Army Reorganization Act

In part, the 1950 Reorganization Act was intended to regularize the new relationship provided by the National Security Act of 1947, which created an Office of the Secretary of Defense, at cabinet level, and the World War II creation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The act also abolished the old statutory limits on the size of the Army General Staff, providing an undersecretary of the army and four assistant secretaries (reduced to three after 1958). Infantry, Artillery, and Armor were recognized as the component arms of the army, while the Coast Artillery, already largely defunct, was formally abolished, and the Air Defense Artillery (technically a sub‐branch of the Coast Artillery) was merged with the Field Artillery in a single artillery arm. The act recognized fourteen technical services, and, as a quasi‐arm, Army Aviation was authorized fixed‐wing and rotary‐wing aircraft for support and medical purposes.

[See also Army, U.S.: Since 1941.]

Bibliography

• Russell F. Weigley, History of the United States Army, 1967; enlarged ed., 1984.
• Larry H. Addington, The U.S. Coast Artillery and the Problem of Artillery Organization, 1907–1954, Military Affairs: The Journal of Military History, vol. 30, no. 1 (February 1976)

1. (1866) an act passed by Congress on July 28, 1866, after the Civil War, to allocate six regiments, the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry Regiments, for enlisted black men. It signified the first inclusion of black units in the regular army. Commissioned officers of black units were predominately white. Around 1870 the Cheyenne began calling the10th Regiment the ”Buffalo” soldiers, a name that eventually referred also to the infantrymen.

2. (1950) a law passed to reorganize and coordinate the army after World War II and in response to the National Security Act of 1947 and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which was initialized in 1947. It recognized Infantry, Artillery, and Armor as components of the army, allowed the Army General Staff to expand, and increased the responsibilities of the secretary of the army.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.