1950 Army Organized Reserve Recruitment Poster, KOR 10

Oversized Folder 1, 1950 Army Organized Reserve Recruitment Poster, KOR 10, Korean War Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.

The collection is composed of one original color 11" x 13 3/4" poster entitled "Citizen-Soldier First Class. Join the Army Organized Reserve Now!" The poster was created by the U.S. Army Recruiting Publicity Bureau, and is dated September 1, 1950. It was created for use during the Korean War in building the U.S. Army Reserve at a time when the Regular Army was heading overseas to Korea. The poster's graphics were created by American artist and illustrator Arthur Hershel Lidov of Chicago, Illinois.

There is no arrangement for this collection.

Between World War I and World War II, the U.S. Army planned for an Organized Reserve force of thirty-three divisions. When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, the number of Army Reserve officers on active duty rose from less than 3,000 to more than 57,000. WWII signified the beginning of a new era in national security, and from that point on the United States became the "arsenal of democracy" and "world guardian." This was a new mission in which the Army Reserve would play a major role. To defray the cost of maintaining such a large military force, Congress relied heavily on establishing and sustaining a more combat ready Army Reserve meant to deploy with the active Army worldwide during what became the Cold War era.

Although several plans were considered between 1945 and 1950 to reorganize the Organized Reserve Corps and the National Guard, by 1950 the general structure and missions resembled those that had existed before WWII. The Selective Service Act of 1948 controlled entrance into the Army's reserve components. The act stipulated that men between 19 and 26 who either volunteered for the active Army or were inducted for 21 months should serve, subsequently, in a reserve component for five years, but without any obligations concerning active duty for training or attendance at drills. This five-year obligation could be lowered to three by enlisting for that number of years in an Organized Reserve Corps or a National Guard unit. An individual could eliminate the five-year obligation entirely by extending active service for one more year. Young enlistees had other options. Other Congressional legislation strengthened the Organized Reserve Corps by allowing pay for inactive duty training and increased the attractiveness of the Corps and the National Guard by allowing reserve soldiers to qualify for retired pay.

The major units of the Active Reserve were not called to active duty during the Korean War. The Army considered them as part of a final reserve in the event of contingencies in other areas of the world, especially Europe. But, individuals were called from these Reserve units. In some cases, this led to a reduction in unit integrity at the state and local level. Distinct from many of the individual reservists, units often were absolutely unready for deployment at this point in the 1950s. The main reason was the failure in peacetime by the U.S. military to man these units at what are termed effective Tables of Organization and Equipment (TOE)-the minimum requirements to make a military unit combat-ready. For example, soon after mobilization, the strength of two National Guard units-the 40th and 45th Infantry Divisions-similar to many other reserve component units, was 50 percent or less of the TOE. during the Korean War.

Readiness of the reserve forces was further hampered by shortages of qualified personnel in critical military occupational specialty positions, therefore, preventing the divisions from having a full unit when inducted. This delayed combat readiness because of the time needed to train unit personnel, and to receive and assimilate untrained filler reservists assigned directly from the Army induction/reception stations. Between August 1950 and September 1951, over 500 miscellaneous units of the Active Reserve-which totaled some 5,370 officers and 28,850 enlisted men-received orders to active duty to round out active Army divisions. Insufficient funds and low recruiting rates hampered the organization of all Organized Reserve units at full strength, which would have required 146,000 officers and 956,000 enlisted men. In the several recalls of soldiers into active service during this period, the Army acquired 168,470 soldiers (43,106 officers and 125,364 enlisted men) from the Volunteer and Inactive Reserve.

The total number of Organized Reserve Corps members who served in Korea has not been determined. However, some 240,500 Organized Reserve Corps members were called to active duty during this period. According to one source, 40 percent of the organized reserve's strength mobilized. Over seventy units went to Korea. More than 400 units were called to active duty. These changes in the Army's reserve forces from the Korean War-era transformed the Organized Reserve Corps into the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR). This new organization was divided into a Ready Reserve, Standby Reserve, and Retired Reserve.

[This historical information was taken directly from the following sources: United States Army Reserve: Mobilization for the Korean War by Kathryn Roe Coker, Office of Army Reserve History, United States Army Reserve Command, Fort Bragg, N.C., 2013; "A History of the Army Reserve" article, Military.com, viewed in February 2018 at https://www.military.com/ army-birthday/history-army-reserve.html]

The collection was donated to the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina from a private donor in November 2017.