er to meet other demands in Korea, the 3d Division had fewer than 5,000 men. To address the personnel problem, the division commander reassigned the personnel from one of its regimental combat teams and one general support field artillery battalion elsewhere in the division. At the same time, the Army Staff assigned two field artillery battalions and attached the 65th Infantry, the Puerto Rican regiment, to the division. The 3d Infantry Division arrived in Japan on 15 September, except for the 65th Infantry, which had moved directly to Korea from Camp Losey, Puerto Rico. In Japan the division received a Korean augmentation and began to train for combat. As elements of the 3d arrived in Japan, elements of the 7th Infantry Division landed at Inchon. Following the Chinese intervention in the war during the fall of 1950, the 3d Infantry Division also moved to Korea where the 65th Infantry joined it.[1]
The attachment of the 65th Infantry to the 3d Infantry Division marked a departure in the Army's segregation policies. In the past native Puerto Ricans were assigned exclusively to Puerto Rican units. In September 1951 the only units in which Puerto Ricans could serve outside the Caribbean area were elements of the 65th Regimental Combat Team in Korea. However, since more Puerto Ricans had entered the Army than were needed for these segregated Spanish-speaking units, the Army removed all restrictions on the assignments of Puerto Ricans who spoke English.[2]
The first few months of the war the Army relied on stopgap measures to field its six undermanned divisions in Korea but was still able to evolve a strategy for conducting the war. Under MacArthur, a strategy of attrition was quickly replaced by a strategy of annihilation. When the Chinese entered the war in the fall of 1950 the United Nations reverted to an attrition strategy, but one which depended on firepower rather than manpower. No major reinforcements would be provided to the forces in Korea. Although limited manpower mobilization in the United States solved many personnel problems in the Far East Command, divisions continued to lack trained infantry and artillery troops. After the United Nations spring counteroffensive, which ended on 8 July 1951, negotiations began for an armistice, with the number of Army divisions in Korea remaining fixed at six until the summer of 1953.[3]
Rebuilding the General Reserve
To field the divisions destined for Korea, the Army stripped the General Reserve of its resources. After the summer of 1950 its divisional units consisted of only the understrength 2d Armored Division, the partially organized 11th Airborne Division, and, closest to its wartime authorized strength, the 82d Airborne Division. The reserve had to be quickly rebuilt for other contingencies, particularly for Western Europe, where many national leaders feared a major challenge from the Soviet Union. In July defense officials began discussing the means for enlarging the Army, but many months passed before they
- ↑ Schnabel, Policy and Direction, pp. 131–34; Max W. Dolcater, 3d Infantry Division in Korea (Tokyo: Toppan Printing Co., 1953), pp. 57–65; Ltr, TAG to CGs, Third and Second Armies, 25 Aug 50, sub: Organization and Reorganization of Certain Units, AGAO-I 322 (17 Aug 50) G–1–M, Ltr, TAG to CinC, Far East, 6 Oct 50, sub: Changes of Certain Units in the Far East Command, AGAO-I 322 (4 Sep 50), G–1–M, and Ltr TAG to CG, Third Army, 19 Mar 51, sub: Change in Status. of Certain Units, AGAO-I 322 (2 Mar 51) G–1–M, all 3d Inf Div file, DAMH-HSO.
- ↑ Stillwaugh, “Personnel Policies,” ch. 6, pp. 1–4.
- ↑ Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, January 1, 1950 to December 1950 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1965), p. 532.
