“The Regulars: The American Army, 1898-1941”, by Edward M. Coffman

 

528 pages, Belknap Press, ISBN-13: 978-0674012998

American history has shown that, in times of national emergency, millions of civilians will volunteer (or be drafted) to defend their country and its institutions, but when the emergency is over they (the survivors, at any rate) will take off their uniforms and go back to the civilian world. The Regulars, however – that standing, professional army that was there to welcome the newcomers and that will remain when they have left – will always be, and it is this force that Edward M. Coffman describes in The Regulars: The American Army, 1898-1941. The Regular Army is and always has been a deeply conservative institution, in spite of the way it changed dramatically during the forty years between the end of the Spanish–American War and the beginning of World War II. During the late 19^th Century, it spent most of its time fighting skirmishes against the Indians and maintaining order in Western communities, acting for all the world as a kind of frontier constabulary. While war with Spain brought a flurry of enlistments and commissions, the war itself didn’t last long enough to put its stamp on the Regulars; the results of that war, however – imperial possessions in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines – were profound, as the Regulars found themselves in the role of an imperial military force, not unlike the British Army in India.

This period in the history of the Regulars also provided practical experience for such future American military luminaries as John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall, George S. Patton, Henry “Hap” Arnold and Dwight D. Eisenhower, not unlike, one may suggest, the role played by the Mexican War for future Civil War generals. Under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt’s Secretary of War, Elihu Root, the Army underwent a managerial revolution (believe me brother, “revolution” is not too strong a word) that pushed through a long list of much-needed reforms, especially the formation of a general staff to centralize military planning and coordinating, something the Germans had done decades before. This led to the establishment of the United States Army War College and the drastic overhaul of the United States Military Academy (West Point). However, after the end of World War I, the Army found itself in a kind of in limbo for more than a decade, its budget cut, little attention given to technical development and promotions so glacial many ambitious officers and noncoms resigned in frustration. Under FDR, however, it became clear to most military planners that storm clouds were gathering, and the mobilization that began in the late 1930s meant that the Regulars were able to be at least halfway prepared by the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Coffman covers all of this briskly and with just the right amount of detail to keep one's interest without bogging-down too much. But one prime aspect of this book is the attention he gives to the wives and families of the officers and enlisted men, showing how hard army life could be on the fighters and those who support them. To be the family of an army officer in the early 20^th Century meant one (or more) transpacific voyages, lasting a month each way and living, perhaps, in Hawaii, which was being developed as the center of U.S. military and naval operations in the Pacific, or even the more exotic milieu of Manila or Tientsin. It was, in many ways, a cloistered life, and would remain so overseas well into the 1950s. Naturally (sadly), things were a good deal different for the rank and file, and even more so for non-white soldiers, as the end of World War I coincided with a strong upturn in racial bigotry and discrimination, to which Coffman also gives full consideration, comparing it to the somewhat less strained earlier situation in which black officers like Benjamin O. Davis could built a career.

Throughout The Regulars, Coffman strews anecdotes and reminiscences from many published sources and from the hundreds of interviews he conducted with those who lived through the period, and there are a great many fascinating photos, mostly of the un-posed snapshot variety, which makes them more true-to-life. The all-volunteer Army of the 21^st Century is a very different institution from that of the Regulars, and The Regulars is a must for anyone with an interest in American military history and in American history in the 20^th Century, as well.