the Origins of the modern american army
In 1899 was appointed by president William McKinley your secretary of war (Secretary of War) Elihu Root, a lawyer with a successful law practice and experience as a federal prosecutor in the southern part of the state New York (For.With. Attorney for the Southern District of New York). Root never served in the armed forces, and yet became the founder of the modern american army. Proved indeed in the years 1900-1903 Congress to push through a whole series of laws that changed its functioning and the system of training officers. Among the main Rootovy credit goes to the founding of the Army college of war (US Army War College), Army schools command and general staff (US Army Command and General Staff School) and the Army general staff (Army General Staff). The functions of the Commanding army general (Commanding General of the Army) is transformed into the function of the chief of general staff (Chief of Staff, U.S. Army). In addition, established the principle that the officers, 've [br] rotated between štábními and field functions.
Together with senator Charles Dick, who was at the same time major general (Major General) in the National guard of the state of Ohio (Ohio National Guard) and the chairman of the senate Committee on the militia (Committee on Militia), pushed through a Law on the militia (Militia Act, the Dick Act), which amended the eponymous law of 1792, which no longer satisfied as the legislative basis for the mobilization, organization, administration and training of the army, which is vividly manifested itself during the Spanish-american war. Taken by the adjustment of the reorganized army advances on the Organized militia or the National guard (Organized Militia, National Guard, N.G.) and the Reserve militia (Reserve Militia), which consisted of all physically eligible men from 18 to 45 years. The national guard has been upgraded according to the standard arrangement of the Regular army (Regular Army, R.And.). Departments and units of the National guard, who meet the prescribed requirements, have gained the ability to draw funds from federal sources. Each state and territory must appoint a chief adjutant (Adjutant General), which was responsible for implementation of the federal requirements and submit to the ministry of war annual report on the implementation of and compliance with the requirements according to the adopted regulation. The law regulating the allocation of instructors of the Regular army for the needs of the training units of the National guard and the regular holding of joint exercises. Among other novelties introduced by the act included the definition of the conditions for the possibility of service in the National guard and the award of pensions for members of the guard killed during federal service. Dick's law has marked a significant step forward towards the concept of "one army" ("one Army" concept), but it wasn't just cleaning a whole range of other issues, which needed to be resolved, if it were to be modernization of the army successful. In the years 1903-1916, therefore, has been adopted by many other laws. On their basis was established the Medical reserve corps (Medical Reserve Corps) and the Deposit of the regular army (Regular Army Reserve, RAR), which function as a reservoir of former members of the team, who could in case of need to quickly add relatively low levels of members of the Regular army.
The last legislation before the entry into force of the United states into the first world war was the Law on national defense (the National Defense Act) of 1916. He also defined the Army of the United states (Army of the United States) as a whole consisting of the Regular army (Regular Army), the Volunteer army (Volunteer Army), Corps officers in the reserve (Officers Reserve Corps, ORC), the Choir members of the team in the midfield (Enlisted Reserve Corps, ERC), National guard (National Guard), when this is in the service in favor of the United states, and other similar existing or in the future on the basis of the law established by the ground forces. Peaceful the numbers of the Regular army were increased to 175 000 members, and the war on 300 000. The numbers of members of the National guard have been increased to 400 000. Members of the guard from this point on should consist of state and federal promise that its units could easily be included in federal services even outside the territory of the united states. Furthermore, there were increased funds for the training, facilitate the possibility for the recruitment of officers of the National guard into federal service. President of the united states acquired the power to determine how many units should the state establish and maintain. The ORC and ERC should fulfil the role of a reservoir of more or less trained officers and members of the team, which could, if necessary, be quickly supplemented by a number příslšníků of the Regular army. In addition, it was established the officer Training corps reserve officers (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps), which was at high schools to ensure the training of new cadres for the ORC. The law on national defense may come too late for it to have a complex impact on the functioning of the american army in the first world war, but some of its aspects after its deployment have affected. The dual status of the National guard (state and federal) has allowed the deployment of its troops overseas without the legal wrangling. Even more it is reflected in the area of advances, i.e. ORC and ERC. By June 1917 was the army taken over 21 000 of backup officers, who have passed Instrukčními camps of the regular army (Regular Army Instruction Camps, the so-called Plattsburg Camps). The end of the war the army entered through 89 000 reserve officers, of which approximately 3 300 went through ROTC and 57 300 mentioned instrukčními camps. In a similar number moved and the number of advances between members of the team.
However world war ii showed that even large-scale changes introduced by the Act on national defence were not quite sufficient to complete the modernization of the army. To eliminate the shortcomings was in the 1920 adopted another Law on national defense. This legal standard zreorganizovala armádlu according to the concept of one army. Continue to consist of three components - Regular army, National guard and Organized reserves (Organized Reserve, About.R.). The national guard represented an advance on the state level, and Organized deposit and then deposit at the federal level. Organized advance was the predecessor of the later Army reserves (US Army Reserve). The law also once again raised the permissible peaceful figures for the Regular army to 296 000, of which 17 726 accounted for the officers. Increase the number of officers was enforced by the fact that the Regular army had the task of ensuring the training of the reserve components of the (N.G. and About.R. + ROTC) and had to allocate the appropriate number of instructors and other features. RAR was abolished and its role taken over later ERC. Numbers of the National guard have been increased to 435 000, but as with the Regular army not to their fulfilment - states were under a number of 200 000, and when in 1939 was a partial increase, so before the start of the war mobilization was NG on roughly half of the allowable number of members. The fact that the law defined the National guard in the area of the ground forces as the second component in the ranking, right behind the Regular army, meant the supply of federal funds and better conditions for the operation, but on the other hand also greater supervision by the federal authorities. The third component of the army, the Organized deposit, was formed by combining the ORC and ERC. The next moment appeared in hundreds of units.R. The number of members was not by law, not capped, in real terms, stocks fluctuated around the 100 000. Representatives of the National guard managed to push through, to fully were occupied by only the officers ' table, while for men it was only by about a third. The ORC filled the officers who have served in active duty during the first world war, and the officers vzešlí of the programs of ROTC, and Citizens ' military training camps (Citizens Military Training Camps, CMTC). The ERC was occupied mainly poddůstojnická places with the lowest rank should be filled after the announcement of mobilization. The national guard ensure that the remained second in the standings and avoid competition for members of the team from the same geographical areas. Members of the ERC were recruited from former members of the Regular army or the National guard, from persons that have gone through ROTC (at least one school year) or CMTC (four-week course). The ERC has also been taken to a number of persons with specialised knowledge and skills (nurses, railwaymen, signalmen, musicians, etc.). A number of members of the ERC advanced within About.R. to the ORC. The combination of these facts meant that the ERC is on the states Of the.R. participated in no more than 6 000 members..