Our DOD is a tough nut to crack. I am in the process of trying to understand how this giant beast fits together. My bias towards the [world's greatest} Army allows me a narrow focus as a way of beginning to crack open this enormous and ever shifting behemoth.
Care of Wikipedia:
As of 2003, the United States Army has four field corps. The structure of a field corps is not permanent; many of the units that it commands are allocated to it as needed on an ad hoc basis. On the battlefield, the field corps is the highest level of the forces that is concerned with actually fighting and winning the war. Higher levels of command are concerned with administration rather than operations, at least under current doctrine. The corps provides operational direction for the forces under its command. Corps are designated by consecutive Roman numerals. The present active corps in the US Army are I Corps ("eye core"), III Corps, V Corps, and XVIII Airborne Corps; their numbers derive from four of the 24 corps [numbers I-XVI, XVIII-XXIV and XXXVI] that were formed during World War II. It also refers to a grouping of specialized troops such as the Army Corps of Engineers and the United States Marine Corps.
I CORPS
I Corps "America's Corps" is a corps of the United States Army headquartered in Joint Base Lewis-McChord,Washington. It is a major formation of United States Army Forces Command.
I Corps' current mission is part of the United States' Asia-Pacific Shift. The Pacific Rim Rebalance will involve several combined and joint military exercises in Japan, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, and Australia. Part of I Corps' objectives for these exercises will be Joint Task Force certification in support of United States Pacific Command missions.[2]
Activated in World War I in France, I Corps oversaw US Army divisions as they repelled several major German offensives and led them into Germany. The corps was deactivated following the end of the war.
Reactivated for service in World War II, the corps took command of divisions in the south Pacific, leading US and Australian forces as they pushed the Japanese army out of New Guinea. It went on to be one of the principal leading elements in the Battle of Luzon, liberating the Philippines. It then took charge as one of the commanding headquarters in the occupation of Japan.
Deployed to Korea at the start of the Korean War, the corps was one of three corps that remained in the country for the entire conflict, commanding US, British, and South Korean forces through three years of back-and-forth campaigns against North Korean and Chinese forces. Following the end of the war, it remained in Korea for almost 20 years guarding the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Active today, the corps acts as a subordinate headquarters of United States Army Forces Command, and has also seen deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
III CORPS
III Corps is a corps of the United States Army headquartered at Fort Hood, Texas. It is a major formation of theUnited States Army Forces Command.Activated in World War I in France, III Corps oversaw US Army divisions as they repelled several major German offensives and led them into Germany. The corps was deactivated following the end of the war.Reactivated in the interwar years, III Corps trained US Army formations for combat before and during World War II, before itself being deployed to the European Theater where it participated in several key engagements, including the Battle of the Bulge where it is known as the force that relieved the surrounded 101st Airborne Division.For the next 50 years, the division would act as a key training element for the US Army as it sent troops overseas in support of the Cold War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The corps would see no combat deployments, however, until Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004. It has since seen multiple deployments to Iraq.
V CORPS
Ninety-three years after its activation in France, V Corps remains the only permanently forward deployed corps in the U.S. Army.The United States began to broadly restructure its forces in Europe beginning in 2005. This was spurred on largely by the Base Realignment and Closure decisions announced in 2005, which included plans to return 11 facilities previously utilized by the US Army in FY07 alone. As a result the structure of V Corps also began to change dramtically in 2005, with many units being either inactivated or realigned assigned to US Army Europe (USAEUR), V Corps' higher headquarters. In 2008, the Department of the Army announced its intention to inactivate V Corps in 2009. On 4 June 2009, the Department of the Army announced that it had delayed, at least for one year, its original intention to inactivate V Corps.Prior to the restructuring, V Corps mission had been to, operating as a Corps or a heavy Joint Task Force, rapidly deploy as a Contingency Force in support of US European Command (EUCOM) and Central Command (CENTCOM) regional military objectives or in support of NATO and UN military operations, to include Peace Operations. The Corps would also provide trained and ready forces in support of Commanding General, USAREUR / Seventh US Army validated operational requirements.
V Corps, having returned to Germany in 2007, was scheduled for inactivation in 2009 as part of U.S. Army Europe's global rebasing, restructuring, and transformation efforts. This scheduled inactivation was initially postponed, then canceled. V Corps manned its first Command Post and deployed it to Afghanistan in the summer of 2009, and deployed its second Command Post element in the summer of 2010. In early 2011, the reconstitution, modularization, and relocation of V Corps to Wiesbaden Army Air Field (WAAF) were accelerated, and V Corps achieved initial operating capability at WAAF on 1 June 2011.
18th AIRBORNE CORPS
The XVIII Airborne Corps is the corps of the United States Army designed for rapid deployment anywhere in the world. It is referred to as "America's Contingency Corps". Its headquarters are at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
In response to its experience in the Persian Gulf War, the Army designed a set of goals for deploying forces rapidly to regional conflicts. That plan assumes that the United States will have fewer forces abroad in the future than it did during the Cold War. The Army's focus is preparing a five-division contingency corps (with one airborne, two heavy, one air assault, and one light division) that would deploy on short notice and be capable of using force immediately upon entering a region.
No comments:
Post a Comment