John K. Mahon and Romana Danysh

“ The tenth company in a British battalion was called the "light company." Light companies were also detached and consolidated into provisional battalions, but as often they were assigned a truly light mission, that is, to advance ahead of the line, screen it, and demoralize the enemy. This mission of light infantry in the American service was usually performed by rifle units, which fanned out in front of the army and, with their accurate fire, galled the enemy severely. At first there was no counterpart to flank companies in the Continental infantry. ”

“ These harsh facts caused the Chief of Infantry to state on the eve of war that a consciousness of obsolescence in all their arms had seriously damaged the morale of American infantrymen. After 1939, battalion heavy weapons companies, regimental antitank companies, and weapons platoons within rifle companies were largely manned by soldiers, who required some side arm other than the heavy Garand rifle. The ideal weapon for the crews of mortars, machine guns, and antitank guns had to be light, have a rapid rate of fire, and yet have greater range and accuracy than a pistol. ”

“ The Signal Corps was constituted during the conflict to handle the new media of communication. Its service was great, but its relation to the infantry was only a tiny fragment of what it was to become in the future. In conclusion it must be said that the Civil War occurred in one of those periods, common in history, when weapons outdistanced organization and tactics. It is true that deadly fire brought about modifications in the use of infantry, one of which was the use of a succession of lines in the assault, another the regular employment of temporary field works. ”

“ Although the first problem of the postwar infantry was demobilization, even while that was going on plans were being made for the reorganization of infantry units in the light of the experience gained and the lessons learned during World War II. Since the war had been won and infantry organization, weapons, and tactics had proved to be effective in different theaters of operations and against different enemy forces, there was no motivation for radical innovations. ”

“ By the end of World War II eight radios were included in the rifle company's equipment. Radios and telephones knit companies tighter together, but by no means made them act as one man. Dispersion to avoid the deadly effects of enemy fire threw, squads, or fractions of squads, on their own in combat, particularly in dense foliage, in the mountains, and in night operations. This put a heavier-than-ever burden on the ingenuity of squad and platoon leaders, and even on the individual doughboy. ”

“ Frequently, the lack of training and of discipline resulted in rout in battle, as happened on part of the field at Buena Vista. On the other hand, citizen soldiers often showed remarkable fighting ability, as was true, for example, of the Mississippi Rifles, commanded by Jefferson Davis, on another part of the same battlefield. In all instances, training and leadership were the ingredients that made the difference. Lack of training caused trouble less often in combat than in the intervals between, when life grew very dull. ”

“ Probably the most significant innovation of the war was the largescale use of helicopters in general and of airmobile combat units in particular. All units in Vietnam depended heavily on the helicopter for aerial reconnaissance, medical evacuation, and resupply, as well as rapid transportation into and out of otherwise inaccessible areas. Helicopters used by the infantry were Army not Air Force aircraft and, as such, were more responsive to the needs of the units. The infantry in turn quickly adjusted to airmobile operations. ”

“ That trend .made every element of an infantry battalion, even the squad, a more complex organization than before, and at the same time vastly increased its firepower. The heightened complexity, of course, brought with it the need for better communications, better training, and above all better leadership. The improvements in portable weapons were important, but by no means as sharp a break with the past as the development of the arms that have come to be known as heavy weapons. ”

“ Once the nation had become a colonial power on account of the War with Spain, the study of war grew more important, and Americans turned to a review of what they had to fight with. It was clear that the Regular Army was too small to make up the whole defense and that stimulation of the militia was therefore necessary. As a result, one phase of the reform of 1903 was to replace the Federal militia law which had been on the books since 1792. This reform was particularly significant for the infantry because it comprised the bulk of the militia force. ”

“ In both cases, therefore, the Pentomic reorganization caused a significant reduction in infantry personnel. By eliminating the traditional regiment, it also raised the question of what the new infantry units were to be called, how they were to be numbered, and what their relationship to former organizations was to be. If some means of perpetuating the history of infantry and other combat regiments had not been combined with the tactical reorganization, hundreds of independent units would have been created with no historical affiliation. ”

