First Corps Area

Last updated January 22, 2025

First Service Command insignia

The First Corps Area was a Corps area (effectively a military district) of the United States Army. It replaced the Northeastern Department, and was headquartered at South Boston Army Base, Massachusetts. The organization included Army units and facilities in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Connecticut. It was responsible for the mobilization, and administration of the First United States Army (1936–38); the Fourth Army, I Army Corps with 9th, 26th, and 43d Divisions; XI Corps, constituted 29 July 1921, with the 76th, 94th, and 97th Division; coast defense units of the First Coast Artillery District, some units of the GHQ Reserve, and the Zone of the Interior support units of the First Corps Area Service Command. First Corps Area was redesignated First CASC in May 1941.^[1]

The First Corps Area Training Center was established in the Regular Army on 7 July 1921, and was organized on 9 November 1921 with headquarters at Fort Andrews, Massachusetts. The headquarters was moved to Fort Warren, Massachusetts, on 19 December 1921. The training center's training group, at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, conducted training and demonstration functions for Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve units, ROTC cadets, and CMTC candidates. The depot group consisted of an illiterate and development section, and a conventional recruit training section for new Regular Army recruits for units stationed in the First Corps Area. Originally, training for all arms and services except cavalry and field artillery was to be accomplished at Camp Devens, while cavalry and field artillery were to train at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont. The First Corps Area Training Center was discontinued on 8 July 1922. Camp Devens then became the primary training center for corps area infantry units only. Air corps units were sent to Mitchel Field, New York, engineer units to Fort Du Pont, Delaware; and signal corps units were sent to Camp Alfred Vail (later renamed Fort Monmouth), New Jersey. Corps area maneuvers of Regular Army mobile units were held, those years when funds were available, near Fort Ethan Allen.^[2]

With the adoption of the four field army plan on 1 October 1933, the mobile units of the First Corps Area were reassigned to the First Army or GHQ Reserve, or were demobilized.^[1] For the administration of Organized Reserve units, all organizations initially came under the control of the I Corps, or the 76th, 94th, and 97th Divisions. When the XI Corps was inactivated in 1925, the HQ, Non-Divisional Group was established to direct the organization, training, and administration of all nondivisional units. This arrangement was short-lived. On 8 September 1925, the Non-Divisional Group was discontinued and the HQ, Artillery Group was established. This new group managed only the corps area nondivisional field artillery units, the 158th Cavalry Brigade (part of the 64th Cavalry Division, Organized Reserves), and personnel assigned to the I and XI Corps. The rest of the nondivisional units were turned over to the three Organized Reserve divisions for administrative control.

At Brainard Field, a civilian airfield located at Hartford, Connecticut, the 43d Division Aviation (1923–29) and the 118th Observation Squadron (1923–41) trained.^[3]

In May 1941, the Corps Area became the First Corps Area Service Command (CASC). Major General Francis B. Wilby was the commanding general from 15 July 1941–11 January 1942. Soon afterwards, the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Brigadier General Sherman Miles, marked for his directorate's intelligence failure before the Attack on Pearl Harbor, was promoted to major general but then given the relatively unimportant command of First CASC. First CASC was again redesignated First Service Command, part of the Second World War Army Service Forces, on 22 July 1942.^[1] By 1943, it had a strength of 31,246.^[4] Miles retained command throughout the war.

First Service Command became an area command under the new First Army (United States) in mid 1946. General Ira T. Wyche commanded First Service Command until January 1947.

Related Research Articles

A corps area was a geographically-based organizational structure of the United States Army used to accomplish administrative, training, and tactical tasks from 1920 to 1942. Each corps area included divisions of the Regular Army, Organized Reserve, and National Guard of the United States. Developed as a result of serious mobilization problems during World War I, this organization provided a framework to rapidly expand the Army in times of war or national emergency, such as the Great Depression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">77th Sustainment Brigade</span> Military unit

The 77th Sustainment Brigade is a unit of the United States Army that inherited the lineage of the 77th Infantry Division, which served in World War I and World War II. Its headquarters has been at Fort Dix, New Jersey, since its predecessor command, the 77th Regional Readiness Command, was disestablished in 2008 from Fort Totten in Bayside, Queens, New York. Soldiers from the 77th have served in most major conflicts and contingency operations involving the US since World War II.

The 94th Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War I, and of the Organized Reserve Corps in 1921 until 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">97th Infantry Division (United States)</span> Military unit

The 97th Infantry Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War I and World War II. Nicknamed the "Trident division" because of its shoulder patch, a vertical trident in white on a blue background, it was originally trained in amphibious assaults as preparation for deployment in the Pacific Theater. It was deployed to Europe in 1944 when casualties from the Battle of the Bulge needed to be replaced.

The 76th Infantry Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War I, World War II and the Cold War. The division was inactivated in 1996 and has been reconstituted as the 76th US Army Reserve Operational Response Command in 2013.

The 43rd Infantry Division was a formation of the United States Army from 1920 to 1963, serving in the Pacific during World War II. It was activated in 1920 as a National Guard Division in Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The 143rd Regional Support Group of the Connecticut National Guard now carries on the heritage.

