4/6/2009:
Today is Army Day. Well, it used to be Army Day. A Bismarck Tribune article stated President Franklin Roosevelt was proclaiming this day in 1943 to be Army Day as a way to honor "the men of the United States Army who have carried the flag of the United States and its ideals which it represents to every part of the earth, and who with their brothers-in-arms from the nations united with us are offering their lives for the future of America and the world."
In actuality, Army Day was first observed in a rather obscure manner in 1924. Rather than celebrating the Army, the day was actually an observance of Defense Testing. It was observed that way again the following year, but after that, Congress disallowed further observances under the title of Army Day.
Three years later, in 1928, Colonel Thatcher Luquer, of the Military Order of the World War, successfully established a new Army Day, which was held May 1st. May Day was chosen as a way to counter-balance communists who used that date to celebrate Workers' Day.
The date was shifted the following year to April 6th, the anniversary of America's entry into World War I. Emphasis was placed on the Nation's need for military preparedness. According to the Department of Defense, we needed to head off quote, "the failure to make adequate preparation for the inevitable struggle, the consequent suffering from disease and death entailed upon the armies which were hastily raised, the prolongation of the conflict far beyond the time which sufficient and equipped forces would have required for victory, and the heavy costs of reconstruction" unquote.
President Roosevelt made it official on April 4, 1936, when he proclaimed April 6 should be observed nationwide as Army Day; Congress passed a subsequent resolution the following year. But, Army Day was observed for only a dozen years before its discontinuation in 1949.
Ironically, the Army found itself woefully under-prepared when war suddenly broke out in Korea the following summer. The first American Army units sent into battle found themselves armed with old weapons, corroded ammunition and C-rations left over from WWII.
As American tanks were hauled out of storage and repaired in Japan, front-line soldiers found themselves facing North Koreans using Russian tanks fresh off the assembly line.
American and South Korean troops were quickly overrun and, stalling for time, they continued to fall back until General MacArthur's famous Inchon Landing two months later.
By Merry Helm
Source:
The Bismarck Tribune. 6 Apr 1943:1.
"A Tradition of Heroes: History of Army Day." U.S. Department of Defense. Web. (22 Jan 2009)