Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/522

 470 UNITED STATES

ing up the strength of the Officers Reserve Corps, is organised into units at civil educational establishments. It is divided into a Senior Division, formed mainly at the universities, and a Junior Division, formed mainly at the secondary schools. In June, 1920, over 88,000 students were enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, divided about equally between senior and junior units. Graduates of the Reserve Officers Training Corps before being commissioned in the Officers Reserve Corps must graduate from Reserve Officers Training Corps camps, to be maintained each summer for a period of six weeks.

The Enlisted Reserve Corps consists of men voluntarily enlisted therein who have qualifications making them eligible for enlistment in the Regular Army. The period of enlistment is three years, except that all men who are members at the outbreak of war or enlist during the war continue in the service until six months after the termination of the war.

The National Guard, or organised militia, is maintained by the several States with the aid of grants from the Federal Government. It is organised into the same arms of the service as the Regular Army, and is supplied by the Federal Government with uniforms, arms, and equipment of the same type as issued to the Regular Army. Service in the National Guard is purely voluntary. When Congress shall have authorised the use of the armed land forces of the United States for any purpose requiring the use of troops in excess of those of the Regular Army, the President may draft into the military service of the United States any or all members of the National Guard, to serve for the period of the war or emergency. The present authorised enlisted strength of the National Guard is about 180,000, but ouly about one-third of that number had been organised since the armistice to August, 1920. Enlistment is for three years Minimum training required includes 48 drill periods of one and one half hours each year, in addition to fifteen days' training in encampments or manoeuvres.

The Militia comprises all able-bodied male citizens and applicants for citizenship between the ages of 18 and 45. The total number of men registered during the war between these ages was 24,234,021. No arrange- roent is made during peace times for the organisation and training of the entire body of the Militia.

The President is Commander-in-Chief of both the Army and Navy. The Secretary of War controls the Army with the aid of an Assistant Secretary and a Chief of Staff. The former has supervision of the procurement of all military supplies, and is charged with the mobilisation of industrial establishments for wartime needs, while the latter is entrusted with the gcnerMl supervision of the Army.

Although the infantry during the war were chiefly armed with a modified Enfield rifle, the Springfield rtfle, of American design, remains the standard small arm. The 75 mm. field gun and 155 mm. howitzer have been adopted as the principal light mobile artillery weapons.

The total casualties in the United States Army during the war amounted 802,612, of whom 47,449 were killed in battle or died of wounds, while 9,169 died from other causes.

II. Navy.

The part played by the United States Navy during the war, its givai service to the Allies, and its whole-hearted co-operation with the British Navy are well known, having been amply described. In the Statesman's Ykaii Book last year many figures were given illustrating the work of the American Fleet duriug the hostilities. The United States entered upon a course of great naval expansion in 1916-17, which led to a con-