[dragoon500ly]

Think about the state of the Regular Army as of 1983;

Forward deployed in Germany:

Berlin Brigade
3rd Brigade, 2nd Armored Division
10th, 69th, 94th and 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigades
V Corps, consisting of;
3rd Armored Division
8th Mechanized Infantry Division
11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
41st, and 42nd Field Artillery Brigades
VII Corps, consisting of;
1st Armored Division
3rd Mechanized Infantry Division
3rd Brigade, 1st Mechanized Infantry Division
2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment
17th, 72nd and 210th Field Artillery Brigades

Forward deployed in Korea

2nd Infantry Division

In Hawaii (to reinforce Korea)

25th Light Infantry Division

In Panama

193rd Infantry Brigade

In the US

I Corps (to reinforce Korea)

9th Motorized Infantry Division
7th Light Infantry Division
6th Light Infantry Division (forming in Alaska and not ready until 1985)

III Corps (REFORGER)
6th Air Cavalry Combat Brigade
1st Cavalry Division
2nd Armored Division
1st Mechanized Infantry Division
4th Mechanized Infantry Division
5th Mechanized Infantry Division
3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
75th and 212th Field Artillery Brigades
11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade

XVIII Airborne Corps (Strategic Reserve)

82nd Airborne Division
101st Air Assault Division
24th Mechanized Infantry Division
194th Armored Brigade
197th Mechanized Infantry Brigade
18th Field Artillery Brigade

With the exception of an airborne battalion task force in Italy you now have the front line combat strength of the US Army and their assigned areas of operations. As you can see with one exception (24th MID) every heavy unit the Army had was dedicated to Germany.

When RDF was formed; they basically took the XVIII Airborne Corps, moved 6th Air Cav Combat Brigade over and added 1st Marine Division and 7th Marine Amphibious Brigade. The only "heavy" division was still the 24th MID.

The problem with RDF is that it was "rapidly deployable" but it had the offensive capability of the the New Orleans Saints at that time, in other words, NONE. As Desert Storm proved, the US was sweating bullets that Saddam would not decide to push into Saudi Arabia before 24th MID arrived and the only hope of ejecting the Iraqis out of Kuwait was to move VII Corps from Europe and bring it to the Persian Gulf. And until the "heavies" showed up, Saudi Arabia depended on Allied airpower and the infantry of 82nd/101st...

This is why there was such a push to deploy Stryker. I'm not defending the weapon system, but the concept is sound. The US needed a better means of ground power projection than foot infantry. But Stryker should have been used to replace the Light Infantry Divisions instead of gutting the heavy divisions.