4. UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
1. Condition of the pre-war Army
• Officers from the Regular Army and National
Guard totaled only 17,750 -- A shortage of
between 150,000-200,000.
• Only 200,000 enlisted personnel
When the U. S. entered the first World War
in April of 1917:
• Nation was ill prepared to fight a
large scale war
5. UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
To overcome the shortage of commissioned
officers the Army took certain steps:
2. The Chosen Remedy
• Early graduation of USMA classes of 1917-
1921
• Use of Officer Training Camps to induct, train
and commission qualified candidates from the
civilian population
6. UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
• Poor selection criteria for OTC’s
3. Problems from the Beginning
• Inadequate resources
• Non-standard NCO promotion system
• Blind adherence to pre-war doctrine
7. UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
4. Inevitable Results
These initial problems were doomed
to escalate into others:
• Inexperience with Modern Warfare
• Unorganized and Unrealistic training
• Officers doing the work of NCO’s
• Ultimately, many more casualties
than necessary
8. UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
5. Summary
The United States was not prepared to enter a
war like the one in Europe and failed to take advantage
of the lessons learned by the European armies
concerning trench warfare and the use of modern
weapons. This, along with the almost fanatical
devotion to Pershing’s “open war” doctrine, cost the
American Forces dearly. OTC’s were established to
overcome the shortage of officers but the War
Department’s flawed reasoning associated with
selecting officer candidates led to inferior training and
officers that were unprepared for the challenges
awaiting them on the western front. The shortage of
weapons, unorganized, and ineffective training severely
strained the relationships between superior and
subordinate.