“ Although all types of United States volunteers made up only a small fraction of the foot troops who served for the Union, they merit attention because of the intimate relationship between them and the Federal government, and because of the lack of vital connection between them and any state. This relationship foreshadowed the National Army of the twentieth century. The Confederate Army arranged infantry units pretty much as the Union did, except that all regiments contained ten companies. ”

“ In the draft TOE the mechanized infantry rifle squad had only ten men, like the standard and airborne squads; one of the riflemen was expected to double as the driver of the squad's M 113 armored personnel carrier (APC) . In the final table another rifleman was added, thus permitting the driver to remain with the APC at all times. In the process of adopting an organization similar to that of the regular infantry, the mechanized infantry battalion lost the fourth rifle company that had been organic to the AIB and to the armored rifle battalion ever since the post-World War II reorganization. ”

“ In Korea, however, the infantry regiments' aircraft were usually combined with aircraft organic to other elements of the division for centralized operations. Often provisional division aviation companies were organized, although no such units were included in the TOE's. Organic aviation was of great value to the infantry, since it was effectively used for observation, surveillance, and reconnaissance, for quick resupply of weapons and equipment, for transporting commanders, outposts, and patrols over difficult terrain, and-most frequently-for rapid evacuation of the wounded. ”

“ They were simply composed of men picked for their strength and courage. The truth is that conditions in America did not favor the specialization of particular companies. Indian wars had to be fought by whatever troops were available; there was no time to await the arrival of elite corps, whether called grenadiers or something else. Nor did fights with Indians give much opportunity for infantry to assume the formal line of battle with light units out front. Finally, the scattering of the companies of Regular regiments made specialized training impossible. ”

“ As a result, the war in Vietnam has often been called a platoon leader's war. Most major operations were conducted on the brigade level with varying numbers of maneuver elements attached for specific missions in accordance with the ROAD principle of tailored brigades. Vietnam was the first test of the ROAD organization under actual combat conditions, and the system proved its flexibility by adapting quickly to a difficult terrain and an elusive enemy in a war with many unconventional aspects. The most popular infantry weapons in Vietnam were the lightest ones. ”

“ Besides having major shortages in both personnel and equipment, the active infantry units were also inadequately trained. At first the disintegration caused by rapid demobilization had made effective unit training virtually impossible, and the numerous administrative chores of occupation duty also interfered with training programs. Occupation of the countries defeated in World War II remained by far the single greatest responsibility of the infantry throughout the 1945-50 period and was a heavy drain on the Army's overall effort. ”

“ Although foot soldiers, more than ever before, had to learn to co-operate with tanks and with planes, this did not spare them from having to be in the forefront of almost all important assaults. In short, while they could not advance against the enemy without the aid of tanks, artillery, and air, neither could those arms gain ground or destroy the enemy's will to fight without the aid of the infantry. ”

“ In order to be successful in a nuclear war, U.S. infantry units had to be small and lean, more powerful and harder hitting, self-sufficient, and geared for long periods of independent action on a wide and fluid battlefield. They had to be capable of rapid and effective concentration in the attack as well as equally rapid dispersal for defense. The Pentomic system attempted to give the infantry all of these capabilities. ”

“ Once the nation actually went to war, the character of the latter element changed, for volunteering was scrapped except in the Regular Army and in the National Guard. The Volunteer Army became the National Army, which was raised by conscription. All in all, the wartime Army contained 297 infantry regiments of one kind or another and 165 machine gun battalions classed as infantry. Infantry regiments and machine gun battalions together totaled 462 in World War I, a figure which is dwarfed by the 1,700-plus infantry units that served in the Civil War. ”

“ It was decided, in the second month of the war (May 1898) , to organize ten regiments of volunteers not related to any state, an action for which there was precedent in the United States volunteers of the Civil War. The latter had been raised from special groups such as sharpshooters or Confederate prisoners of war. The earliest regiments of United States Volunteer Infantry in the War with Spain were also made up from a special group, that is, from men who were immune to tropical disease: five regiments of Negroes and five of whites. ”

“ Reaching its lowest point in August and September 1958, infantry strength had dropped to less than 100,000 and to approximately 11 percent of the overall Army strength, which also continued to decrease. At that time there were ninety-three infantry units of battle group or battalion size in the active Army. Three-fourths of them were organic elements of divisions and about half were stationed overseas. After this low point, infantry personnel strength began to grow gradually, but it was the Berlin crisis of mid-1961 that brought about a significant gain in both infantry personnel and units. ”

