The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941

Metadata

• Author: Paul Dickson
• Full Title: The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941
• Category: #books

Highlights

• Referring to the 1940 draft legislation, he declared: “I do believe—I know—that the danger today is infinitely greater.” The next day, Marshall threw another log on the fire. “An emergency exists,” he warned, “whether or not the Congress declares it. I am asking you to recognize the fact that the national interest is imperiled.” (Location 3149)
• Without question, however, the single most important hardware innovation to make its debut in the 1941 maneuvers was the portable runway dubbed the Marston Mat. (Location 5753)
• As G. Patrick Murray pointed out in his thesis, perhaps no other branch of the U.S. Army learned as much from the maneuvers as those involved with supply. They had to work the maneuvers as if they were a real war—unloading trains only at night, moving without lights to forward depots, and so forth. (Location 5757)
• if the House had defeated the bill, the results would have been devastating. The process of sending home tens of thousands of men would have begun almost immediately. General Marshall testified before the Senate Committee on Military Affairs that without a draft extension, the recently expanded U.S. Army faced “disintegration.” “If the term of service of the National Guard and the selectees is not extended,” Marshall warned, “under existing limitations of the law, almost two-thirds of our enlisted men and three-fourths of our officer personnel will have to be released after completing 12 months of service.” He added prophetically that “such a contraction would expose one vital U.S. bastion in particular to terrible vulnerabilities . . . the great naval base of Pearl Harbor.” The Louisiana Maneuvers, which were underway at the time of Marshall’s warning, and the Carolina Maneuvers to (Location 5976)