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Old 11-25-2008, 06:54 PM
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chico20854 chico20854 is offline
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part 2...

Wartime Initial Entry Training Centers of the US Army
  • Ft. Benning, GA (Infantry One Station Unit Training) Infantry Training Brigade, 122nd Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Belvoir, VA (Engineer One Station Unit Training) 1st Brigade, 80th Division (Training), 164th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Bliss, TX (ADA One Station Unit Training) ADA Training Brigade, 211th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Bragg, NC (Basic Combat Training) (after March, 1997) 108th Division (Training), 218th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Campbell, KY (Infantry One Station Unit Training, Basic Combat Training) 100th Division (Training) (Less 2nd & 4th Brigades), 129th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Carson, CO (Armor & Artillery One Station Unit Training, Basic Combat Training) 2nd & 4th Brigades 100th Division (Training), 168th Regiment (RTI), 213th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Devens, MA 76th Division (Training), 101st Regiment (RTI), 240th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Dix, NJ (Basic Combat Training) 3rd Basic Combat Training Brigade, 140th Regiment (RTI), 208th Regiment (RTI), 249th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Drum, NY (Infantry One Station Unit Training, Basic Combat Training) 98th Division (Training) (less 1st Brigade), 124th Regiment (RTI), 136th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Hood, TX (Armor & Cavalry One Station Unit Training, Basic Combat Training) 95th Division (Training), 145th Regiment (RTI), 254th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Hunter-Liggett, CA (Artillery One Station Unit Training, Basic Combat Training) 91st Division (Training)(less 2nd Brigade), 158th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Indiantown Gap, PA (Infantry One Station Unit Training) 78th Division (Training), 166th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Jackson, SC (Basic Combat Training, Primary BCT training site for female soldiers) 4th Basic Combat Training Brigade, 206th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Knox, KY (Armor & Cavalry One Station Unit Training, Basic Combat Training) Armor Training Brigade, 238th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Leonard Wood, MO (Engineer One Station Unit Training, Basic Combat Training) 1st Engineer Brigade; 2nd Basic Combat Training Brigade, 140th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Lewis, WA (Basic Combat Training, Infantry One Station Unit Training) 104th Division (Training), 205th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. McClellan, AL 2nd Brigade, 85th Division (Training)
  • Ft. McCoy, WI (Basic Combat Training) 84th Division (Training), 426th Regiment (RTI), 196th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Ord, CA 2nd Brigade 91st Division (Training), 203rd Regiment (RTI), 221st Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Pickett, VA (Infantry One Station Unit Training) 80th Division (Training) (Less 1st Brigade), 183rd Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Polk, LA 85th Division (Training) (less 2nd & 3rd Brigade)
  • Ft. Riley, KS (Basic Combat Training) 402nd Brigade (Training), 189th Regiment (RTI)
  • Camp Ripley, MN (Armor & Cavalry One Station Unit Training) 70th Division (Training)
  • Camp Roberts, CA (Armor & Cavalry One Station Unit Training) 2nd Brigade 91st Division (Training), 204th Regiment (RTI), 289th Regiment (RTI)
  • Camp Robinson, AR (Infantry One Station Unit Training) 5th Brigade (Training), 253rd Regiment (RTI)
  • Camp Shelby, MS (Artillery, One Station Unit Training) 3rd Brigade 85th Division (Training), 108th Regiment (RTI), 139th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Sill, OK (Artillery One Station Unit Training, Basic Combat Training) Field Artillery Training Brigade, 210th Regiment (RTI), 185th Regiment (RTI)
  • Camp Smith, NY (Basic Combat Training) (secondary female training facility) 1st Brigade, 98th Division (Training), 169th Regiment (RTI)

(RTI is Regional Training Institute; these units previously conducted MOS reclassification training for members of the Army National Guard.)

Wartime Advanced Technical Training Centers of the US Army
  • Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (Ordnance) 70th Regiment (RTI), 261st Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Benjamin Harrison, IN (Administrative) 106th Regiment (RTI), 138th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Eustis, VA (Aviation Logistical Support, Transportation) 260th Regiment (RTI), 197th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Gordon, GA (Signal) 117th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Huachuca, AZ (Intelligence) 111th Military Intelligence Brigade, 515th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Lee, VA (Quartermaster) 210th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. McClellan, AL (Chemical, Military Police) 200th Regiment (RTI), 209th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Rucker, AL (Aviation) 1st Aviation Brigade, 166th Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Sam Houston, TX (Medical), 243rd Regiment (RTI)
  • Ft. Story, VA (Logistics) 261st Regiment (RTI)

Specialty Skill Training Centers
  • Ft. Benning, GA (Airborne, Ranger)
  • Ft. Bragg, NC (Special Forces)
  • Ft. Campbell, KY (Air Assault)
  • Ft. Greenly, AK (Northern Warfare)
  • Camp Gruber, OK (Airborne)
  • Jericho Firing Range, VT (Mountain)
  • Ft. McCoy, WI (Air Assault)

