COAST. I ARTILLERY JOURNAL, - Air Defense Artillery

Tactical Inspection by the Harbor Defense
Commander
By MAJOR R. S. ATWOOD, C. A. C.
W HENEVER I think of an inspection it calls to my mind an inspection
system I witnessed some years ago in another country
where a small street car company employed a field inspector of inspectors
of street car conductors. This struck me at the time as .very
amusing, but in view of the number of inspections a battery of Coast
Artillery gets today, that street car company seems to have been somewhat
negligent in supervising the collection of fares. We have General
Inspections, Materiel Inspections, Training Inspections, and Tactical
Inspections, both formal and informal, and all imposed in the course
of a year upon a unit by several different officials.
This exhaustive system had its beginning in the creation of the
Inspector General's Department in 1777. In 1778 that able soldier,
Baron von Steuben, was appointed Inspector General of the Colonial
forces and immediately created a model company which should be the
standard for the remainder of the Army. This, together with many and
thorough inspections, produced remarkable results, as our system
today, with a little pressure where necessary, still does.
A formal inspection is an inventory or final examination of both the
commander and his command, and if there are not too many of them,
each one should be a source of satisfaction and profit to all concerned.
Human nature is such that we all need watching of one kind or another
in order to do our best.
Before proceeding to detailed consideration of the Tactical Inspection
of a Harbor Defense let us orient ourselves by considering the
general subject of Tactical Inspections. These inspections are prescribed
by A. R. 265-10 and T. R. 10-5 for the purpose of promoting
and ascertaining the efficiency of training and instruction, the battle
efficiency of units and officers, and the readiness of a command for
active field duty. For our purpose the last appears to include the
other objectives and may be considered the object of a tactical inspection,
that is, to promote and ascertain the readiness of a command for
active ,field duty. A tactical inspection should be concerned only indirectly
with materiel and training, as these subjects are properly
covered by materiel inspections and training inspections.