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Operations Research (OR) emerged during World War II as an important means of assisting civilian and military leaders in making scientifically sound improvements in the design and performance of weapons and equipment. OR techniques were soon extended to address questions of tactics and strategy during the war and, after the war, to matters of high-level political and economic policy. Until now, the story of why and how the U.S. Army used OR has remained relatively obscure, surviving only in a few scattered official documents, in the memories of those who participated, and in a number of notes and articles that have been published about selected topics on military operations research. However, none of those materials amounts to a comprehensive, coherent history.
In this, the first of three planned volumes, Dr. Charles R. Shrader has for the first time drawn together the scattered threads and woven them into a well-focused historical narrative that describes the evolution of OR in the U.S. Army, from its origins in World War II to the early 1960s. He has done an admirable job of ferreting out the surviving evidence, shaping it into an understandable narrative, and placing it within the context of the overall development of American military institutions.
In this volume, Dr. Shrader carries the story up to 1962, the beginning of the McNamara era and of America’s long involvement in Vietnam. The subsequent volumes will cover Army OR during the McNamara era; its application in support of military operations in Vietnam; and its significant contributions to the Army’s post–Vietnam recovery and reorganization, ultimately leading to a victory (after only 100 hours of combat) in the first Gulf War in 1991 and the emergence of the U.S. Army as second to none in modern weaponry, tactical prowess, and strategic vision.
Table of Contents
Foreword.........iii
Preface..........v
Prologue...........3
Chapter One - Operations Research in World War II..........9
Chapter Two - Operations Research in the Postwar Era, 1945-50..........55
Chapter Three - The Expansion of Army Operations Research, 1950-62........85
Chapter Four - Operations Research and Combat Developments, 1950-62..........133
Chapter Five - The State of Army Operations Research, March 1963.........157
Epilogue........161
Appendix A - Biographical Sketches.......163
Appendix B - Army Air Forces Operations Analysis Elements in World War II......167
Appendix C - The Army Research and Development Program, 1924-62
Glossary...........181
Selected Bibliography of Works Cited......185
List of Figures
List of Tables
Illustrations
These volumes should be of interest not only to those of us in the Army’s analysis community but also to civilian leaders and military commanders and staff officers at all levels. The story of OR in the U.S. Army offers many insights into our past, our present, and our future. Its careful study will more than repay the time and effort that is invested.
