Separate Infantry Brigade: The Combat Arms Force for the National Guard

摘要

In 1959 the Army National Guard added its first brigades to its force structure.The 29th(HI), 92d(PR) and 238th(AZ) were added to a force structure which already consisted of 27 divisions. In 1962 President Kennedy announced that the Army would consist of ROAD divisions and brigades. As a result the Army activated four separate infantry brigades. In 1963 the ARNG reorganized four divisions into four more separate brigades. In 1967 the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) decided to reorganize the Reserve Component force structure and, as a result, in 1968 the ARNG ended up with eight divisions and 18 separate infantry and armored brigades. The resulting force structure was derived through a political compromise between the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Guard Bureau. DOD could not equip all the ARNG divisions, and the ARNG could not maintain divisional strength but wanted to retain senior leader force structure. The SIB has been used in a wide variety of scenarios which included use as the Corps commander's wild card, Roundout and Roundup to Active Component Divisions and Theater Defense. Current force structure proposals eliminate all but a few of the separate brigades. This case study examines the versatility of the separate infantry brigade: Addressing questions regarding retention of this ARNG combat force for use in projected contingency force operations of the 21st Century.