Fort Bragg, N.C. -- The U.S. Army Forces Command celebrated its 40th birthday with a cake-cutting ceremony at their headquarters July 1.
The ceremony, hosted by the Maj. Gen. Leslie J. Carroll, FORSCOM Chief of Staff, was attended by headquarters uniformed staff and civilian employees.
"Thank you all for being a part of the team that still holds true to the mission statement that General George C. Marshall gave us back in 1942," Carroll said. "To provide trained and ready Soldiers for required missions."
The cake was cut by Carroll, Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher K. Greca and FORSCOM's longest-serving civilian employee, Maria Lewis.
Formed in World War II, Army Ground Forces was the largest training organization ever established in the United States. Its strength of 780,000 troops on May 1, 1942 and grew to a peak of 2,200,000 Soldiers by July 1, 1943.
The mission of the Army Ground Forces, as stated by the War Department in Circular 59, March 2, 1942, was "to provide ground force units properly organized, trained and equipped for combat operations." Organization of units for combat, with which the term "tactical organization" is here equated, involved two interrelated activities. One was to divide Soldiers and materials into standard parts of known and calculable capabilities, such as infantry divisions and their subordinate elements. The other was to combine these parts into the larger, complete units ̶̶ task forces, corps or armies ̶ which were the controlling agencies of large-scale combat.
During the post-war reorganization of the War Department, Army Ground Forces became Army Field Forces in 1948, Continental Army Command in 1955, and was ultimately divided into U.S. Army Forces Command and U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command in 1973. Since that time, FORSCOM has been responsible for the training and readiness of all conventional active and Reserve Army units within the continental United States, while also overseeing the training of Army National Guard units. FORSCOM wears the former Army Ground Forces' shoulder-sleeve insignia to this day.
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