Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/237

 AN INTERLUDE OF PEACE link with the prewar units, some dating as far back as 1636, the bureau and the Historical Section, Army War College, reaffirmed an earlier policy validated between World Wars I and II. Units were to perpetuate organizations that had been raised in the same geographic areas, regardless of type or designation. For example, New Jersey, which had supported part of the 44th Division before the war, now supported the 50th Armored Division. Therefore most of its elements "inherited" the history of the organic units of the old 44th, and elements of the new 44th perpetuated the history and traditions of former units in Illinois.

The command arrangement within the multistate divisions presented another quandary. The War Department did not rule on the question, but some states that shared a division developed and signed formal command arrangement documents. For example, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, states that contributed to the 48th and 51st Infantry Divisions, contracted to rotate command of the units every five years.

After the state governors formally notified the National Guard Bureau that they accepted the new troop allotments (Table 18), the bureau authorized reorganization of the units with 100 percent of their officers and 80 percent of their enlisted personnel. The first division granted federal recognition after World War II was the 45th Infantry Division from Oklahoma on 5 September 1946. Within one year all Guard division headquarters had received federal recognition.

On Veterans Day 1946, at Arlington National Cemetery, President Truman announced the return of the National Guard colors and flags of those units that had served during the war. In concurrent ceremonies in state capitals, forty-five governors received those colors and flags. The other three states obtained their standards in separate ceremonies. These actions did much to express the tie of the postwar National Guard forces to prewar units.

The rebuilding of the Organized Reserve Corps divisions posed some similar problems and others that were unique to it. A tentative troop basis, prepared in March 1946 (after the National Guard organizational structure had been presented to the states), outlined 25 divisions—3 armored, 5 airborne, and 17 infantry. These divisions and all other Organized Reserve Corps units were to be maintained in one of three strength categories, labeled Class A, B, and C. Class A units were divided into two groups, one for combat and one for service, and units were to be at required table of organization strength; Class B units were to have their full complement of officers and enlisted cadre strength; and Class C were to have officers only. The troop basis listed nine divisions as Class A, nine as Class B, and seven as Class C.

Maj. Gen. Milton A. Reckord, the adjutant general of Maryland, and General Walsh of the National Guard Association protested the provision for Class A divisions, whose cost, they believed, would detract greatly from funds available to the Guard. They argued that if Class A units were needed, they should be allotted to the Regular Army or the National Guard, not to the Organized Reserve Corps, because these units were augmentations to rather than essential components of