Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/320

 298 With fixed bases and varying numbers and types of maneuver battalions, planners envisaged that divisions could be tailored in three ways. The first, "strategic tailoring," gave the Army Staff the opportunity to design units for a particular environment; the second, "internal tactical tailoring," allowed the division commander to build combat teams for specific missions; and the third, "external tactical tailoring," permitted army or corps commanders to alter divisions according to the circumstances. In the past, divisions had been adapted in all three ways, but ROAD made such tailoring easier at all levels.

On 4 April 1961 officers from the Continental Army Command and the Army Staff briefed Decker on the concept, and he approved it nine days later. He told Powell, however, that divisions were to be largely fixed organizations because the Army lacked the resources to maintain a pool of nondivisional maneuver battalions for intra- or intertheater tailoring. In Decker's opinion, the interchangeable characteristics of the battalions were sufficient to provide tailoring within and among divisions without keeping extra units, He asked Powell only to consider substituting towed artillery for self-propelled artillery, eliminating the 155-mm, howitzers, and reorganizing the rocket battalion so that it would include both an Honest John rocket and two 8-inch howitzer batteries. The amount of organic transportation in the infantry battalion also seemed excessive, and Decker wanted reductions if possible. The study provided only two Davy Crocketts for each infantry battalion and reconnaissance squadron; Decker suggested adding a third, making one available for each line company or troop in those units. As a priority, Decker wanted doctrine and training literature to be quickly developed, particularly for the support command. Doctrine for the employment of nuclear weapons remained unclear.

Within a few months the Continental Army Command published draft tables for ROAD infantry, mechanized infantry, and armored divisions (Chart 36). They called for 105-mm, howitzers in the infantry division to be towed and a 30 percent reduction in the organic transportation of the infantry battalions. The 155-mm./8-inch howitzer battalion remained as planned, but a new rocket battalion was designed consisting of a headquarters and service element and two Honest John batteries. Each infantry battalion and reconnaissance squadron had three, instead of two, Davy Crocketts.

Before briefing Chief of Staff Decker on ROAD, Eddleman asked Powell's Continental Army Command to have available a concept for reorganizing the airborne division along similar lines. The vice chief of staff believed that ROAD could be modified to incorporate lighter equipment for such forces. For