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The president is straight to the point.

The Army Secretary Stimson, who had a thick face and a beautiful goatee, nodded slightly and first reported to the president—or in other words, tried to calm the president.

In fact, just half a year ago, the U.S. Army was just a trivial force. As of July 10, 1914, the U.S. Army had only 126,306 soldiers and 7,139 officers. The National Guard (an independent local force) had 121,070 people.

The strong anti-militarist movement in the country restricted the 'government' from increasing military spending in peacetime, and at the same time, it could not expand the continental army.

This situation aroused great dissatisfaction among the US political and military circles long before the outbreak of the European War.

Congressman P Hobson once wrote: "Any European power can seize bases on our coasts, but we cannot seize bases in Europe. For this purpose, there needs to be a large army... We do not have an army, and even with an army, we cannot use it because we do not have the tools to send it across the ocean. We are the only powerful power without a merchant fleet and therefore without the tools to transport a large number of troops across the ocean."

He called on Americans to end their universal sleep and focus on ensuring "defense" and "universal peace", that is, to establish a strong army and navy in order to interfere in politics around the world.

In order to widely publicize the military and attract the attention of the people to the military, with the efforts of Hobson and others, various militarist groups such as the American Peace Alliance and the Arbitration Court were established, with the purpose of promoting the idea that the country's army and navy should be strengthened to a scale that can be sufficient to fight against any major power.

The aggressive expansion of the East Asian League in the Pacific has undoubtedly contributed to the militarist movements like Hobson.

After all efforts, the small number of American troops were equipped with first-class light weapons. During the Army exercise in 1911, the United States began to use motorcycles for reconnaissance and use heavy-duty vehicles to transport materials. The US side also tried to apply the aircraft to military purposes. In June 1910, a test was conducted to drop model bombs from the aircraft to the warship model on Keuke Island. From the end of 1910 to 1911, pilot Erie successfully conducted experiments on taking off and landing on the cruisers Birmingham and Pennsylvania. In 1913, twenty-eight aircraft ordered by the US Army were equipped with armored cockpits and machine gun 'fire' correctors. In 1914, the three-inch machine gun used in the aircraft was even tested!

From 1910 to 1912, the Army Department and the General Staff carried out a lot of preparations for the reorganization of the army. The reorganization plan was formulated by the General Staff Officer Committee headed by General Wood, Chief of the General Staff. General Wood believed that regular cadres must be equipped with troops, expand the number of officers in peacetime, and put both the regular army and the National Guard under unified command.

The plan stipulates the establishment of an army that can fight against any Eurasian power, requiring that in the event of a war, at least 460,000 soldiers, 43,000 coastal artillery (guard units) and 300,000 reserve units can be mobilized within three weeks. In order to facilitate the formation of an army and ensure that the army has reserve units, it is recommended to divide the country into 16 militia military regions.

After the outbreak of the European War, given that China quickly seized the German Pacific colony and pushed the forward base to the front line of the Marshall Islands, only 2,000 nautical miles away from Hawaii (at that time, the usual combat radius of armored warships was 2,500 nautical miles), the Philippines was even more surrounded by China. In order to cope with the possible outbreak of the total Sino-US war, and to deter China, Congress passed the Military Expansion Law and the Military Appropriation Law from September to October 1914, which increased the original 31 regiments to 65 according to the Military Expansion Law. In order to train new recruits, thirty-two barracks (sixteen for regular military use and sixteen for National Guards). Each barracks can accommodate 41,000 soldiers. Starting from the fall of 1914, trained by a small number of officers, military academies and officers who tried to hire from other countries.
Chapter completed!