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During the Spanish-American War, Brigadier General Charles E. Kilbourne, born to the Army but a V. M. I. man, climbed up a telegraph pole to mend a wire under rifle fire. So doing, he won the Congressional Medal of Honor. In France his gallantry got him the D. S. C. From War Plans Division he has just been transferred to strategic Manila, to take charge of harbor defenses. His successor on the General Staff is Brigadier General Stanley D. Embick, U. S. chief on the Supreme War Council and a Peace Conference delegate.
Service Chiefs. After the General Staff come the Arms & Service chiefs: Chiefs of Infantry, Coast Artillery, Air Corps, Medical Department and twelve other services. They report directly to the Chief of Staff. Their prime function is to supervise training in their service schools.
Nine Corps. The actual fighting strength of the Army is divided into nine corps areas in the U. S., Alaska and Puerto Rico and the Hawaiian, Panama and Philippine Departments. These are administered by Major Generals who usually are alumni of or headed for the General Staff. From the corps commander, the Army's organization traces directly down through the division, brigade, regiment, battalion, company, platoon and squad to the man who fires the gun.
Men. When Douglas MacArthur took over command of the Army in 1930 he was assuming charge of a failing concern. Its personnel totaled 129,903 officers and men, less than half the number approved by the National Defense Act of 1920. Detachments for garrisons in the territories and dependencies, for general administration, for militia, R. O. T. C. and reserve officer extension training, for service schools, brought the number of available mobile troops in the U. S. down to 56,779. This was considerably less, as General MacArthur was quick to point out, than the 100,000 troops allowed by the Versailles treaty to the 65,000,000 people of beaten Germany.
The MacArthur administration will go down in General Staff history as the one in which the Army's fighting strength was revived. The new appropriations bill includes $20,000,000 for 46,250 more men.
Materiel. Even more important to the Army is the promise of adequate and up-to-date supplies of ordnance and materiel. "By 1930," General MacArthur reported last December, "important classes of equipment left to the Army as a legacy of the World War were either almost completely used up or were approaching mechanical exhaustion."
General MacArthur began laying plans to have specifications and samples of proper equipment ready if ever the country should decide to rearm. With what money there was available, he began motorizing small units. In 1933 a squadron of the 7th Cavalry "marched" 630 mi. across Texas desert country in half the time it would have taken on horseback. A pair of fast, efficient tanks, T-2 and T4, were evolved. Also perfected was the Garand semi-automatic rifle, which General MacArthur calls the world's best.
Some of the Army's new money will be spent for the following:
Improved munitions supplies $45,000,000
Modernization of field artillery 37,000,000
New anti-aircraft equipment 35,000,000
Automotive equipment 22,189,000
Mechanization 16,000,000
New types of equipment 18,000,000