Mary Lee Stubbs and Stanley Russell Connor

“ Reconnaissance types of missions were usually to be performed by light armored cavalry units, which were to avoid sustained offensive or defensive combat. Use of the term armored cavalry was a compromise between those who wanted the word armor in the new branch name and those who were as reluctant to discard the term cavalry as they had been to part with their horses. To others, especially those who had not served with horse cavalry, armor was a new medium, and that term best described the branch. ”

“ Even after the end of World War II, however, there was unusual need for mechanized organizations in the requirements of the occupational forces in Europe. Highly mobile security forces with flexible organizations and a minimum of personnel were needed, and armor and cavalry units were more readily adaptable to the task than infantry. ”

“ In the Organized Reserves, cavalry and tank units activated in late 1946 were the 19th Armored Division, the 301st through the 304th Cavalry Groups, the 75th Amphibian Tank Battalion, the 782d Tank Battalion, the 314th and 315th Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalions, and the 83d Reconnaissance Troop. In early 1948 the Organized Reserves became the Organized Reserve Corps, and in 1952 this component became the Army Reserve. With swift advances during the postwar period in the development of atomic and recoilless weapons, rockets, and guided missiles, the tank appeared to many to be obsolete. ”