National Maneuver Training Centers
  • NTC-A Ft. Irwin, CA 177th Armored Brigade
  • NTC-B Yakima Firing Range, WA 207th Regiment (RTI)
  • NTC-C Orchard Training Area, ID 223rd Regiment (RTI)
  • JRTC Ft. Chaffee, AR 177th Regiment (RTI)
  • JRTC Ft. Polk, LA 199th Regiment (RTI)

Prewar training amounted to about 150,000 recruits a year, and expanded to a rate of 550,000 to 600,000 troops per year by July 1997. This was done through both the expansion of the existing prewar training base, and the implementation of mobilization courses of instruction. Basic Combat Training was cut to six weeks, and on average Advanced Individual Training courses were reduced in length by 25%. This was accomplished by the elimination of nonessential training, longer training hours, and elimination of all non-training days. At the same time that training was being accelerated, the combat readiness of IET (Initial Entry Training) graduates did not decline - in fact the soldiers were more prepared for the stress of combat than their prewar counterparts; also, as convalescent NCOs (combat veterans with prior drill instructor experience) began to fill training cadre positions, trainees were able to learn hard-won combat survival skills that would serve them will in the various theatres of ongoing combat.

Training continued throughout the war and reconstruction period. However, following the civil unrest that followed the nuclear exchange of 1997-8, most units could only continue to conscript locally, and then with substantial aid from surviving State Defense Forces. Consequently, the numbers of trained troops provided to field units as replacements plummeted. As the situation became more desperate, the training divisions were redesignated as field formations (Infantry). Some training continued at posts that were able to maintain their training missions, as well as in the redesignated training divisions (previously composed of drill sergeant units), albeit at a significantly reduced rate. It is estimated that 75,000 replacements were trained at an annual rate from June 1998 through January 2000. 2000 was the nadir of training in the US. Following reconstruction efforts of returning US troops from overseas, starting in 2002 the number of recruits trained would steadily increase back to prewar levels (over many years).

Of special note should be the training of female soldiers. Prewar, basic combat training of female soldiers was conducted exclusively at Ft. Jackson, NC. As the war progressed, a secondary site for the training of female soldiers was operated at Camp Smith, NY. The Army maintained these two sites as the exclusive training sites for women until the Thanksgiving Day Massacre of 1997, following which training centers began local conscription and women were integrated into the training at virtually all of the surviving training stations and integrated into Military Occupational Specialties from which they had previously be excluded (i.e. Infantry, Armor, etc.).

Additionally, civilians drafted into the Army were sometimes given direct commissions or promotion to NCO ranks based on their civilian education and employment. Doctors were frequently given direct commissions as Captains, while many engineer construction battalions had draftee NCOs who had held civilian jobs as construction foremen.

NCO and Officer Training

As the United States Army prepared for war, it underwent rapid growth, creating an immediate need for additional NCOs and officers to maintain discipline in the new force.

NCOs were the need felt most immediately by the growing army. To fill this need roughly half of the Specialists (E-4) in the army were laterally promoted to Corporal (E-4), and send to NCO academies as space became available. Every major post in CONUS operated NCO academies, some were general and others branch specific. Branch specific academies were limited to the combat arms, and were located at the combat arms training centers. Generic NCO academies were located through out the training system. Failure to satisfactory complete the course would result in lateral reduction back to specialist (E-4), while successful completion resulted in immediate promotion to Sergeant (E-5). Advanced NCO courses were held for each subsequent rank through E-9. However, following US entry into the war advanced courses were suspended and promotion was based on merit and the approval of the battalion commander (E-6, E-7) and the major command commander (E-8, E-9).

Additionally, junior officers were in high demand throughout the course of the war and for some time after. Initially, all ROTC cadets whom had successfully completed ROTC advanced camp were immediately commissioned as second lieutenants along with the senior class at the United States Military Academy, and ordered to attend their assigned branch Officer Basic Course immediately. West Point and other Military Colleges in the United States immediately went to an accelerated 3-year program. ROTC cadets not attending a military college, whom had not completed Advanced Camp, were inducted into the Army. Students who were in their third year of ROTC were immediately sent to OCS and all other ROTC cadets entered the army as ordinary enlisted soldiers, able to attend OCS if they showed sufficient leadership potential.

The National Guard also provided direct commissions to those in pay grades E-6 and above who had completed their NCOES and had completed at least 90 college credits. Further, OCS was opened up to all enlisted soldiers whom had completed 60 college credits in all components of the Army. The reserve component OCS courses were accelerated to commission the current class then disbanded. Their cadres were then assigned to provide OCS cadres at the Initial Entry Training Centers. Combat Arms branch specific OCS programs were established (similar to the NCO courses) and generic OCS courses for non-combat arms.

West Point continued to operate as a 3-year program until 1998, when conditions in the lower Hudson Valley required evacuation of the faculty, staff, and corps of cadets to Ft. Dix, NJ. Once the Corps of Cadets was reconstituted in the fall of 1999, it further accelerated its program to two years and its academic program focused exclusively on civil engineering.

Unit Formation

For a time in early 1997 as the training base dramatically expanded, the availability of newly trained soldiers far outpaced the need for replacements in deployed units and the Army undertook a program intended to expand the number of deployable combat divisions.

