Early the next morning, John and Bradley went to the Klaibo Barracks. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Info This time they were no longer riding in Bradley's new Buick, but in an army command vehicle that looked rather strange-looking to John. It wasn't Lieutenant Bridge who drove the car, but a sergeant named Alex.

Ever since Bradley became a general, he has had his own business car and chauffeur. Wherever he went, Sergeant Alex and the command vehicle would follow him, unless he called a report and asked for a change.

However, John did not envy Bradley's "general treatment" at all. The command vehicle, which is said to be equipped with the latest on-board radio communication equipment, is not only ugly, but also uncomfortable to sit on. Thank goodness that such vehicles are now only equipped with generals of combat units.

Before John could spit out the breakfast in his stomach, Sergeant Alex finally pulled over to the entrance of the 82nd Division. The Klaebo Barracks is a new base that the Army just opened at the end of last year, and it is quite large, but the facilities inside are very simple, and many places are still under construction. And the so-called 82nd Division headquarters is currently just a row of wood-paneled houses painted with green paint.

Just as John looked around curiously, Bradley pushed him from behind, "Let's go, John, don't look at it." Let's go through your reporting procedures first. ”

John suddenly had a bad premonition, and grabbed Bradley's arm: "Omar, you told me yesterday that 16,000 recruits will be stationed here at the end of the month, how do I think the number of barracks is far from enough, it won't be finished yet." ”

"That's right, we estimated last week that at least 8,000 recruits would have to live in tents by then, based on their current construction schedule. So, it's going to be hard for you for the rest of the day. Bradley patted John on the shoulder sympathetically.

"Hard for me? No, the construction of the barracks infrastructure is in the hands of the Engineer Corps Command, and it has nothing to do with me. John exclaimed, startled.

"It's true that the progress of the construction has nothing to do with you, but it's your business to house the more than 8,000 recruits. Who let you be the logistics staff officer of the division? With that, Bradley walked away without looking back.

Looking at Bradley's background, John's whole body was messy, and he felt like he had been pitted. But soon, he remembered what Middleton had said to him, when he got to the troops below, everything was nothing, and everything had to be done with strength.

The conundrum he is facing now is clearly a test for Bradley. If he can solve this problem cleanly and beautifully, then he will have the capital to gain a foothold in the 82nd Division and win the trust and recognition of other members of the division. If he messed up, it would be useless for him to have a good relationship with Bradley. In the future, at best, it will be a mascot in the divisional staff, and you will have to get out of the gold plate for a year or two.

Thinking of this, John hurriedly followed. There is only less than a month left before the recruits are stationed at the division headquarters, and they have to get into work as soon as possible.

After checking in, and being taken by Bradley to meet with Ridgway and General Swain, John returned to his office. Taking advantage of the fact that Colonel George Pope had not yet taken office, John first summoned his staff officers in the name of the temporary head of the divisional staff to listen to their recent work reports. This is done in order to recognize people, and secondly, to grasp the specific situation in the division as soon as possible. If we don't find out the family background of the 82nd Division first, the next step of the work is really not easy to carry out.

In the current U.S. Army establishment, the division staff is generally equipped with five chief staff officers (generally a lieutenant colonel, called so-and-so staff officer, or so-and-so chief, and an ordinary staff officer is generally a major, called so-and-so officer), of which G-1 is in charge of personnel, G-2 is in charge of intelligence, G-3 is in charge of operations and planning, G-4 is in charge of logistics, and G-5 is in charge of civilian. Since the logistics staff officer of the 82nd Division is currently held by John himself, the report was made by Major Steve, the divisional logistics officer who was previously in charge of this operation.

Although these four lieutenant colonels and a major have not been in the 82nd Division for a long time, the training staff officer Matthews and civilian staff officer Thorson, who came to the 82nd Division with Bradley, are considered to be the first batch of officers in the division, and they have only been in office for less than three months. But from their seemingly simple work report, John still found a lot of problems. Especially when he got a roster of officers of the 82nd Division from Lieutenant Colonel Eaton, a personnel staff officer, he completely understood what the "trouble" Bradley was talking about last night was.

Among the several new divisions formed by the Army in the past year, the situation of the 82nd Division is somewhat exceptional. The other divisions were either reconverted to active duty from reserve divisions or reorganized from the state National Guards. In either case, these units at least have a ready-made officer system, from divisions to companies and platoons, and although they may not be fully established, the basic framework is still there.

The original 82nd Division was first transferred to the reserve after World War I, and then simply disbanded. Now the 82nd Division, led by Bradley, is tantamount to a complete reformation. However, relying only on the dozen or so division members appointed by the General Staff, plus the upcoming 16,000 recruits, it is obviously impossible to form a complete division, and a large number of grassroots officers are still needed.

According to the roster of officers provided by Lieutenant Colonel Eaton, 70 percent of the 82nd Division's current more than 700 junior officers and noncommissioned officers are from the 9th Division (one of the most fortified fortresses of the conservatives, which was completely broken up during World War II, leaving only an empty number and becoming a division that only exists on paper), and the rest are drawn from the National Guard in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Virginia.

Good guys, the leadership of the division is basically Marshallists, and most of them from the regiment commander down are conservatives, no wonder Bradley has a headache. It seems that it was not for nothing that he and Marshall could agree to make Colonel Pope chief of staff of the division. Without a senior officer who had a good personal relationship with Bradley and was a conservative, it would have been difficult for the 82nd Division to function.

But that's not a bad thing for John. Although he had a good relationship with Bradley, he was neither strictly a Marshallist nor a conservative. In this "political environment", neither faction should easily offend him, Stimson's descendant. In this way, he will have more room to operate in the future. Presumably, Bradley would also be happy to see him play a role as lubricant between the two factions.

So compared to those officers from the 9th Division, John had a headache for those officers from the National Guard in the states. He knew all too well what these people were. Generally speaking, the National Guard in each state has a strong local political color, and most officers above the rank of major have a local political background, and serving in the National Guard is nothing more than a tactic of opportunistic politics.

John glanced at the roster, and there were 14 officers from the National Guard who were above the rank of major, including a colonel. And he also knew this colonel named Thomas Martin, this guy is a famous old "playboy" in Philadelphia, and it is said that his lover can't count on two hands.

John doesn't think much of this guy, but his own brother, Edward Martin, the current commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard, is a hard to mess with. It seems that historically, this Edward Martin was also elected governor of Pennsylvania.

The thought of having to deal with this kind of guy every day in the future gave John a headache. He did not think at all that these political opportunists would obediently accept the strict military training and discipline that followed. But how to get these people away is really a troublesome matter. Fortunately, he is not the only one who needs to have a headache for this.