Historical Detachments, US Army

The Korean War suggested to US Army senior personnel the need to gather systematically information on the activities of major American military units. The value of historical accounts had been demonstrated during World War Two, when US Army historians followed the progress of American soldiers by conducting extensive interviews and compiling records of combat actions. While conducting interviews and collecting related materials for historical purposes, US Army investigators during World War Two also compiled combat information in After-Action Reports designed for immediate war-time use. When the Korean War began, the Assistant Chiefs of Staff, US Department of the Army, were responsible for recording and transmitting 'lessons learned' within respective spheres, while the US Army Historical Detachments were allowed to create a detailed record that could be used after the conflict to write official histories. Eventually eight US Army Historical Detachments were organised and committed to Korean between 15 Feb and 22 Jul 1951. Early operations of the Historical Detachments lacked centralised planning, however. Originally, a central organisation was improvised by activating US 8 Army Historical Service Detachment (Provisional). Personnel for this unit were drawn from other detachments in Korea, while the historical officers who conducted the interviews were drawn from the Reserves. The Provisional Detachment was eventually superceded by the first US Army Historical Detachment Headquarters. Despite the suddenness of the Korean conflict and the and the logistical problems caused by the rapidly changing military situation, the Historical Detachments were able to reconstruct many major battlefield operations through interviews, supplemented with recourse to conventional documentary sources.