On March 5, 1918, Secretary of War Newton D. Colonel Ira Clinton Welborn, was an infantry officer who had been awarded the Medal of Honor for service in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Throughout the war, the army units, resulting in a divided command structure with two men-Rockenbach and Welborn-separately directing the development of the American armored arm.Įisenhower's mentor-Lt. Initially, two independent US tank organizations developed in parallel the Tank Corps (AEF) in France, and the Tank Service in the USA. Ira Clinton Welborn, first head of the United States Army Tank Service Eisenhower became the #3 leader of the new tank corps and rose to temporary ( Bvt.) Lieutenant Colonel in the National Army and trained tank crews at 'Camp Colt'–his first command–on the grounds of 'Pickett's Charge' on the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Civil War battle site. He had performed so well as an administrator that, upon his return to Camp Meade, he was told he would be staying in the United States, where his talent for logistics would be put to good use in establishing the army's primary tank training center at Camp colt in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battalion shipped out on the night of March 26, but Eisenhower did not go with it. In mid-March the 1st Battalion, Heavy Tank Service (as it was then known) was ordered to prepare for movement overseas, and Eisenhower went to New York with the advance party to work out the details of embarkation and shipment with port authorities. Captain Dwight Eisenhower, later General Dwight Eisenhower of World War II fame, had gone to Camp Meade, Maryland, in February 1918 with the 65th Engineer Regiment, which had been activated to provide the organizational basis for the creation of the army's first heavy tank battalion. Light tanks with a crew of only two, these were mass-produced by the French during World War I, but the Americans had to be trained first. In 1917 the French produced the Renault FT, which was one of the types operated by the US Army in France.

The United States entered World War I unprepared and unequipped for tank warfare.

Light tanks with a crew of only two, these were mass-produced during World War I. Renault FT tanks being operated by the US Army in France.

5.6 Current tanks in use by the US Army.

1.5.1.1 M3 Light Tank and M5 Light Tank.

U.s. army tank modern