PART II. WAR-TIME SOURCES

A. LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENTS

1. NATIONAL DEFENSE ACT

[Public No. 85-64th Congress. H. R. 12766.]

An Act for making further and more effectual provision for the national defense, and for other purposes. [June 3, 1916.]

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Army of the United States shall consist of the Regular Army, the Volunteer Army, the Officers' Reserve Corps, the Enlisted Reserve Corps, the National Guard while in the service of the United States, and such other land forces as are now or may hereafter be authorized by law. Sec. 2. Composition of the Regular Army.-The Regular Army of the United States, including the existing organizations, shall consist of sixty-four regiments of Infantry, twenty-five regiments of Cavalry, twenty-one regiments of Field Artillery, a Coast Artillery Corps, the brigade, division, army corps, and army headquarters, with their detachments and troops, a General Staff Corps, an Adjutant General's Department, an Inspector General's Department, a Judge Advocate General's Department, a Quartermaster Corps, .a Medical Department, a Corps of Engineers, an Ordnance Department, a Signal Corps, the officers of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, the Militia Bureau, the detached officers, the detached noncommissioned officers, the chaplains, the Regular Army Reserve, all organized as hereinafter provided, and the following as now authorized by law: The officers and enlisted men on the retired list; the additional officers; the professors, the Corps of Cadets, the general Army service detachment, and detachments of Cavalry, Field Artillery, and Engineers, and the band of the United States Military Academy; the post noncommissioned staff officers; the recruiting parties, the recruit depot detachments, and unassigned recruits; the service school detachments; the disciplinary guards; the disciplinary organizations; the Indian Scouts; and such other officers and enlisted men as are now or may be hereafter provided for: Provided, That hereafter the enlisted personnel of all organizations of the Regular Army shall at all times. be maintained at a strength not below the minimum strength fixed by law: Provided further, That the total enlisted force of the line of the Regular Army, excluding the Philippine Scouts and the enlisted men of the Quartermaster Corps, of the Medical Department, and of the Signal Corps, and the unassigned recruits, shall not at any one time, except in the event of actual or threatened war or similar emergency in which the public safety demands it, exceed one hundred and seventy-five thousand men: Provided further, That the

(384)

unassigned recruits at depots or elsewhere shall at no time, except in time of war, exceed by more than seven per centum the total authorized enlisted strength.

Sec. 3. Composition of brigades, divisions, and so forth.-The mobile troops of the Regular Army of the United States shall be organized, as far as practicable, into brigades and divisions. The President is authorized, in time of actual or threatened hostilities, or when in his opinion the interest of the public service demand it, to organize the brigades and divisions into such army corps or armies as may be necessary. The typical Infantry brigade shall consist of a headquarters and three regiments of Infantry. The typical Cavalry brigade shall consist of a headquarters and three regiments of Cavalry. The typical Field Artillery brigade shall consist of a headquarters and three regiments of Field Artillery. The typical Infantry division shall consist of a headquarters, three Infantry brigades, one regiment of Cavalry, one Field Artillery brigade, one regiment of Engineers, one field signal battalion, one aero squadron, one ammunition train, one supply train, one engineer train, and one sanitary train. The typical Cavalry division shall consist of a headquarters, three Cavalry brigades, one regiment of Field Artillery (horse), one battalion of mounted Engineers, one field signal battalion (mounted), one aero squadron, one ammunition train, one supply train, one engineer train, and one sanitary train. The typical army corps shall consist of a headquarters, two or more Infantry divisions, one or more Cavalry brigades or a Cavalry division, one Field Artillery brigade, one telegraph battalion, and one field signal battalion, and such ammunition, supply, engineer, and sanitary trains as the President may deem necessary. A brigade, a division, an army corps, and an army headquarters shall consist of such officers, enlisted men, and civilians as the President may prescribe. Each supply train, ammunition train, sanitary train, and engineer train shall consist of such officers and enlisted men and shall be organized as the President may prescribe, the line officers necessary therewith to be detailed under the provisions of sections twenty-six and twenty-seven, Act of Congress approved February second, nineteen hundred and one. Nothing herein contained, however, shall prevent the President from increasing or decreasing the number of organizations prescribed for the typical brigades, divisions, and army corps, or from prescribing new and different organizations and personnel as the efficiency of the service may require.

