#5-100
To Elbert D. Thomas
April 17, 1945 [Washington, D.C.]
Dear Senator Thomas:
My attention has been called to certain amendments which I understand are to be proposed to H.R. 2625.1 One would prohibit the employment of men inducted under 19 years of age in actual combat service until they have been given at least six months of military training, and the other would preclude such service of men under 19 years of age until they have been given at least one year of training.
I am gravely concerned over the effect of either of these proposals upon military operations. Such statutory restrictions are evidently inspired by the belief that our soldiers are not properly trained before being assigned to combat units. The responsible military authorities, however, are of the opinion that the training is adequate to the requirements.
The training program is very intensive and equally thorough. Furthermore, most of the instructors now concerned with this work are veterans of actual combat experience. Under the present procedure the newly inducted soldier who is being prepared as a replacement for the ground forces undergoes a training course of from 15 to 17 weeks. He is taught how to care for himself in the field; how to employ both his primary and secondary weapons; and how he and his weapons fit into the squad and platoon. Satisfactory completion of the course means that he is qualified for service to which he is to be assigned.
I have personally inspected many replacement training camps to make certain that the work is being conducted in the most efficient manner practicable. General Lear, and now General Stilwell, give their entire time to the direction and supervision of this work, Lear in Europe and Stilwell here at home.2
After the training period is finished, the men are placed in experienced units where the leadership from the noncommissioned grades upwards is in the hands of veterans. En route to assignment overseas the men are given further training in the staging areas here and abroad, and actual assignment in divisions, so far as possible, is made to reserve units where further training is given. Carefully developed training tests, supplemented by combat reports from overseas, have clearly indicated that the proficiency of the soldier is brought to such a level during this period of training that he is fully capable of properly filling a vacancy in a seasoned organization.
The majority of the men now being received from Selective Service are in the 18 and 19 year old group, and we are in urgent need of their services. Once an individual under 19 years of age has been fully trained as a replacement, it would be most undesirable under present conditions to hold him unassigned for an additional period of six or seven months. We would, in effect, have to hold thousands upon thousands of men on a waiting list after their essential training had been completed before we could utilize their services.
The War Department has made every possible effort, consonant with the military situation, to hold to a minimum the number of 18-year-olds entering combat. In February 1944, instructions were issued requiring the use of 18-year-olds with less than six months’ service only after all other replacement resources were exhausted. During June of that year, it was ordered that no Infantry or Armored Force replacements would be sent overseas before they had attained 19 years of age. This procedure was only made possible by the assignment of these men to divisions in this country balanced by heavy drafts—up to 5,000 men—drawn from these divisions to supply the replacements required overseas. Once all our divisions had left the United States, or were within three months of their scheduled departure date, this procedure was no longer practicable.3 The crisis of last December and January caused by the losses sustained in the Ardennes fighting necessitated the shipment of replacements after 15 weeks’ training, otherwise our divisions would have been impotent at the moment their full power was needed to crush the enemy’s final offensive effort—in preparation for the crossing of the Rhine and the great victories now being gained to the eastward.
Just as soon as the military situation will permit, it is the purpose of the War Department to stop shipping men overseas who have not yet become 19 years of age, and I am hopeful that this condition will develop in the near future.
A steady flow of trained replacements has enabled our armies to continue a course of relentless pressure on all fronts far beyond the anticipation of the enemy. This was made possible only through the unhampered use of men 18 and 19 years of age. If we had been prohibited from employing these men in the required numbers at the necessary time, I am certain that our casualties would have been much heavier, and our armies would have been denied the historic successes they have recently gained.
In my opinion no restrictions should be placed by law on the time when soldiers may enter combat. It is impossible to foresee all of the exigencies which may arise in the waging of war. Carefully laid plans are frequently upset. The administration of the affairs of eight million men is a tremendous task which prohibitions of this nature, particularly in view of the constant uncertainties involved in waging war, would make almost impossible of efficient management. Should an emergency develop, such as last December, the War Department would in effect be powerless to avert the failure of an operation or a possible disaster.
Finally, I wish to submit this comment. Never before in our history have our men been so thoroughly prepared for their duties and hazards as soldiers. I, personally, and every commander in the field, are even more intent on adequate training than any other group, I believe. We are too well aware of the costs of unpreparedness.4
Faithfully yours,
Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Typed letter.
1. The Senate was considering the bill, H.R. 2625, to extend the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended.
2. In January 1945 General Joseph W. Stilwell succeeded Lieutenant General Ben Lear as commander of Army Ground Forces, headquarters in Washington, D.C., when Lear went to General Eisenhower’s headquarters as deputy commander of U.S. Army forces in the European Theater of Operations.
3. On February 26, 1944, the War Department directed that no eighteen-year-olds with less than six months’ training be shipped overseas as long as replacements were available from other sources. On June 24 the rule was further strengthened by providing that none younger than nineteen be sent overseas as an infantry or armored replacement “under any circumstances,” and “no inductee younger than 18 years and 6 months should be assigned to an infantry or armored replacement training center.” The age rules created administrative difficulties and deterioration in physical quality of infantry and armored replacements as the oldest inductees and borderline physical cases were used to maintain replacement quotas. The ban on shipping eighteen-year-olds overseas was rescinded on August 4. (Robert R. Palmer, Bell I. Wiley, and William R. Keast, The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops, a volume in the United States Army in World War II [Washington: GPO, 1948], pp. 204–7.)
4. On May 9, 1945, the Selective Training and Service Act was amended and extended to May 15, 1946. Public Law 54 provided that “no man under 19 years of age who is inducted into the land or naval forces under the provisions of this act shall be ordered into actual combat service until after he has been given at least 6 months of military training of such character and to the extent necessary to prepare such inductee for combat duty.” (Congressional Record, 79th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 91, pt. 4, pp. 4424–25. U.S. Selective Service System, Age in the Selective Service Process [Washington: GPO, 1946], p. 35.)
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. 5, “The Finest Soldier,” January 1, 1945–January 7, 1947 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), pp. 145–147.