The War Department from the beginning of mobilization recognized that the effectiveness of troops and troop units depended in large measure on the quality of their leadership. Negro units, in the quest for competent leadership, had to compete with a general need for officers that grew with great rapidity in the expanding Army. As the size of the Army increased, the ratio of officers to men increased even more rapidly. New and larger headquarters and units, new administrative, technical, and supervisory positions, and new planning and control functions generally absorbed larger proportions of officers than enlisted men. At the same time the pool of available officer material shrank with greater rapidity than the pool of available manpower. Too often the men in demand for administrative, control, and technical duties were likely to be the type of men so urgently needed for troop leadership in units. In any event, winnowing out the potential leaders from millions of anonymous men was not an easy task.
Units | Infantry | Medical | Dental | Chaplains | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 136 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 150 a |
372s Infantry | |||||
|
3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
|
3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
|
15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
|
14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
184th Field Artillery | 44 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 48 |
369 Coast Artillery | 57 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 63 |
Branch | Colonels | Lieutenant Colonels | Majors | Captains | 1st Lieutenant | 2d Lieutenant | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 1 | 3 | 9 | 42 | 145 | 153 | 353 |
Infantry | 1 | 2 | 4 | 30 | 73 | 152 | 262 |
Quartermaster | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
Medical | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 52 | 0 | 60 |
Dental | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 8 |
Chaplains | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 14 |
Chemical Warfare | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Veterinary | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
Military Intelligence | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Patterson
page created 15 January 2002