Creating+an+Armycm

CREATING AN ARMY

In 1939, President Roosevelt expanded the army to 277,000 soldiers just days before Germany attacked Poland. Before the spring on 1940 most of congress had opposed a peacetime draft but after France surrendered to Germany two members of congress came up with the Selective Service and Training Act to begin the first peacetime draft in America.

In the month after Pearl Harbor, more than 60,000 men enlisted in the army. Many new recruits had to live in tents opposed to barracks during training due to the sudden over flow of enlistees. Some even had to carry sticks instead of guns because of the weapon shortage. Sometimes rocks were thrown instead of grenades, and trucks were moved to imitate the positioning of tanks.

Once enlisted, the recruits were given physical exams and injections and given a uniform. The uniform had a label of "G.I." which stood for "Government Issue". This is why American Soldiers were called GIs.After taking an Aptitude test t he recruits went to basic training for eight full weeks.