Sec. 4. General officers of the line.-Officers commissioned to and holding in the Army the office of a general officer shall hereafter be known as general officers of the line; officers commissioned to and holding in the Army an office other than that of a general officer, but to which the rank of a general officer is attached, shall be known as general officers of the staff. The number of general officers of the line now authorized by law is hereby increased by four major generals and nineteen brigadier generals: Provided, That hereafter in time of peace major generals of the line shall be appointed from officers of the grade of brigadier general of the line, and brigadier

MIL.L.-25

generals of the line shall be appointed from officers of the grade of colonel of the line of the Regular Army.

Sec. 5. The General Staff Corps.-The General Staff Corps shall consist of one Chief of Staff, detailed in time of peace from major generals of the line; two Assistants to the Chief of Staff, who shall be general officers of the line, one of whom, not above the grade of brigadier general, shall be the president of the Army War College; ten colonels; ten lieutenant colonels; fifteen majors; and seventeen captains, to be detailed from corresponding grades in the Army, as in this section hereinafter provided. All officers detailed in the General Staff Corps shall be detailed therein for periods of four years, unless sooner relieved. While serving in the General Staff Corps officers may be temporarily assigned to duty with any branch of the Army. Upon being relieved from duty in the General Staff Corps. officers shall return to the branch of the Army in which they hold permanent commissions, and no officer shall be eligible to a further detail in the General Staff Corps until he shall have served two years with the branch of the Army in which commissioned, except in time of actual or threatened hostilities. Section twenty-seven of the Act of Congress approved February second, nineteen hundred and one, shall apply to each position vacated by officers below the grade of general officer detailed in the General Staff Corps.

Not more than one-half of all of the officers detailed in said corps shall at any time be stationed, or assigned to or employed upon any duty, in or near the District of Columbia. All officers detailed in said corps shall be exclusively employed in the study of military problems, the preparation of plans for the national defense and the utilization of the military forces in time of war, in investigating and reporting upon the efficiency and state of preparedness of such forces for service in peace or war, or on appropriate general staff duties in connection with troops, including the National Guard, or as military attachés in foreign countries, or on other duties, not of an administrative nature, on which they can be lawfully and properly employed: Provided, That no officer shall be detailed as a member of the General Staff Corps, other than the Chief of Staff and the general officers herein provided for as assistants to the Chief of Staff, except upon the recommendation of a board of five officers not below the rank of colonel, who shall be selected by the President or the Secretary of War, and neither the Chief of Staff nor more than two other members of the General Staff Corps, nor any officer not a member of said corps, who shall have been stationed or employed on any duty in or near the District of Columbia within one year prior to the date of convening of any such board, shall be detailed as a member thereof. No recommendation made by any such board shall, for more than one year after the making of such recommendation or at any time after the convening of another such board, unless again recommended by the new board, be valid as a basis for the detail of any officer as a member of the General Staff Corps; and no alteration whatever shall be made in any report or recommendation of any such board, either with or without the consent of members thereof, after the board shall have submitted such report or recommendation and

