COAST. I ARTILLERY JOURNAL, - Air Defense Artillery

TACTICAL INSPECTION 447
Formal Tactical Inspections of the Harbor Defense are made yearly
by the Corps Area or Department Commander, the District Commander,
and the Harbor Defense Commander, in inverse order. The
Harbor Defense Commander's inspection may be considered in the
nature of a practice game for the inspections to follow and the Corps
Area or Department Commander's inspection, coming as it does at the
end of the traiping year, as the final examination for the commander
and his command.
Regulations prescribe that tactical inspections will comprise actual
solutions by commanders and individuals of tactical, field firing,
supply, and communication exercises sufficient for the purposes of the
inspection, by units at maximum available strength, equipment and
transportation, with modifications when necessary due to reduced
strength. The formal annual inspection follows the formal inspections
of their units by subordinate commanders and presumably numerous
informal inspections by the Harbor Defense Commander.
At the conclusion of the Harbor Defense Commander's inspection
a critique should be held, participated in by all officers. The commander
is required to prepare a record of his inspection setting forth
the results for the information of superior and subordinate commanders.
With this brief review let us consider Harbor Defense Tactical
Inspections we have witnessed in the past and determine if we can how
closely they conform, not to the regulations, but to the real mission of
such inspections, keeping in mind the real objective, which is to promote
and determine the readiness of a command for active field service, or
in other words, for war declared at the termination of the inspection
by a strong hostile naval power and announced by the appearance of
his fleet and transports off our own Harbor Defense.
In the usual inspection the Harbor Defense Commander knows as
much about his command at the beginning of the inspection, through
the materiel inspection of his Ordnance Officerand Artillery Engineer,
required by regulations, his own informal inspections continuing
throughout the training period, and various other sources of information,
as he does at the conclusion of the formal inspection. Too frequently
it is a formal ceremony, even an annoying one for all, conducted
to satisfy the regulations.
Often there seems to be confusion as to what it is all about. In
case of training, this is natural, but materiel is also drawn in and the
polish on the brass work receives much attention so that it often really
becomes a general inspection.
In case the inspections of subordinate commanders are made at
the same time, and the staff is present in full strength, the ceremony