On the last morning of March, in the warm spring sunshine of Louisiana, a train from Georgia was slowly moving into Alexandria Railway Station with 1,200 recruits. On the platform of the Pen & Fun www.biquge.info station, a brass band is playing an old-fashioned American military song, "When-Johnny-comes-marching-home."

To be honest, John really felt that the United States was too far behind Germany and the Soviet Union in terms of military music and military songs, and at best it was a little better than the "mourning song" of little Japan. Not to mention now, even in later generations, there are few good songs that can really make people's hearts surging and full of pride. "The Song of the Ammunition Truck" (renamed "Army Courageously" in 1956 and set as the military song of the U.S. Army) always reminds him of the soundtrack of Disney cartoons, and the special forces' "Song of the Green Flat Hat" is a country ballad at all.

So two days ago, when the local Alexandria swing dance band invited by Lieutenant Colonel Thorson, a civilian staff officer, asked what song to play at the welcome ceremony, John picked a long time to find such an old song from 80 years ago. "Marching home" is a bit of a fit with the "Home of America" plan.

Unexpectedly, although the song is a little old, the live effect at the welcome ceremony is quite good. First, the lyrics of this song are simple and the popularity of singing is very high (during the Civil War, countless soldiers of the United States Federal Army and Union Army sang this song to the battlefield), and many people at the scene couldn't help but sing along; Second, this band is used to playing swing dance music on weekdays, and plays this old military song very cheerfully. For a while, the whole station really had the meaning of welcoming the triumph of the soldiers.

This batch of Georgia soldiers is already the last batch of recruits received by the 82nd Division. After several days of orientation work, not to mention John, the officers of the 82nd Division, and the station staff, even the city councilors, veteran representatives, church and school volunteers who were invited to set the mood were already familiar with the road.

Soon, the 1,200 recruits got out of the car in batches and quickly lined up according to their company under the command of a captain.

"Eaton, who is the leader of the receiving detachment of these recruits?" John asked, pointing to the captain.

"Captain Jackson of the 504th Regiment, he's an Atlanta. A total of 12 people were sent to Georgia to receive new recruits, and he and Lieutenant Andrew were the chief and deputy detachment leaders. Personnel Staff Lieutenant Colonel Eaton replied.

"When you go back, remember to add them to the award list. This group of recruits took the train for more than ten hours, and they could still line up so quickly, Jackson, they didn't do a bad job. It wasn't John who spoke, but Deputy Division Commander Ridgway. In the past few days, Bradley, Ridgway, and Swain have taken turns to greet the recruits at the station for half a day, and this morning it was Ridgway's turn.

"Okay, Matthew." The officers of the receiving detachment had worked hard for his plan, and John was naturally willing to help them get more commendations. John was never stingy in this regard. What's more, this time the biggest lottery has been won by himself.

Speaking of which, John really won a big prize this time. A "National House" plan not only put him in the eyes of the army commander, Lieutenant General Wald. It made Mr. McNair, who was overwhelmed by the recruit training work, overjoyed and rewarded.

In desperation, Major General McNair couldn't even wait for John's report and called directly to his office. In that nearly three-hour phone conversation, John brought out all his knowledge about military psychology, organizational psychology, and various tips commonly used in corporate team building.

Major General McNair is not very interested in psychological theories, but he is very interested in practical team-building tips. John had to search his stomach and recall the team building parts of several "management bibles" he had read in his previous life. In the end, he even said all the content of the so-called "team development training" that used to be rotten on the street.

In his previous life, John had participated in this kind of team development training a few times, and at that time he complained that the content of these training programs was outdated and full of routines. But at this point, no one has invented this thing. Even McNair found a few of the "mini-games" interesting to add to the recruit training subjects.

After that call, John didn't think much of it at first. Mr. McNair praised him on the phone, and it already made him very happy. Unexpectedly, many of the contents of their conversation were compiled into a written report by Major General McNair and handed over to Chief of Staff Marshall.

What was the most important job of the US Army at the beginning of 1941? Undoubtedly, it is necessary to quickly complete the army expansion plan and improve the army's overall combat effectiveness in the shortest possible time.

Both Marshall and Stimson knew that time was running out for them. The big boss of the White House is determined to get involved in this war. After winning a third presidential term, Roosevelt had already begun to push the country into a war model in all aspects of politics, economics, and public opinion.

Just earlier this month, the United States and Canada signed a joint defense agreement. The agreement stipulates that the United States will play a part-time role in Canada's defense so that more Canadian troops can serve overseas.

Once domestic politics, experience, and public opinion are prepared, the US Army will once again cross the ocean and appear on the battlefield across the Atlantic. How to assemble a large, well-equipped, and well-trained army before entering the war was Marshall's greatest concern.

Therefore, Marshall attached great importance to the report submitted by Major General McNair, which bears John's name. If the series of methods mentioned in the report are effective, they will undoubtedly greatly shorten the time for the newly established units to develop combat effectiveness.

So, almost at the same time that John received the Army Commendation Order, a task force was also sent from the General Staff to the 82nd Division. This working group will stay in the 82nd Division until the new recruits complete the 17-week training target set in the program, and follow up and inspect the implementation of the 82nd Division's "All-American House" plan throughout the process.

This is nothing, of course, the more attention is paid to his plan, the better. However, the lead officer of the task force made John a little confused. Because this man was none other than his old friend of Bradley, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Clark of the Training Division.

Compared with history, Clark is undoubtedly unlucky, and he is still in the position of chief of the training department. John was also a little puzzled, could it be because of his own reasons that the youngest lieutenant general in American history had lost his butterfly wings? However, apart from pooling money together to open a shipyard, John doesn't think he has had any influence on the trajectory of Clark's life.

Previously, John was able to convince himself that Clark's current rank was the same as it was in history (Clark was indeed a lieutenant colonel before he was promoted to brigadier general in August 1941). Maybe this kid was lucky that day and became Marshall's focus on training, or Marshall was already focusing on Clark, but he just didn't know it.

But now, it was clear that John could not deceive himself any longer. If Clark had been to spend 17 weeks at the 82nd Division, he would not have been able to become assistant chief of staff for operations in August of this year, as he has historically done. But what went wrong? John couldn't figure it out for a moment.