shall have adjourned sine die: Provided further, That the War College shall remain fully subject to the supervising, coordinating, and informing powers conferred by law upon members of the General Staff Corps, and officers for duty as instructors or students in or as attachés of said college may be selected and detailed freely from among members of said corps, but any officer so selected and detailed other than one director shall thereupon cease to be a member of said corps and shall not be eligible for redetail therein so long as he shall remain on said duty; and no officer on the active list of the Army shall, for more than thirty days in any calendar year, be attached to or assigned to duty in the War College in any capacity other than that of president, director, instructor, or student, or, unless a member of the General Staff Corps, be attached to or employed in the office of the Chief of Staff: Provided further, That the organizations heretofore existing in or in connection with the office of the Chief of Staff under the designations of the mobile army division and the Coast Artillery division be, and they are hereby abolished and shall not be reestablished. The business heretofore transacted in said divisions, except such as comes clearly within the general powers specified in and conferred upon members of the General Staff Corps by the organic Act of Congress approved February fourteenth, nineteen hundred and three, is hereby transferred as follows, to wit, to the office of the Chief of Coast Artillery, all business apportioned to that office by law or Army regulations at the time of the creation. of the Coast Artillery division of the office of the Chief of Staff; to the office of The Adjutant General or other bureau or bureaus concerned, all other business; and, subject to the exercise of the supervising, coordinating, and informing powers conferred upon members. of the General Staff Corps by the Act of Congress last hereinbefore cited, the business transferred by this proviso to certain bureaus or offices shall hereafter be transacted exclusively by or under the direction of the respective heads thereof; and the Chief of Coast Artillery shall be an additional member of the General Staff Corps and shall also be advisor to and informant of the Chief of Staff in respect to the business under his charge: Provided further, That hereafter members of the General Staff Corps shall be confined strictly to the discharge of the duties of the general nature of those specified for them in this section and in the organic Act of Congress last hereinbefore cited, and they shall not be permitted to assume or engage in work of an administrative nature that pertains to established bureaus or offices of the War Department, or that, being assumed or engaged in by members of the General Staff Corps, would involve impairment of the responsibility or initiative of such bureaus or offices, or would cause injurious or unnecessary duplication of or delay in the work thereof: Provided further, That all pay and allowances shall be forfeited by any superior for any period during which, by his order or his permission, or by reason of his neglect, any subordinate shall violate any of the foregoing provisions of this section: Provided further, That if any officer detailed in the General Staff Corps, or as an officer of any staff corps or department of the Army, shall be promoted to the next higher grade while so serv

ing he may be permitted to serve out the period of his detail, and the number of officers in the organization in which he shall be serving and in the grade to which he shall have been promoted shall be increased by one for such time as he shall be an additional number in said organization and grade; but the whole number of officers detailed to said organization shall at no time exceed the aggregate of the numbers allowed to the several grades thereof by law other than this proviso.

Sec. 6. The Adjutant General's Department.-The Adjutant General's Department shall consist of The Adjutant General with the rank of brigadier general; seven adjutants-general with the rank of colonel; thirteen adjutants-general with the rank of lieutenant colonel; and thirty adjutants-general with the rank of major.

Sec. 7. The Inspector General's Department.-The Inspector General's Department shall consist of one Inspector General with the rank of brigadier general; four inspectors-general with the rank of colonel; eight inspectors-general with the rank of lieutenant colonel; and sixteen inspectors-general with the rank of major.

Sec. 8. The Judge Advocate General's Department.-The Judge Advocate General's Department shall consist of one Judge Advocate General with the rank of brigadier general; four judge advocates with the rank of colonel; seven judge advocates with the rank of lieutenant colonel; and twenty judge advocates with the rank of major: Provided, That acting judge advocates may be detailed under the provisions of existing law for separate brigades and for separate general court-martial jurisdictions, and when not immediately required for service with a geographical department, tactical division, separate brigade, or other separate general court-martial jurisdiction, acting judge advocates may be assigned to such other legal duty as the exigencies of the service may require: Provided further, That, of the vacancies created in the Judge Advocate General's Department by this Act, one such vacancy, not below the grade of major, shall be filled by the appointment of a person from civil life, not less than forty-five nor more than fifty years of age, who shall have been for ten years a judge of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands, shall have served for two years as a captain in the Regular or Volunteer Army, and shall be proficient in the Spanish language and laws: Provided further, That so much of the Act of Congress approved August twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and twelve, as relates to the detachment or detail of officers for duty in the Judge Advocate General's Department shall hereafter be held to apply only to the acting judge advocates authorized by law; and hereafter no officer shall be or remain detached from any command or assigned to any duty or station with intent to enable or aid him to pursue the study of law: And provided further, That no officer of the Judge Advocate General's Department below the rank of colonel shall be promoted therein until he shall have successfully passed a written examination before a board consisting of not less than two officers of the Judge Advocate General's Department, to be designated by the Secretary of War, such examination to be prescribed by the Secretary of War and to be held at such time anterior to the accruing of