#3-128
Memorandum for General Somervell
March 14, 1942 [Washington, D.C.]
In the reorganization the office of Executive for Reserve Affairs goes to you. General Lowe, of the Reserve Corps, has been head of this office. He has been the adviser of G-1 and of the Chief of Staff, and of G-3 in all matters relating to the Reserve Corps and also to the ROTC.1
I think it is important, at least for a good many months to come, that questions of the Reserve officers and the ROTC affairs be treated not merely as an administrative problem, as we do our Regular personnel and similar matters, but rather as one having special significance. For this reason I do not want to see this matter handled on a purely routine basis, and I would like to feel that General Lowe's experience and broad background are made of use rather than that he merely be employed on purely administrative tasks.2
[P.S.] I have not seen or heard from Lowe.
Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Typed memorandum.
1. Brigadier General Frank E. Lowe directed the Executive for Reserve and R.O.T.C. Affairs, one of eight War Department administrative bureaus included in the new Services of Supply. By March 1942 both Lowe's organization and the National Guard Bureau had been reduced to personnel records management because of the federalization of the Guard and the activation of most Reserve officers. (Millett, Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces, pp. 347–48.)
2. Although Somervell promised not to handle Lowe and Reserve Affairs in a routine manner, he placed the administration of these agencies under The Adjutant General. After opposition from the National Guard and its supporters in Congress, Somervell established the two agencies as administrative services of the Army Service Forces. (Ibid., pp. 348–51; Somervell Memorandum for General George C. Marshall, March 18, 1942, NA/ RG 160 [Chief of Staff, General Staff 1941–42].)
Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 3, “The Right Man for the Job,” December 7, 1941-May 31, 1943 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), pp. 131–132.