The 9th Infantry Division is an inactive infantry division of the United States Army. It was formed as the 9th Division during World War I, but never deployed overseas. In later years it was an important unit of the U.S. Army during World War II and the Vietnam War. It was also activated as a peacetime readiness unit from 1947 to 1962 at Fort Dix, New Jersey as a Training Division, West Germany, and Fort Carson, Colorado as a Full Combat Status Division, and from 1972 to 1991 as an active-duty infantry division at Fort Lewis, Washington. The division was inactivated in December 1991.

The U.S. VIII Corps was a corps of the United States Army that saw service during various times over a fifty-year period during the 20th century. The VIII Corps was organized 26–29 November 1918 in the Regular Army in France and demobilized on 20 April 1919 at Montigny-sur-Aube. The VIII Corps fought across Europe from Normandy to Czechoslovakia in World War II. After World War II, the corps was inactivated and reactivated several times, with the final inactivation occurring in 1968.

The 11th Infantry Brigade is an inactive infantry brigade of the United States Army. It was first formed as part of the 6th Division during World War I. It is best known for its service with the 23rd Infantry Division from 1967 through 1971 in the Vietnam War as a light infantry brigade. The brigade is known for its responsibility in the My Lai Massacre.

The 23rd Cavalry Division was a cavalry formation of the United States Army National Guard during the interwar period.

The 62nd Cavalry Division was an Organized Reserve cavalry unit of the United States Army.

The 64th Cavalry Division of the United States Army Organized Reserve was created from the perceived need for additional cavalry units. It numbered in succession of the Regular Army Divisions, which were not all active at its creation. The 64th Cavalry Division was dispersed across the United States. The division was composed of personnel from Kentucky, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and West Virginia.

XI Corps was a corps of the United States Army in World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">76th Field Artillery Regiment</span> Military unit

The 76th Field Artillery Regiment is a field artillery regiment of the United States Army. First formed as a cavalry regiment in 1916, the regiment was converted to field artillery in 1917, and served in Europe during World War I with the 3rd Division and as a separate battalion during World War II, as well as in peacetime at Fort Knox, KY, and Fort Devens, MA. Since 1959, the regiment has been a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System and the U.S. Army Regimental System, with regimental elements serving with the 3rd Infantry Division in Germany and Operation Iraqi Freedom, with the 7th Infantry Division in Korea, and in the Army Reserve. No regimental elements are currently active.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">308th Cavalry Regiment (United States)</span> Military unit

The 308th Cavalry Regiment, commonly referred to as the 308th Cavalry, was a reserve regiment of the United States Army from 1917 until 1942. In September 1918, it was converted into the 65th and 66th Field Artillery, and the 22d Trench Mortar Battery. The units were stationed at Camp Kearny, California. Although demobilized in December 1918, they were re-formed and re-purposed in October 1921 as the 308th Cavalry, an element of the 62d Cavalry Division. During World War II, it was disbanded again. In 1959, the regimental headquarters was transferred to Department of the Army control.

The 304th Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry unit of the United States Army during World War I and the interwar period. It was activated in early 1918 but broken up in the middle of the year to form new artillery units. The unit was recreated as a New York Organized Reserve unit during the interwar period, and was converted into a tank destroyer battalion after the United States entered World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">315th Cavalry Regiment (United States)</span> Military unit

The 315th Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry unit of the United States Army during World War I and the interwar period. It was activated in early 1918 but broken up later that year to form new artillery units. The unit was recreated as a Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts Organized Reserve unit during the interwar period. It was disbanded after the United States entered World War II.

The Seventh Corps Area was a Corps area, effectively a military district, of the United States Army active from 1920 to 1941. It initially was responsible for army forces in Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Army responsibility for Arkansas was transferred from the Fourth Corps Area to the Seventh Corps Area on 1 December 1920. In October 1940, the War Department implemented a transfer of tactical command functions of the Corps areas, moving tactical forces to field armies and transforming the Corps areas to Service Commands, themselves part of Army Service Forces. The Seventh Corps Area maintained its name until May 1941, when it was officially designated HQ, Seventh Corps Area Service Command in May 1941. While the Seventh Corps Area no longer existed, the HQ, Seventh CASC – later re-designated HQ, Seventh Service Command – continued until January 1944.

The Fifth Corps Area was a military district of the United States Army from 1920-21 to the Second World War. The Fifth Corps Area included the states of Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Eventually it became Fifth Service Command on 22 July 1942, and then Fifth Service Command was disestablished in 1946.

References

1 2 3 Clay 2010a, p. 19.
↑ Clay 2010a, p. 19, 187-188.
↑ Clay 2010a, p. 24.
↑ Millett 1954, pp. 429–430.

Bibliography

Clay, Lt. Col. Steven E. (2010a). US Army Order of Battle 1919-1941 Volume I. The Arms: Major Commands and Infantry Organizations. Command and General Staff College, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press. - Public Domain - United States Government
Millett, John D. (1954). The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army. OCLC 631289493.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[FOOTNOTEClay2010a19-1] 1 2 3 Clay 2010a, p. 19.

[FOOTNOTEClay2010a19,_187-188-2] Clay 2010a, p. 19, 187-188.

[FOOTNOTEClay2010a24-3] Clay 2010a, p. 24.

[FOOTNOTEMillett1954429–430-4] Millett 1954, pp. 429–430.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]