandsmen, bakers, cooks, butchers, laundrymen, storekeepers and tailors. The War Department General Staff is charged with the preparation of plans. for recruiting, mobilizing, organizing, supplying, equipping, and training the Army for use in the national defense, and for demobilization, and for the mobilization of the manhood of the nation in an emergency. It investigates and reports upon questions affecting the efficiency of all branches of the Army and their state of preparation for military operations. Assisted by an appropriate number of reserve officers, it formulates all policies and regulations affecting the organization, distribution, and training of the National Guard and the Organized Reserves, and all policies and regulations affecting the appointment, assignment, promotion, and discharge of reserve officers. It performs such 941 Stat. 762, § 5 (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, § 1762a et seq.). WAR DEPARTMENT where: printing and binding and newspaper advertising for the War Department and the Army: expenditures from Var Department appropriations for contingent expenses, stationery, and postage: the War Department telephone service, and the War Department post fics: allotment of nice space assigned for the use of the War Department in the District of Columbia: and performs such other inties as may be required by the Secretary of War. The Assistant Sears charged with supersing and acting upon the procurement and mine of supplies mi me gurmase and lease of real estate, mcluding licenses for emery use of land under War Department conmai, approval of expenditures tem imis derei Poochers: retests in the Secmeram of the Trust issue warrants to disthe approval of purchase Sursing ofcers: plans Bre the meiner of materals and industry for war: dams against the Tr Deanner. De sale of surgas spites, equipment, plants, hand or other fachines, met name and mspection reports; argoal of rome extends from the race "Contingencies of the Army"s approral of expenormes fem poss, bening of advertising: use of parem nás by the Mir Denummen and Amm, matters relating to milltary parks: mutes mäng masuna semenemes and harber worker and the innings reling to the National Association for the mumers relating to river Promotion of Ride France; and rum maresmanship 3. O2 & Suf The Dipener Sacral Stu The Chief of Saf is the manane anser of the Secretary of War on all matters relating to the minun sull Green, and a charged by the Secretary cf War with the planning develoment, an exertion of the Army program 10 He causes the War Department General Suff to prepare the necessary plans. As the agent and in the name of the Secretary of War, he ssoes such orders as will insure that the plans of the War Department are harmoniously executed by all branches and agencies of the Military Establishment and that the Army program is carried out speed à and efficiently, (1) Deputy Chief of Staff-The Deputy Chief of Staff assists the Chief of Staff and acts for him in his absence. He reports directly to the Secretary of War in all matters not involving the establishment of important policies. In addition to his other duties, he is charged with supervision over the activities of all the divisions of the War Department General Staff. The War Department General Staff includes the following divisions, each division being under the immediate control of an Assistant Chief of Staff: (a) Personnel Division-The Personnel Division is charged, in general, with those duties of the War Department General Staff which relate to the personnel of the Army as individuals. (b) Military Intelligence Division.-The Military Intelligence Division is charged, in general, with those duties of the War Department General Staff 10 National Defense Act of 1920, 41 Stat. 764, 765 (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, §§ 334b, 1762a[7] 1762a[9]). 44 which relate to the collection, evaluation, and dissemination of military information. (c) Operations and Training Division.-The Operations and Training Division is charged, in general, with those duties of the War Department General Staff which relate to the organization, training, and operation of the military forces not expressly assigned to the War Plans Division. (d) Supply Division.-The Supply Division is charged, in general, with those duties of the War Department General Staff which relate to the supply of the Army, and with the preparation of basic supply plans. It is specifically charged with the preparation of plans and policies and the supervision of activities concerning: Distribution, storage, and issue of supplies; transportation by land and water, including ports of embarkation and their necessary auxiliaries; traffic control; tables of equipment, the quantities and types of military supplies required for the use of the Army and essential to the military program; inventions; leasing of War Department facilities and issuing of revocable licenses; hospitalization and evacuation of men and animals, including such agencies or parts of agencies as may be wholly devoted to hospital and medical relief work; distribution and movement of supply, technical, and labor troops not employed as combat units; property responsibility and accountability; the determination and statement of plans and policies governing the preparation of estimates for funds for military purposes and priorities pertaining thereto, and, when necessary with the restatement of such priorities to govern the expenditure of all funds appropriated; the formulation of policies and projects governing the procurement of real estate in connection with the training, shelter, and housing of troops, and with the storage, distribution, and issue of supplies; policies relative to the procurement, construction, repair, maintenance, and disposition of buildings and all utilities connected therewith. (e) War Plans Division.-The War Plans Division is charged, in general, with those duties of the War Department General Staff which relate to the formulation of plans for the use in the theater of war of the military forces, separately or in conjunction with the naval forces, in the national defense. (2) Service (a) Chief of Cavalry.-The Chief of Cavalry is under the supervision of the Chief of Staff in all matters relating to his arm, and furnishes the Chief of Staff with information and advice on all questions affecting the Cavalry. He exercises direct supervision and control of Fort Riley, Kan., including the Cavalry School, the Cavalry Board, and certain troops and installations thereat designated by the Secretary of War. He formulates and develops the tactical doctrine of his arm in accordance with the War Department doctrine. (b) Chief of Field Artillery.