WI Col. MacArthur never rises higher

In WWI, Douglas MacArthur was assigned the temporary position of Colonel in the National Army, and was then promoted to Brigadier General. In 1920, he reverted to his peacetime rank of Major, and then was promoted to BG in the Regular Army. Suppose he stayed a Colonel in WWI, revered to Major, made Colonel the hard way, and stayed at that rank for the remainder of his military career.
 
If he was a Colonel at the beginning of world war II, it's hard to see him not rising to brigadier general once the US army begins expanding.

Though he was outspoken, if he PO'ed Marshall, Craig or someone enough to censure him perhaps.

But it really wouldn't effect the war in any major way. If anything whoever's commanding the Pacific Theater when the Japanesse attack the Phillipines is likely not to get caught with his planes on the ground after Pearl Harbor.
 
Wasn't MacArthur a big force behind the adoption of the M-1 Garand Rifle?

If he's not in a position of influence the M-1 might not be adopted as early as it was leading to the US fighting most of WWII with Springfields...

However if the M-1 is adopted later on during the war perhaps some modifications might be made such as giving the M-1 a 20 round box magazine (making it a proto-assault rifle and the best semi-automatic rifle in existence....:D)
 
If I recall correctly, the Army still was using Springfields when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

The whole military went through a rather rapid update when we entered the war. We even took the red circle out of the star on our planes because it looked too much like a Japanese Rising Sun.

It's safe to say the M-1 probably would've been introduced on schedule with or without MacArthur. Whoever's in charge of the Pacific theater is going to endorse better firearms just as much.
 

burmafrd

Banned
The Garand was brought into service in 1936. Due to funding constraints, production was very low. It only ramped up starting in late 1940. Many units were equiped with Springfields for quite a while due to the shortage of Garands.
 
As Marshall passed over many officers when he ramped up the numbers of general officers. COL Doug would have been an overage colonel. Remember, he was a lot older than Eisenhower or Bradley.
 
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