This is the part I was there for. Sorry it is long, but it you want to UNDERSTAND how the Army came back from the malaise of VN to what it became, at least scan it, and thank those remarkable leaders who made it happen!

Rebuilding the U.S. Army After Vietnam Crisis, Reform, and the Road to Desert Storm 1968 – 1991 The Depth of the Crisis (1968–1973)

The Army that emerged from Vietnam was, by many accounts, a broken institution.

The problems were severe and deeply interconnected, threatening the service's ability to function as a fighting force.

** Discipline and Morale Collapse**

"Fragging" — the murder or assault of officers and NCOs by their own troops, typically with fragmentation grenades — became a grim symbol of the era. The Army recorded hundreds of confirmed or suspected fragging incidents between 1969 and 1972. Racial tensions mirrored civilian unrest and sometimes erupted into outright brawls and riots on bases worldwide.

Drug Abuse Heroin, marijuana, and other drugs were widely available in Vietnam. A 1971 Army study found that roughly 10–15% of soldiers in Vietnam were using heroin. Addiction spread back to stateside posts an to U.S. forces in Europe (USAREUR), where the Army in Germany was considered by many officers to be nearly non-functional as a combat force by the early 1970s.

The Hollow Army Unit readiness collapsed. Equipment was worn out, spare parts were scarce, and re-enlistment rates plummeted. Senior NCOs — the institutional backbone of the Army — left in droves.

Congressional budget cuts following Vietnam gutted training and procurement. By the mid-1970s, many divisions could not field a full complement of operational tanks or aircraft.

Ending the Draft and the All-Volunteer Force (1973) President Nixon ended the draft in January 1973, and the All-Volunteer Force (AVF) came into being. This was a gamble of enormous proportions. Critics predicted the Army would become a force of the poor and uneducated, unable to man complex modern weapons systems. Early results were discouraging — recruiting standards were initially lowered and quality metrics suffered.

But ending the draft also removed the single greatest source of institutional resentment. Soldiers who chose to serve were a fundamentally different population than reluctant draftees. The Army now had a powerful incentive to make military service worthwhile — it had to compete for talent.

Leadership and Reform: The Rebuilding (1973–1982) A generation of officers who had served in Vietnam and been appalled by what they witnessed drove the reformation. Key leaders and initiatives reshaped the institution from the ground up.

General Creighton Abrams [I remember!] — Laying the Foundation As Army Chief of Staff (1972–1974), Abrams began the institutional rebuilding before his death in office. He restructured the relationship between active forces and the reserve component — the Abrams Doctrine — deliberately embedding combat support in the Reserve and National Guard. This ensured that no future president could go to war without mobilizing citizen-soldiers, guaranteeing public engagement with any major conflict.

General William DePuy and TRADOC The founding of Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in 1973 was arguably the most consequential reform of the era. DePuy was a demanding, unsentimental thinker who forced the Army to confront how it would actually fight a modern war — specifically, a Soviet armored assault in Central Europe. He oversaw the rewriting of the fundamental Army field manual, FM 100-5, shifting doctrine toward Active Defense and later toward AirLand Battle [I remember this].

Rebuilding the Non-Commissioned Officer Corps The NCO was deliberately re-elevated as the irreplaceable backbone of small-unit leadership. NCO academies were expanded and professionalized. This was foundational — no amount of doctrine or equipment matters without competent sergeants leading at the squad and platoon level.

The National Training Center The National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California (opened 1981) was a transformative development. Units rotated through force-on-force exercises against a dedicated Opposing Force (OPFOR) that played Soviet tactics ruthlessly and realistically. For the first time, brigade-level units trained under conditions of genuine stress, confusion, and defeat. The lessons were brutal and invaluable.

AirLand Battle Doctrine The revised FM 100-5 of 1982 codified AirLand Battle, which emphasized initiative, agility, depth, and synchronization. Rather than simply absorbing a Soviet attack, U.S. forces would strike deep into follow-on echelons, disrupt enemy command and control, and seize the initiative. It was offensive-minded, intellectually serious, and designed around the new weapons entering the force.

The Big Five Weapons Systems [I was part of this from supporting programming and budgeting systems in the Pentagon, to fielding the systems as a maintenance company commander and logistics support staff.]

** The equipment modernization planned and developed through the 1970s began arriving in the early1980s. [I was there on both ends]. These five systems transformed the Army's combat capability and were central to its restoration as a world-class fighting force." [I was there in the 1970s and 80s.

1. M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank Fielded beginning in 1980, the Abrams replaced the aging M60 series. Its revolutionary Chobhamcomposite armor, 1,500-horsepower turbine engine, laser rangefinder, thermal imaging, and 120mm smoothbore gun (in the M1A1 variant) represented a generational leap over its predecessors — and over most adversaries' equipment.

2. M2/M3 Bradley Infantry/Cavalry Fighting Vehicle Replacing the M113 armored personnel carrier [the heaters almost never work and the parts were not available in the supply system!], the Bradley gave infantry the ability to fight from theirvehicle, not merely ride in it. Its 25mm chain gun and TOW missile launcher made it a serious threat to Soviet infantry fighting vehicles and light armor, enabling true combined-arms integration at the squad level.

3. UH-60 Black Hawk Utility Helicopter Replacing the iconic but aging UH-1 Huey, the Black Hawk was faster, more survivable, and capable of carrying more troops. It redefined Army aviation's tactical mobility and became the workhorse of air assault operations for decades to come.

4. AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter Entering service in 1986, the Apache was designed specifically to kill Soviet tanks — at night, in bad weather, at standoff range. Its Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) targeting system, 30mm chain gun, and Hellfire missiles gave the Army an anti-armor capability that no previous attack helicopter could match.

5. MIM-104 Patriot Air Defense Missile System Replacing aging HAWK and Nike Hercules systems, Patriot provided the Army with a modern, mobile, integrated air defense capability against aircraft and tactical ballistic missiles. It represented the high-technology apex of the Army's air defense modernization program.

The Proof: Operation Desert Storm (1991)