The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces - US Army PDF
Preview The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces - US Army
UNITED STATES ARMr IN WORLD WAR II The Army Service Forces THE ORGANIZATION AND ROLE OF THE ARMY SERVICE FORCES by John D. Mil/etl CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY UNITED STATES ARMY WASHINGTON, DC. 1987 Foreword If a reader expects to find a uniform pattern of treatment in the similarly upholstered volumes of this series, he will soon discover his error on reading this one. The author has chosen to relate the story of the Army Service Forces by concentrating on the activities of its organizer and commander, Lt. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell. As a staff officer to General Somervell during the war and one who was personally acquainted with his views, particularly on matters of organization, Professor Millett is exceptionally well qualified to deal with his subject in the manner he has chosen. Some may complain that the biographical approach, with all the advan- tages it has in enabling an author to bring life and action into a narrative, has serious limitations when used in dealing with the history of an institution, such as the Army Service Forces. Others, familiar with the atmosphere in which the agency operated, may differ with the emphasis on this or that episode or prob- lem that resulted from seeing its history mainly through the eyes of its wartime chief. Yet it must be recognized that the huge conglomeration of activities that constituted Army Service Forces had its chief element of unity, its one common denominator, in the driving energy and aggressive personality of its com- mander. This infused his organization with a sense of common purpose that many a smaller and functionally better integrated organization lacked. Neces- sarily General Somervell's impact on the various components of the Army Service Forces was uneven and certain problems received more of his attention than others. This was particularly true of organizational matters which General Somervell considered the key to operational success. The changes he sought to introduce were many and basic. As was to be expected, they often met with op- position, especially from some of the technical services which resisted the bridle the more because of their traditional freedom of action. The perspective of the author is that of the "top side" rather than of the official at the operational level. Little attempt has been made to go into detail on the many activities and responsibilities of the Army Service Forces. For more complete information concerning them, the reader can look to other volumes of United States Army in World War II. ORLANDO WARD Washington, D. C. Maj. Gen., U.S.A. 15 January 1953 Chief of Military History vii The Author John David Millett, Ph.D., LL.D., President of Miami University, earned his doctorate in political science at Columbia University where for a number of years he also served on the faculty. His experience as an adviser and adminis- trator in government agencies and in the field of higher education has been extensive. Among these may be mentioned service on the National Resources Planning Board, the Committee on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, The President's Committee on Administrative Management, and the Commission on Financing Higher Education. For the last-named organization, he served as Executive Director. During World War II he was commissioned and brought to Washington to serve on General Somervell's staff as an expert adviser on organizing the newly created Army Service Forces. He also acted as the wartime historian for that command. Through both training and personal experience he was the logical person to prepare this particular volume. LEO J. MEYER Washington, D. C. Colonel, Reserve Corps 15 April 1953 Deputy Chief Historian viii Preface This account of the Army Service Forces in World War II had its origin in the general effort of the Federal Government to record wartime administrative experiences. On 4 March 1942 President Roosevelt wrote to the director of the Bureau of the Budget expressing his interest in the steps taken to keep a "current record of war administration" and urged their extension wherever possible.1 The War Department in turn issued instructions on 15 July 1942 for the commanding general of the Army Service Forces to appoint an historical officer and to arrange for an historical program. This communication was addressed also to the commanding generals of the Army Ground Forces and of the Army Air Forces. I was initially appointed historical officer of the Army Service Forces by General Somervell. As a member of the Administrative Management Branch in the Control Division of Army Service Forces headquarters, I partic- ipated actively in many organizational studies and in time, assumed other current staff responsibilities within the Army Service Forces. Thus, from the beginning, I had an opportunity to observe organizational experiences at close range. In the two months preceding my departure from the Army in January 1946, I dictated a draft account of the major organizational events in the history of the Army Service Forces from 9 March 1942 to the end of 1945. This account was deposited in an historical file along with various historical records prepared within the Army Service Forces during the war. Subsequently, the Office of the Chief of Military History invited me to revise and extend the original draft, and this volume for the series United States Army in World War II is the result. The present volume is based on the earlier draft and on other materials which were not then readily available. In addition, it relies heavily on the com- plete personal files of General Somervell which have been preserved intact and which for the first time are here used as the basis for a published work. But this account has not been prepared solely from official documents and other papers. I was present at meetings and conferences of which no records were ever kept, and have tried to convey the impression left by these discussions in various gen- eralizations and observations. In such instances the reader will of course find no footnote references. 1 This letter and others on the subject will be found in the preface to The United States at War, prepared by the Bureau of the Budget, and published by the U.S. Government Printing Office in 1946. ix
Description:The list of books you might like