“ What is more, militia training differed widely from state to state, so that it was hard to fuse units from the several states into one army. When obliged to wage war as a nation, the United States was caught between the fear of a standing army and the inadequacies of a militia controlled by the several states. Some sort of compromise was necessary, and that proved to be an old type, volunteer soldiers organized into provisional wartime regiments. ”

“ Most of the estimated 164,000 militiamen who took up arms for terms from a day up to three months were infantry. In addition to them were other infantrymen, raised and maintained on a relatively permanent basis by the several states, who, with the militia, rallied on the Continentals and abetted the cause. When the British surrendered at Yorktown on 19 October 1781, there were sixty battalions of infantry in the Continental establishment. ”

“ Although all types of infantry units were regularly transported by helicopter, the airmobile division was the only infantry organization that could move all of its elements with its own organic aircraft. Airmobile units were capable of moving rapidly and directly to their objective regardless of terrain obstacles or enemy troop concentrations. Responding swiftly to changes in the tactical situation, they could break off action at one point and fly quickly in any direction to fight at another point or disperse to widely separated bases. ”

“ The longer the Koreans remained with American units, the more effective they became, and many of the original difficulties were overcome. As a rule, however, they were more successfully integrated into service units than into the U.S. infantry. Although South Koreans and Americans carried the greatest part of the burden, twenty-one other nations also contributed to the U.N. war effort in Korea. Most infantry units from these countries were relatively small, and in combat they were frequently attached to U.S. organizations. ”

“ The trials were remarkably thorough, although they were handicapped by shortages of weapons and vehicles. For example, no light mortars were available, while only one regiment could be completely equipped with the M1 rifle. There were not enough .50-caliber machine guns and, of course, no light machine guns at all. What emerged from the tests was a full new set of tables of organization which became effective during 1939. The new tables were built upon a triangular basis in which elements within an infantry division, from squads up to regiments, were associated by three's. ”

“ Second, since it was becoming obsolete as a tactical unit, the regiment would no longer be subject to periodic reorganizations and could serve as a permanent vehicle for perpetuating unit lineage, honors, and customs without restricting future organizational trends. Consequently, a number of distinguished infantry, artillery, armor, and cavalry regiments were selected and designated as so-called parent units. Each infantry parent regiment was capable of providing a base for a variable number of tactical elements, which could be battle groups, battalions, or companies. ”

“ Foot soldiers continued to be the only carriers of weapons who, in theory, were never exhausted, could always go another mile, and who could be counted upon to move across any terrain in every quarter of the globe. ”

“ Several types of volunteers were more directly linked to the United States than to any state, the earliest of these being two regiments of U.S. Sharpshooters (1st and 2nd) organized in 1861. These two contained companies from several states, raised by the states. Their origin in more than one state was an uncommon attribute, but their real distinguishing feature was the manner in which they were officered. While the states appointed the company and field officers in ordinary volunteer units, the Federal government appointed them in the Sharpshooters and similar outfits. ”

“ The mechanized division was a new organization created under ROAD which, although not as heavy in armor as the armored division, was particularly suitable for employment in such terrain as the plains of Europe or against an enemy with highly mechanized forces. ”

“ Only a handful of mechanized units went to Vietnam, but numerous mechanized infantry battalions were assigned to mechanized and armored divisions in Europe and in the United States. Most airborne personnel in Vietnam lost their jump pay, because their units did not have the opportunity to utilize their unique capabilities, but the airborne battalions in the strategic reserve proved their constant readiness in various emergencies, such as the 1965 Dominican Republic crisis and several domestic civil disturbances. ”

“ In the Mexican War, most volunteers reached the seat of war with little or no training; but some of them, once arrived, were associated with Regular brigades and quickly introduced to the Army drill. Like the training, the organization of citizen soldiers of all types was required by law to conform to the United States' standards, but much latitude existed. The Maryland and District of Columbia Battalion of the Mexican War, for example, reached the combat area with only one field officer of the three required in the Regular service. ”