Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army

Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army Jerold E. Brown Editor GREENWOOD PRESS Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army EDITED BY Jerold E. Brown GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Historical dictionary of the U.S. Army / edited by Jerold E. Brown. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–313–29322–8 (alk. paper) 1. United States. Army—History—Dictionaries. I. Brown, Jerold E. UA25.H67 2001 355'.00973'03—dc21 00–022373 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright ᭧ 2001 by Jerold E. Brown All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00–022373 ISBN: 0–313–29322–8 First published in 2001 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America TM The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 In memory of Spec. 4 Ronald W. Brunson 23 December 1946–1 September 1969 CONTENTS Preface ix A Brief History of the U.S. Army xiii by Christopher R. Gabel Historical Dictionary 1 Appendix A: Abbreviations and Acronyms 531 Appendix B: Ranks and Grades in the U.S. Army 541 Sources 543 Index 609 About the Editor and Contributors 653 PREFACE The U.S. Army has evolved, changed, and matured over the past two and a quarter centuries to become the premier military force in the world. During that time, the American soldier has served loyally and faithfully in war and peace, contributing to the development of the nation and fighting for freedom and American ideals on battlefields around the world. The Army’s heritage is rich in history, tradition, and lore. Compiling and editing this one-volume historical dictionary of the U.S. Army has been a challenge and an opportunity. The opportunity has been to bring to the interested reader, student, and researcher a broad cross section of military terms, concepts, arms and equipment, units and organizations, campaigns and battles, and individuals who have contributed significantly to the U.S. Army. The challenge has been to select those entries that will be of greatest value to users of this volume. I began the selection of entries with a list of terms and names that I had accumulated from student questions and concerns during my more than twenty years of teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses in American and military history. I further selected entries suggested or recommended by my colleagues at the Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; by scholars and historians I invited to contribute to the volume; and by officers, teachers, and archivists with extensive knowledge of U.S. Army history and historiography. Unfortunately, space made it impossible to include all of the proposals I received; I had to omit a number of excellent submissions. I am fully responsible for the final selection of entries. The terms, names, and concepts common to the U.S. Army are to be found in a wide variety of sources. These sources include books—both nonfiction and fiction; biographies; autobiographies; memoirs; monographs; general and military histories; articles and essays in professional and popular periodicals; jour- nals; magazines; official, semiofficial, and private unit, organizational, and x PREFACE installation histories; U.S. Army and joint doctrinal publications and regulations; movies; television and stage productions; and the everyday language of soldiers on the parade ground and in the field. Even a brief perusal of the sources at the back of this volume will demonstrate the breadth of sources where one can find Army terms and usages. With a few exceptions, each entry in this volume is followed by a reference or references. For users of this volume who choose to learn more about specific terms, names, and concepts, the references place the terms in context and serve as initial sources for further research. The references contain only the short title and date of publication for each work cited. A full citation of each book or article in the references can be found in the sources at the back of the volume. While all terms in this dictionary can be found in published sources, some terms are predominantly part of the spoken language of soldiers. While U.S. Army veterans, serving soldiers, and most other uniformed service members will instantly recognize and understand these terms, I did not supply references I considered unnecessary or too obscure. The use of acronyms and abbreviations in the U.S. Army is ubiquitous. Find- ing one’s way through the maze of abbreviations and acronyms can be a serious challenge for anyone unfamiliar with military literature, especially the non- military reader or researcher. A number of official and commercially published guides are available to assist readers with this type of military terminology. See, for example, U.S. Army Regulation 310-50, Authorized Abbreviations, Brevity Codes, and Acronyms (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1985), and Fernando B. Morinigo, The Acronym Book: Acronyms in Aerospace and Defense (Washington, D.C.: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1990). Keep in mind, however, that acronyms frequently have more than one meaning and that they change meanings from time to time. Users of this volume will find a convenient list of the acronyms and abbreviations in Appendix A. Many of the weapons, arms, equipment, units, organizations, historical events, and concepts included in this volume are commonly known by more than one term or name. To facilitate the use of this volume, I have included numerous cross-references. In each case, however, I endeavored to associate the definition with the most commonly used variation of the term. An asterisk (*) in the definition or explanation of a term indicates that the preceding term has its own entry in the dictionary. In the course of compiling and editing this volume, I have incurred many debts. Many friends and colleagues assisted me with this project; some made valuable recommendations and suggestions for entries or sources, while others provided encouragement and moral support. I regret that I cannot thank everyone individually. I would, however, be remiss if I did not mention a few names that were particularly instrumental in supporting me over the past six years. Above all, I thank Mildred “Mim” Vasan, former Senior Editor, Social and Behavioral Sciences, at Greenwood Press for offering me the opportunity to undertake this project. When Mim retired, Cynthia Harris took over supervision of my project, PREFACE xi and she has shown infinite patience with my progress. I owe both of these fine editors my deepest thanks. I greatly appreciate the support of the directors of the Combat Studies Institute at the U.S. Army Command and Staff College. Colonels Richard Swain, Jerry D. Morelock, and Clay Edwards not only allowed me the freedom to work on this project when it did not interfere with my other duties but contributed entries to the volume. I owe much to my colleagues at the Combat Studies Institute: Chris Gabel, Bob Baumann, Tom Huber, Gary Bjorge, Jack Gifford, Larry Yates, and many former Army and Air Force officers of CSI contributed entries; others provided ideas, suggestions for entries, and assistance with sources and references. Special thanks goes to Mr. Donald Gilmore, editor at the Combat Studies Institute, who helped in innumerable ways. I greatly appreciate the assistance of Professor Pete Maslowski, University of Nebraska, and Professor John J. Contreni, Purdue University, for recruiting some of their best graduate students to write entries for the dictionary. The staff at the Combined Arms Research Library at Fort Leavenworth, Kan- sas, performed above and beyond the call of duty in their efforts to assist me. Without the help of Dan Dorris, Joanne Knight, Pat Wells, Dorothy Rogers, Mary Jo Nelson, Dianne Karis, Bernie Brose, John Rogers, and a host of others too numerous for me to list here, I would still be searching for necessary references in distant corners of the library. I wish to thank all of the contributors to this dictionary. Their hard work, attention to detail, and knowledge of the U.S. Army is clearly evident in the pages of this volume. All errors are mine alone. Finally, I thank my wife, Shirley, for putting up with me over the years I have devoted to this project. Without her support, it would never have been finished. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE U.S. ARMY The U.S. Army traces its heritage back to the 1600s and the period of coloni- zation. From the first, England’s colonies in North America differed from those established by the other European powers. The colonies founded by France and Spain were primarily intended to extract wealth and send it back to the mother country; hence, those colonies were populated by fortune seekers, priests, ad- ministrators, and soldiers. In contrast, the English colonies in North America consisted of farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and their families. These colonists were intent on starting new lives, not on extracting wealth. England sent very few soldiers to her colonies in North America. When the colonists needed military protection, they generally had to provide it themselves. Most colonies enacted militia laws, which required every able-bodied man to provide himself with a weapon and report to periodic training sessions. In war- time, individuals would volunteer, or be selected, for active duty. Two concepts that still shape the American military can be traced to this period.

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