Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/296

 274 105-mm. howitzer batteries (eight pieces each) for direct support and one nuclear weapons battery, equipped with two cumbersome 762-mm. Honest John rockets, for general support. Planners sacrificed the range of the 155-mm. howitzers to gain the air deliverability of the 105-mm. howitzers and their prime movers. No command level intervened between the division headquarters and the battle groups or between the battle groups and company-size units, speeding response time. Staffs for all units were minimal. Because of the lean nature of the division, mess facilities were eliminated except in the medical company and the headquarters company of the support group. Instead, the Continental Army Command recommended the attachment of a food service company in garrison.

Taylor approved the concept in February 1956 with the following modifications: the addition of a fifth infantry company to each battle group, an increase in the number of 105-mm. howitzer batteries from three to five (while reducing the number of pieces from eight to five), inclusion of a band, and the elimination of the attached food service company. He also wanted the administration company moved from the support group to the command and control battalion and the artillery group redesignated as division artillery.

Following Taylor's guidance, the command published tables of organization and equipment on 10 August 1956 known as ROTAD (Reorganization of the Airborne Division). The division had 11,486 officers and enlisted men (Chart 29), and, for the first time in its history, all men and equipment, except for the Honest Johns, could be carried on existing aircraft. The designers of the new division thought that it was capable of operating from three to five days independently, but it would need to be reinforced for operations that lasted for a longer period.

To test what Taylor called the new "pentomic" division, he selected his former unit, the 101st Airborne Division, then serving as a training division at Fort Jackson. On 31 April 1956, the division moved without its personnel and equipment to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where it was reorganized, acquiring personnel from the 187th and 508th Regimental Combat Teams and equipment from the 11th Airborne Division that had been left at Fort Campbell after the unit had participated in the program.

The "Screaming Eagles" conducted a series of individual unit evaluations rather than one divisional exercise. Lt. Gen. Thomas E Hickey, the test director, judged the new division suitable for short-duration airborne assaults, with improved prospects for survival and success during either an atomic or a conventional war. However, he noted major deficiencies in the direct support artillery—its short range and lack of lethality; in logistical resources, which were less effective than in the triangular division; and in the total strength of the division. The division was so austere that it could not undertake garrison duties and maintain combat readiness.

To remedy these weaknesses, Hickey recommended replacing the 105-mm. howitzers with 155-mm. pieces except for parachute assaults. Instead of five howitzer batteries, he proposed four. The larger howitzer would give the direct support artillery the range he believed that the division required. Also, since the fifth battle