April 1917 found the United States ill prepared for war. For the first two years of the war in Europe, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson resisted enlarging the armed forces as he tried to mediate between the belligerents. In 1914 the U.S. Army numbered just 98,000; much of it in overseas commitments such as the Philippines.
By the time of the Mexican Border crisis, Wilson was ready for a modest increase in the size of the Army. The National Defense Act of 1916 brought the Regular Army to 127,000 strong and the National Guard to 181,000 (on paper, at least) by April 1917. But this still made the U.S. Army fourteenth in the world in size. For instance, twelve of the thirteen larger armies were already mired in the war; four of them as adversaries of the United States.
Global responsibilities
American military policy through the end of 1916 was dedicated to protecting its borders and coastlines, plus its interests in the Caribbean basin and the Pacific. By 1917 there were 12,000 soldiers stationed in Hawaii and about 5,000 U.S. military personnel defending the Canal Zone. In addition, about 1,000 soldiers were stationed in Tientsin, China. Under President Wilson, U.S. military forces briefly occupied Nicaragua (1914), Haiti (1915) and the Dominican Republic (1916). He also occupied Mexico’s largest port, Veracruz, for seven months in 1914.
U.S. Marines were also sent to Cuba in 1917. By the end of the year there were two thousand Marines operating outside of the base at Guantánamo.
In January, 1917, the United States purchased the islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John in the Virgin Islands from Denmark. As a result, the U.S. would have to defend those as well.
America’s largest overseas commitment was the Philippines. The U.S. Army drew a successful counterinsurgency campaign to completion there by 1914. By 1917, there were 14,400 American troops in the Philippines. In fact, U.S. forces would remain there for three more decades.
Men Wanted for the United States Army – Poster from 1914
Situation on the ground
The Army was not prepared to fight in Europe. In April 1917 it had 127,588 men. The National Guard had mobilized 80,446 men. Machine guns were a rarity in the Army of 1917, the inventory being about 1,500 of them. The British had introduced tanks to the world in September 1916 but by the following April, the U.S. Army hadn’t yet studied them. Although American chemist James Bert Garner had invented the gas mask in 1915, the U.S. had no poison gas capability or gas masks in early 1917.
At Sea
The United States Navy was in a similar situation. It had warships, but they were undermanned. Because of the lack of men and ammunition, the Navy did not practice gunnery very much in peacetime. However when war came to the Atlantic, the Naval Act of 1916 enlarged the Navy through an ambitious program adding ten battleships, sixteen cruisers and dozens of destroyers and submarines. But in a war against German submarines, destroyers and patrol craft were needed most.
And in the Air
The first landing and the first takeoff on a ship of a powered aircraft were both on U.S. Navy ships. Yet the Navy only had 54 airplanes. The Army Aviation Section had 224 airplanes, but few of them were fit for combat. By mid-1916 the Aviation Section (later called the Army Air Service) was enlarged and plans were made to develop new aircraft and the pilots to fly them. (More on U.S. preparedness here.)
