Army Reserve celebrates its first century
On June 6, 1944, the only General who landed with the first wave of men at Normandy, Brig. General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., was a member of the U.S. Army Reserve. On April 18, 1942, the first mission to bomb Japan during the Second World War, the famed Doolittle Raid, was also led by an Army officer who started his career in the Reserve, Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle. Both officers received the Medal of Honor for their actions.
It was Brigadier General Roosevelt’s father, Theodore Roosevelt, who was President when Senate Bill 1424 was passed by Congress to create the Army Reserve. On the same day one century later, April 23, 2008, one hundred Army Reserve Soldiers commemorated that event by re-enlisting on the West Lawn of the Capitol in a ceremony attended by Lt. General Jack C. Stultz, Chief, Army Reserve and Commanding General, United States Army Reserve Command; and Command Sergeant Major Leon E. Caffie, Command Sergeant Major, U.S. Army Reserve. The event was followed by a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, and the planting of a red maple tree and unveiling of a plaque nearby.
The original 1908 legislation, signed in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War and amid rising tension in Europe, called for only a Reserve Corps of medical officers. It wasn’t until 1912 that the regular Army Reserve was created. A cross-border raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916 by Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa led to the first deployment of the Army Reserve. The Reserve was used on an expedition to capture Villa, and to defend the southern border from further raids. By 1917, the U.S. entered World War I, and the Reserve went to fight alongside their fellow Soldiers. In all, about 80,000 enlisted Reservists and nearly 90,000 commissioned Reserve Officers served in the War. Large numbers for a force that was only 10 years old!
The U.S. Army Reserve has had a proud history ever since. Reserve Soldiers served in World War II (providing almost one-quarter of all the officers for the War), Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Shield/Storm and now the Global War on Terror. From 160 civilian medical physicians in 1908, the Reserve has grown to 192,000 Soldiers who now provide half of the U.S. Army’s combat support, a quarter of its mobilization expansion capability and much of the Army’s high-skill personnel in 2008.
In addition to the April 23rd ceremonies, the Army Reserve will be honoring its centennial in a year-long worldwide celebration that kicked off on January 18th. For a more complete history of the U.S. Army Reserve, see: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/usar-history.htm