Army & Navy – DEMOBILIZATION: End of an Army

As rapidly as it could, the U.S. was stripping away its military strength.

With no postwar directive from Congress, but pushed by individual Congressmen and public demand (“Get the boys home and out of the service”), the War Department was turning out thousands of able, war-trained officers and noncoms who might have stayed to backbone the peacetime army if permanent rank and other inducements had been offered to them. The Army had already discharged more than 1,000,000 men and would soon be tearing itself down at the rate of 1,000,000 a month. Draft and recruiting supplied replacements at the rate of about 86,000 a month.

By March 15, the world’s greatest air force (2,385,000 in 1944) will be down to 165,000. To A.A.F. generals who have been planning for a postwar air force of 400,000, the size of the force they will have will not be as disconcerting as the force’s lack of balance. Approximately 60,000 of the A.A.F. next spring will be gunners. Pilots, who have generally collected the most points, are leaving in droves. The smart, self-reliant youngsters whom A.A.F. would most like to keep are the quickest to leave; they are not afraid to try civilian life.

So far the Navy has resisted public clamor; only 255,000 of the Navy’s 3,000,000 have been released. But under growing pressure, and aware of the damage its policy has had on the morale of its reserves—both officers and enlisted men— even the Navy is beginning grudgingly to relax, will raise its discharge rate to 280,000 a month by January.

As to what to do about it, there was no unanimity. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz declared last week that he thought the Navy could raise a planned force of 500,000 men by recruiting, disagreed with other military leaders who believe the only solution is universal military training.

To General of the Army George Catlett Marshall, worriedly and unwillingly presiding over the liquidation of U.S. military power, the only solution was a universal military training act, which would supply a reservoir of trained men. In General Marshall’s plan, such a reservoir could be tapped immediately, and thrown in with the National Guard and the Regular Army to create a force of 4,000,000 men. Only then, said Marshall, would the world continue to respect the U.S. and believe that it really meant what it said—that it would help to keep peace in the world.