Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/355

 FLEXIBLE RESPONSE


 * Arrived separately.

active Army. At peak strength the Army had 19 divisions (counting the 3 brigades attached to the 23d as 1 division), with 7 divisions serving in Vietnam, 2 in Korea, 5 in Europe, and 5 in the United States, and 11 brigades, of which 4 were in Vietnam, 2 in Alaska, 1 in the Canal Zone, and 4 in the continental United States.

Airmobility gave commanders the ability to concentrate men and their firepower on the Vietnamese battlefield quickly, and the Army planned to organize a second airmobile division as early as 1966. These plans foundered until 1968 because of the aviation needs of other combat units in Vietnam and the general shortage of aviation equipment. But after the 101st Airborne Division arrived in Southeast Asia, U.S. Army, Vietnam, began a phased reorganization of the division into an airmobile configuration, which took over a year to complete.

During the conversion of the 101st, the Army adopted a decentralized approach to aircraft maintenance. Initially the 101st, like the 1st Cavalry Division, was to have a large aircraft maintenance battalion, but the need of company-, battery-, and troop-size aviation units for their own maintenance organiza-