Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/122

 100

corps areas. Within a short time the committee presented the states with a blueprint for eighteen infantry divisions. Corps area commanders were to resolve any divergent views or disputes among the states over the allotment of the units. The plan offered the states the 26th through the 41st Divisions, organized during World War I, and three new units, the 43d, 44th, and 45th Divisions, as Guard units. The 42d "Rainbow" Division was omitted because it lacked an association with any particular state or geographic area. All corps areas except the Fourth received two divisional designations. The states in the Fourth Corps Area, which had raised the 30th, 31st, and 39th Divisions during World War I, decided to reorganize the 30th and 39th Divisions. By the spring of 1921 the states had agreed on the allotment of most units in the infantry divisions, the War Department had furnished the new divisional tables of organization, and the states had begun to reorganize their forces accordingly. Between 1921 and 1935 the National Guard Bureau granted federal recognition to the headquarters of all eighteen Guard infantry divisions (Table 9). Although a few divisions lacked federally recognized headquarters until the 1930s, most of the divisional elements were granted federal recognition in the 1920s.

The historical continuity of Guard units rested upon geographic areas that supported the organizations, and during the reorganization most units adopted the designations used during World War I. Some shifting of units to new geographic areas took place, resulting in some designation changes. For example, in World War I Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi had raised the 39th Division, but