The Professional Soldier
Abstract
To avoid any more Task Force Smiths, the United States must maintain its present strength of professional soldiers. The reduction of personnel produced disastrous results at the beginning of every major conflict--beginning with World War Two. Political and economical factors, once again, are negatively affecting the professional soldier. To maintain a strong National Defense, the Army must maintain its present level of trained human resources. Our top level Military leadership must prove to politicians that we need a strong defense based on current levels of professional soldiers. The United States maintained a constabulary force of about 150,000 personnel from 1919 until 1939 (1975: Hewes). The popular belief was that the country was secure because World War One (WW1) was the war to end all wars. After WW1, civilian and military leaders could not agree on what size military force to maintain. Our leaders did not realize the need for a larger force for quite some time; the hostilities in Europe and disagreements with Japan caused a build-up of forces.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 22, 1992
- Accession Number
- AD1117184
Entities
People
- Kevin R. Hendry
- Russell G. Maze
- Salvador Soto
- Tyrone L. Foster
- Wilberdean Reese
Organizations
- United States Army Sergeants Major Academy