Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse
HHB
Chart 6—ROAD Infantry, Armored, and Mechanized
Division Artillery Organization, 1963
105-mm.
HOW BN
DIV ARTY
155-mm./
8-in.HOW BN
762-mm.
ROCKET BN
(Honest John)
Note: Infantry division artillery had towed weapons, while armored and mechanized division artillery had
self-propelled weapons.
259
vation helicopters in the division artillery headquarters battery replaced aviation
assets that had been elimi nated under the ROCID tables. The artillery for the new
mechanized infantry division artillery and armored divi sion artillery contained
the same armament, but all the field pieces were self-propelled. 26
A ROAD structure was not initially planned for the airborne division.
Nevertheless, as CONARC prepared to brief General Decker on ROAD–65,
General Eddleman asked that a concept for the reorganization of the airborne division
be available. Eddleman thought that a modified version of the ROAD concept
could be applied to the airborne division, such as using towed artillery instead of
self-propelled weapons, eliminating the 8-inch howitzer, and substituting the lighter
318-mm. rocket (Little John) for the Honest John. The proposed artillery organization
for the airborne division included a headquarters and headquarters battery,
three towed 105-mm. howitzer battalions, and a composite bat talion of Little Johns
and 155-mm. howitzers, but the final tables published in August 1963 eliminated
the 155-mm. howitzers, which reduced the composite battalion to a single battery
of four Little John launchers (Chart 7). As in the infantry division, ten observa tion
helicopters were added to the division artillery head quarters battery. 27
Although Army leaders wanted the ROAD reorganization accomplished as
soon as possible, the Berlin crisis during the spring and early summer of 1961
delayed the effort. The Cuban missile crisis in the fall of 1962 and a scarcity
of funds compounded the bottleneck even further. In January 1963, Defense
26 Ltr ATCG 322 (Div), CG, CONARC to CofS, 1 Mar 1961, sub: Reorganization Objective Army
Divisions 1961–1965, copy in CMH files; TOE 6–300E (draft), undated; TOE 6–300E, 15 Jul 1952.
27 TOE 6–200E (draft), undated; TOE 6–200E, 15 Aug 1963; “Reorganization Objective Army
Divisions 1965 (ROAD–65) Airborne Division” (Fort Monroe, Va.: Headquarters, Continental Army
Command, 1961), copy in CMH files.