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The Kevlar Legions

An Alternate Post-Cold War Organizational History of the United States Army and Marine Corps



Introduction

In 2009 I started down a deep into a rabbit hole. It started mostly as a side project to work on when I had down time at work, but had a genesis deeper than that. I was an early participant in Shared Worlds, and took part in some of the more successful games back in the early days of that fora. Then, as I am sure now, an inordinate amount of time and energy was spent with players developing and reviewing their armed forces.

This had imparted on myself a deep interest in organizational concepts concerning armed forces. While most people with interest in things military are interested in the flashy stuff like aircraft, tanks, and such I found myself much more interested in how armed forces organized themselves to fight, and the doctrine guides this. My job working for a University Library gave me ready access to sources to scour.

I can no longer remember why I started working on this alternate order of battle in ‘09. In the hundreds of hours I spent researching I’ve long since lost track of that. I do owe a debt of gratitude to @Burton K Wheeler, who I spent a good amount of time discussing the subject with and whom introduced me to an important resource- Breaking the Phalanx: A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century by Colonel Douglas Macgregor (Ret) who went a long way to shaping my thinking. Of course reality has since caught up with some of my ideas, but I started giving thought to the idea of apply it to an alternate history. It may only interest the gonards amongst us, but such is life. In particular I want to motivate those are interested in militaries to investigate not so much the whats of weapon systems, but the hows and whys.

I’ve looked at and reviewed well over a hundred documents and books in this pursuit of mine and would like to make note of some general resources, as well as some specifics.

The US Army’s Center for Military History produces official in-house historical reviews for the Army. The Center is generally excellent, and subscribes to the idea of honest reflection being a key to institutional self-improvement. It generally succeeds in doing this. Best of all since the CMH is a government agency all of its work rest in the public domain, and are freely available in pdf form from their website.

A great book from the CMH is an organizational history spanning from the founding of the Army to its publication date in 1998 is Maneuver and Firepower: The Evolution of Divisions and Separate Brigades by John H. Wilson. Bridging the gap to the radical changes the Army adopted last decade is The Kevlar Legions: The Transformation of the US Army 1989 to 2005 by John Brown Sloan and Transforming an Army at War: Designing the Modular Force, 1991-2005 by William M. Donnelly. The former serving as a better general history, and the latter as specifically for the “brigadification” of the US Army. I have also shamelessly have stolen my Timeline’s title from the former.

The Department of Defense post-graduate schools- the Army War College, Marine Corps War College, Marine Corps Command and Staff College, National Defense University, etc; has produced numerous insightful works as part of the thesis process of their students. This can be found on the Defense Technical Information Center’s website. While these documents never reflect official doctrine, they often give great insights of the challenges faces the services, and can be used to guide solutions to those problems.

Outside the public domain the International Institute of Strategic Studies publishes the Military Balance annually. This journal covers the armed forces of most nations, insofar as information is available. For the United States and other major powers it is an excellent resource for review strategic and budgetary considerations of those nations, as well as broader force structures.

World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to US Army Ground Forces 1939-1946 by Shelby Stanton and Russell Weigley is invaluable to answer the broader organizational questions regarding the US Army in WW2. Otherwise it is exactly what the title implies cover the Army’s order of battle from the War. The Marine Corps equivalent is the creatively named US Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle: Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War, 1939-1945 by Gordon Rottman.

When getting down the regimental and battalion level Jan Sawicki published Infantry Regiments of the US Army, Cavalry Regiments of the US Army, Tank Battalions of the US Army, and Field Artillery Battalions of the US Army Vols 1 and 2. These books are excellent, but slightly odd dated being published in the early 1980s. CMH materials have helped bridge the gap, but they tend to only publish regimental histories of currently active units.

Despite the name, the scope of this timeline will cover from the mid 1980s to today. I look forward to feedback once we get going.
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