Initially, additional divisions were formed by the amalgamation of separate brigades that were preexisting in the reserve force structure. As the Army looked to expand its force structure further it activated one additional armored division, two airborne divisions, and one light infantry division. Additionally, several armored cavalry regiments and separate brigades were formed to fill out corps structures and to perform special missions or test concepts. These units were to be fitted out as the United States industrial capacity converted fully over to a wartime footing. Some units received their equipment only after meeting it in theatre, prior to commitment to combat.

As the war transitioned to from a conventional conflict to a tactical nuclear one, the decision was made to halt replacement of losses to units which were within range of Soviet IRBMs or air attack. Instead, replacement vehicles were held for new units forming up so that they could be committed to battle with their entire allotment of equipment. It was intended that units then in contact would be withdrawn to western Germany, rebuilt, and then recommitted to battle; however the further escalation of the war to include a limited strategic nuclear exchange destroyed the industrial capacity to support this plan. It was intended that the Army would field additional divisions based on the ROAD concept, however they were never formed as a result of the escalating nuclear exchanges.

The final field units formed by the United States Army were created by conversion of the training divisions and Brigades into infantry units. Few of these would deploy OCONUS and most would be relegated to internal security and disaster relief missions throughout the remainder of the war and subsequent reconstruction. These units were always chronically short of authorized personnel and equipment and their commitment marked a low point for the United States Army.

Unit Training

As Reserve Component Units were activated, it was necessary that they conduct large unit exercises prior to deployment. These exercises built up during the mobilization process from company and battalion exercises to full brigade exercises. Immediately prior to overseas deployment each brigade would do a rotation at one of the large training areas across the country. Heavy Brigades would complete 30-day rotations at one of the three NTC facilities, and Light Brigades would perform a similar pre-deployment rotation at one of the two JRTC facilities.

OPFOR units operated against training units using Warsaw Pact doctrine and unit organization. This was most helpful as the deploying units got their first taste of how the enemy would operate against them. To increase the training value of the OPFOR and to maintain their currency, doctrine and tactics were continually updated and changed based on observed enemy activity in the Far East, Iran, and Europe. This was further accomplished by replacing soldiers fit for overseas deployment with soldiers recovering from wounds received overseas, in the OC/TAC Officer positions. Originally the National Training Centers used US vehicles called VISMODs to simulate Warsaw Pact vehicles during exercises; however during the spring of 1997 OPFOR units we able to use small amounts of Warsaw Pact equipment during pre-deployment exercises. Eventually, however, this practice had to be discontinued due to a lack of sufficient spare parts. Following the Thanksgiving Day Massacre, brigade rotations to the training centers ceased for those few remaining units that would deploy overseas.

Equipment Holdings

Following the Black Winter of 1989-90, the United States continued to modernize its military forces. Although it possessed less combat equipment than the Soviet Union overall, on the whole much of it was superior and more modern, particularly in the area of MBT’s and SP artillery.
  • 1,300+ M551 Light Tanks
  • 1,725 Armored Gun Systems
  • 1,000 M48A5 MBT
  • 7,900+ M60 MBT (all variants)
  • 11,000 M1 MBT (all variants)
  • 14,000 M113 APC
  • 8,800 M2/M3 (all variants)
  • 1,900 LAV-25 (all variants)
  • 1,600 SP Mortar (Tracked)
  • 8,400 SP Anti-Armor Missile Systems
  • 1,300+ Self Propelled ADA guns systems
  • 200 towed ADA guns
  • 1,800 SAM systems
  • 2,500 Attack Helicopters (AH-1, AH-64)
  • 3,900 Utility Helicopters (UH-1, UH-60)
  • 500 CH-47
  • 380+ OH-6/AH-6
  • 1,800 OH-58
  • 300 M728 CEV
  • 1,500 towed 105mm
  • 1,100 towed 155mm
  • 4,900 SP 155mm M109
  • 1,000 M110 203mm
  • 1,100 MLRS
  • 7,700 M47 Dragon ATGM
  • 5,500 Javelin ATGM
  • 3,600 Recoilless Rifles

In addition to the above listed items, the United States maintained an enormous reserve of small arms to equip its armed forces should expansion become needed. Although not outlined below, in 1995-96 large numbers of M1 Garand rifles were transferred to the defense forces of many states (State Militias or State Defense Forces)
  • 400,000 M1 Rifles
  • 125,000 M2 Carbines
  • 575,000 M14 Rifles
  • 650,000 M16 Rifles
  • 115,000 M4 Carbines
  • 75,000 M1903 Rifles
  • 100,000 M1911 Pistols
  • 62,000 Browning Automatic Rifles
  • 35,000 M3 Sub-machineguns
  • 14,000 M177 Carbines
  • 12,000 M2 Machine Guns
  • 21,000 M1919 Machine Guns

Although significant numbers of the above listed types would be transferred to forces under the states control, as the war progressed and industrial capacity was diminished as a result of the strategic nuclear exchange regular units of the army began to field some of the older arms listed above.
__________________
I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...

Last edited by chico20854; 11-25-2008 at 07:06 PM.
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