ARMY READINESS REPORTING SYSTEMS, 1945-2003
William M. Donnelly
Special Publications
CMH Pub 70-130, Paper
2018; 190 pages, tables, illustrations
GPO S/N: 008-029-00649-9
Between the end of World War II and the start of the Kennedy Administration, the U.S. Army adopted and discarded a variety of readiness reporting systems, and then from 1964 to 2003 it revised AR 220-1 sixteen times. These cycles were at first driven by a tension between quantifying readiness and relying on the commander's judgment, and then, after the adoption of AR 220-1, by a tension between limiting the system to updating unit status and using it to manage resources. Furthermore, after the Vietnam War, the Army began expanding its concept of readiness from tactical units to the entire service. The quest for an ever more comprehensive measurement of readiness had several unintended consequences, the most serious of which was the corrosive pressure on commanders' integrity when the system became a de facto report card on their performance.
| Published: | August 28, 2024 |
The U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a subordinate command of Army University within the Training and Transformation Command (T2COM). CMH forges a single, comprehensive historical enterprise unparalleled in the U.S. armed forces and is responsible for the appropriate use of history throughout the United States Army. Traditionally, this mission has meant recording the official history of the Army in both peace and war, while advising the Army Staff on historical matters. This organization's enduring purpose is clear: to deliver full-spectrum decision support, steward the Army’s institutional memory, and operationalize history for the future force.
Welcome to CMH's Web catalog of publications. The catalog enables you to access the Center's complete collection of over 600 publications (https://history.army.mil/catalog/browse/title), from the most recent releases to those that date back decades. Also provided are guidelines for ordering publications (https://history.army.mil/catalog/order/ordering).
