Photo By Erin Thompson | The sphinx symbol was first adopted by the MIORC in 1923.... read more read more
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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
20 JULY 1939
On 20 July 1939, the War Department General Staff (WDGS) submitted their proposal to Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring to abolish the Military Intelligence Officers’ Reserve Corps (MIORC) in favor of transferring intelligence specialists to the Regular Army.
The National Defense Act of 1920 established the Officers’ Reserve Corps (ORC) to retain experienced troops after World War I. The MI section of the ORC was activated in 1921 and began using the sphinx symbol on its insignia in 1923. [See "This Week in MI History" #52 4 August1921] At the time, Assistant Chief of Staff (ACoS) G-2 Brig. Gen. Dennis E. Nolan viewed the organization as a way of expanding military intelligence operations and maintaining its experienced intelligence specialists while undergoing military downsizing after the war.
Shortly after the MIORC’s activation, Nolan noted specialists intended for his Military Intelligence Division (MID) were improperly placed within the Quartermaster Corps or the Regular Army. Of the 66,905 Army reserve officers in 1921, only 286 were eventually placed within the MIORC. Because military intelligence was not an established branch of the Army at the time, Nolan had little capability or authority to challenge the improper placement of intelligence personnel. Nolan also struggled with serious deficiencies in the capabilities of intelligence officers assigned to MID because of inadequate intelligence training given in reserve courses.
By the mid-1930s, the entire ORC was struggling with funding needs, and the MIORC especially was becoming unbalanced as a plethora of inexperienced and undertrained younger officers entered the service and experienced intelligence veterans left. The incoming MIORC personnel were, therefore, inadequate to produce a reserve force capable of meeting the G-2’s expectations.
In September 1937, Capt. P. M. Robinett from the MID Operations Branch submitted a report to Col. R. Warner McCabe, ACoS G-2, suggesting the MID limit all further appointments into the reserves. The growing unease about the MIORC’s usefulness to MID pushed the WDGS to study the feasibility of transferring all MI reserve officers to military intelligence duties within the Army’s other arms and services branches. The study identified numerous advantages to retaining the MIORC. These included the ability to maintain officers for intelligence duties and the secrecy
required within the MID; easy elimination of unsuitable officers; prevention of the grouping of officers by rank and age; and ability for MID to commission officers without a military background. These advantages outweighed the MIORC’s challenges, including the continuing lack of properly trained intelligence officers being sent to the MID. Abolishing the MIORC would also cause dilution within the pool of officers with adequate intelligence training and experience available to the MID and lower the morale of current MIORC personnel.
Regardless of the disadvantages of abolishing the MIORC, Colonel McCabe supported the idea. On 20 July 1939, after several draft proposals circulated among the WDGS and certain caveats were added, the General Staff sent their recommendation to Secretary Woodring. Woodring, however, disregarded the recommendation and also discouraged any attempts to improve the organization. One historian suggested MIORC officers who held positions of political power or influence undoubtedly influenced Woodring’s decision.
During World War II, many MIORC officers provided valuable intelligence expertise, but others were assigned to duties other than intelligence. On the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the MIORC contained 573 officers primarily working in public affairs. In the post-World War II period, the ORC was eventually reorganized into the U.S. Army Reserve and, in 1952, the MIORC was divided into the Military Intelligence Reserve Branch and the Army Security Reserve Branch. The Regular Army remained without an intelligence branch until 1962. [See "This Week in MI History" #141 1 July 1962]
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| Date Taken: | 07.14.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 07.14.2023 19:07 |
| Story ID: | 449273 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 126 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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