As I arrived in Germany, assigned to 1st Bn (then BG), 30th Infantry, the men kept talking about Col. DePuy. He was so admired that I never forgot him. Turns out that DePuy left our unit to get his first star and assignment to the War College. We hear the doctrine that the media calls the Powell Doctrine, but Powell did not originate any doctrine. General DePuy however is the man responsible for the Army doctrine followed even today. Wikipedia has a write up on him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._DePuy The stories the men told me amazed me. They were proud to be in his unit. My unit history is here, though extremely brief. http://www.stewart.army.mil/units/history.asp?id=155 I was then the Company clerk of this unit and want to add a bit to this history. I arrived in October 1962 when it was still a Battle Group. The Battle Group had a number of units. It was first, the main command of the approx. 2000 men unit. It was the unit that had been commanded by DePuy. We had infantry units in a number of companies, the medics unit, combat and support that had nuclear weapons and I believe some tanks. Tanks normally went to armor units. We had the motor pool, the communications unit so we could support ourselves in combat. When they changed it to the Battalion, the number of companies were reduced to 3 companies and Combat and support got absorbed into HQ/HQ company, my unit. Anyway, DePuy should get the honor he deserves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._DePuy DePuy was a General in the Vietnam War and rose to Lt. General there. Do any of you Army old timers know of this man?
I do now. The Powell Doctrine is just a revised version of the Weinberger Doctrine. Don't see where Gen. DePoy had anything to do with ether doctrines. The whole idea about the Weinberger and Powell doctrines is so we never end up finding ourselves in another Vietnam War. President G.H. Bush followed the Weinberger Doctrine leading up to and during the first Gulf war (Desert Storm.) G.H. Bush went to war with Reagan's military and was able to put 500,000 boots on the ground. President G.W. Bush inherited Clinton's military and ignored the Weinberger and Powell doctrines and as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said, "You go to war with the military you have." That was a military that was over downsized during the Clinton administration in a dangerous world. G.W. Bush went to war with Clinton's military only being able to put 200,000 boots on the ground. http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/Articles/1991/1991 dubois.pdf
I'm not Army, I'm 51 and a veteran of Operation Desert Shield/Storm (USAF). I don't know if that qualifies me as an "old timer" or not, but I'm familiar with Gen. DePuy. To address the Soviet conventional threat in Europe, the Armys Gen. DePuy's AirLand Battle doctrine united the US Army and Air Force during the 15 years from 1975 until 1990 when Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait. Basically this active defense doctrine stressed the importance on heavy firepower and the massing of forces along the forward edge of the battle area. . The initial purpose for the deep battle, was to delay and weaken Soviet second and follow-on echelons during a European conventional war. Deep battle was formally introduced to US warfighters through the Army's AirLand Battle doctrine during the early 1980's. So, going full circle, the Persian Gulf War tested US deep battle doctrine. By Air Force accounts the deep battle was well managed and executed.. Conversely, the Army was thoroughly disappointed with the prosecution of the deep battle during Desert Storm. This frustration stems from the fact that the deep battle was synchronized by the JFACC (Joint force air component commander) and not by the ground forces commander which was a violation of joint Army doctrine. I think these contentious issues between airmen and soldiers have since been resolved.
The DePuy Doctrine is a war fighting doctrine. At the time it was put into action, it dramatically changed how the Army fights wars. When General Franks invaded Iraq, his was a updated DePuy doctrine since Franks had later weapons and high tech. Franks took the most modern army to war. Also, Powell did approve the Franks led Invasion.
You have a better grip on the DePuy doctrine than the post number 2 has. General Franks himself used the DePuy doctrine in what the press dubbed Shock and Awe. Franks of course had high tech tools that DePuy did not have.
Yes, Gen. Depuy took over TRADOC and introduced the extended battlefield. I used the term "deep battle" in my earlier post. What that means is the battlefield had a deeper physical dimension, a time dimension, an air and land dimension. Fighting the Vietnam war left the US developmentally behind the Soviet Union. Gen. Depuy wanted to modernize the Army technologically. Desert Storm was the culmination of a doctrine Gen. Depuy implemented. An offense oriented doctrine that involved the close interaction between air and land forces.
What got me interested in General DePuy was he was the commanding officer of the unit I was in when i served in Germany. He ranked number 1 commander of Battalions at the time.
The services have a lot of unsung heroes and leaders that never make the spotlight. Certainly General Depuy is one of those. After fighting a war of attrition in Vietnam for over a decade the US Army was depleted - in morale, personnel and equipment. The draft was rescinded. This meant the Army had to rebuild on a voluntary basis in terms of manpower, and had to rebuild it's assets to counter the Soviet Union's growing technological edge. Gen. Depuy took the Army from it's lowest point post-Vietnam into a force to be reckoned with and a force that would give the Soviet Union pause should they choose to invade Europe. He took the Army into the 21st Century.
I wonder if DePuy was the general in Vietnam who put the word out to all field commanders, you have the Air Cav, use it like horse cavalry not like infantry ?
DePuy, the way men under him told me, was more akin to Patton. I just missed serving under DePuy but I saw the men he trained and how they operated. They held him in awe. Even my own Company commander held him in awe. I chatted with my former CO when he had moved to TX and retired from teaching at a college. He still held DePuy in awe and he retired as a Lt. Col. He knew him though I had not met him. I knew the replacing Col but do not recall him being held in awe. I can't recall his name in fact. Anyway, in Vietnam, DePuy was famous for firing commanders. There he rose to Lt. Gen.