-The Chief of Field Artillery is under the supervision of the Chief of Staff in all matters relating to his arm. He furnishes the Chief of Staff information and advice on all questions affecting his particular arm. He exercises direct supervision and control of the special service schools and the special boards of his arm. He formulates and develops the tactical doctrine of his arm in accordance with the War Department doctrine which requires that the Army be trained for offensive combat. (c) Chief of Coast Artillery.-The Chief of Coast Artillery is charged with the duty of keeping the Chief of Staff advised and informed in respect to all Under such conditions Washington found it almost impossible to keep an army in the field. When he was made Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, it numbered about 17,000 men, the enlistment of every one of whom would expire before the end of the year. Most men preferred enlisting in the militia, where the term was short and the discipline was lax, to joining the regular Continental regiments. Though he impressed upon the soldiers the serious consequences of leaving the Army before the new troops could be trained, they left him by hundreds the day the period of enlistment ended. Bounties were offered to encourage enlistments and the amount of money offered was gradually increased. The time came when men who enlisted for short periods under this system were receiving more pay than the officers who were training them. Serious trouble with the officers followed. Desertions from the Army were frequent. Washington repeatedly reminded Congress of his conviction that the campaigns failed because little dependence could be placed in the militia, because there was no definite military policy, and because of the failure to furnish necessary supplies. In a letter to Congress he said: * * "The disadvantages attending the limited enlistment of troops are too apparent to those who are eyewitnesses of them, * but to gentlemen at a distance, whose attention is engrossed by a thousand important objects, the case may be otherwise. * To bring men to be well acquainted with the duties of a soldier requires time. To bring them under proper discipline and subordination, not only requires time, but it is a work of great difficulty; and in this Army, where there is so little distinction between the officers and soldiers, requires an uncommon degree of attention. To expect, then, the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits as from veteran soldiers is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen. * At another time he wrote: "Connecticut wants no Massachusetts men in her corps, Massachusetts thinks there is no necessity for a Rhode Islander to be introduced into hers, and New Hampshire says it is very hard that her valuable and experienced officers, who are willing to serve, should be discarded, because her own regiments under the establishment cannot provide for them." Congress failed to heed Washington's advice. It did increase the bounties offered, but the paper money issued was practically worthless, and wholesale desertions followed. The soldiers were half starved and insufficiently clothed. Mutinies were numerous. In the midst of these troubles and successive defeats, Congress persisted in making plans to reduce the size of the Army, but the war did not end. Finally the period of enlistment was extended to "three years" or "during the war" at the discretion of the soldier, and Washington was given complete charge. These experiences, together with the defeat of General Gates at Camden, brought forth the following expression from Washington in a letter to the President of Congress: "This event, however, adds itself to many others, to exemplify the necessity of an army, and the fatal consequences of depending on militia. Regular troops alone are equal to the exigencies of modern war, as well for defense as for of fense, and whenever a substitute is attempted, it must prove illusory and ruinous. No militia will ever acquire the habits necessary to resist a regular force. * * * The firmness requisite for the real business of fighting is only to be attained by a constant course of discipline and service. It is most earnestly to be wished that the liberties of America may no longer be trusted, in any material degree, to so precarious a dependence." At the conclusion of the war Congress decided to dispense with a standing army. It ordered the discharge of the Continental troops, with the exception of about 80 soldiers, who were kept to guard public stores. Constant Indian troubles and civic disorders, however, compelled an increase in this number to make up a force of several hundred men. In the meantime the war organization had undergone successive changes in the Continental Congress. When the committees for war failed, boards of war had been appointed; yet Congress itself continued to direct all military affairs, until these boards became as powerless and ineffective as the committees which preceded them. At the conclusion of the war, after a long dispute, Congress resolved to create a Department of War whose chairman should be called the Secretary of War.1 Under the leadership of Gen. Henry Knox, the second Secretary of War, the department became well organized. The new Department of War established under the Constitution of the United States was organized on a similar basis and the former Secretary retained. At its beginning, the Department of War included the functions which are now divided among the Departments of War, the Navy, and the Interior.3 Although the Revolutionary War was over, the problem of adequate protection of the new nation was one of the gravest that presented themselves. In his first annual address to Congress, President Washington said: "Among the many interesting objects that will engage your attention, that of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." In formulating a military policy under the new government, the prejudice of the people against a standing army again came to the surface. Even with the lessons of the past war fresh in their minds, the majority of the people believed that a large army would provoke war. A maxim arose: A maxim arose: "A standing army is dangerous to liberty." There was no distinction in the public mind between the army proposed by Washington and the armies of the past, which had been the mercenaries of despots. Congress attempted to solve the problem by passing two statutes. * * The first act, passed in 1790,4 laid the foundation for the volunteer system. It empowered the President to employ for a short term, "not exceeding six months, * a corps not exceeding two thousand noncommissioned officers, privates, and musicians, with a suitable number of commissioned officers." The second act, passed in 1792,5 had for its purpose "more effectually to pro 1 Act Aug. 7, 1789 (1 Stat. 49). 2 Act April 30, 1798 (1 Stat. 553). 3 Act March 3, 1849 (9 Stat. 395). 4 Act April 30, 1790 (1 Stat. 119). 5 Act May 8, 1792 (1 Stat. 271). |