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History of Field Artillery magazine: pointing the way to the future.

Article Excerpt
The following is the history of the professional magazine for Army and Marine Field Artillerymen from the first edition, January-March 1911, to this final March-April 2007 edition. The article is written in two overlapping parts: (1.) 1911 through 1987 taken from information written by then Major David T. Zabecki for the Military Periodicals: United States and Selected International Journals and Newspapers published by Greenwood Press in 1990. (1) and (2.) 1987 through 2007 by Patrecia Slayden Hollis, Managing Editor from 1987 to 1995 and Editor from 1995 to the present.

Editor

The first edition of the current Field Artillery, subtitled A Joint Magazine for US Field Artillerymen, was January-March 1911 under the title The Field Artillery Journal, affectionately referred to as "FAJ." The publication and parent organization, the US Army Field Artillery Association (USAFAA), were the consequences of the Artillery Reorganization Act of 1907, which split the US Army's Artillery into the separate branches of Field Artillery and Coast Artillery. Both the association and the FAJ were the idea of Captain (later Major General) William J. Snow, who saw a need for some vehicle through which the relatively tiny new branch (only 180 active-duty officers) could develop an identity.

The new association and its journal had three main purposes: to disseminate "professional knowledge," promote "a feeling of interdependence among the different arms and of hearty cooperation by all" and "promote understanding between the regular and militia forces." (2) These purposes remain in the final edition as printed on the inside front cover of this magazine.

The second purpose--what currently is known as "combined arms" thinking--was fairly progressive for its day. But it was in the third purpose that FAJ was a real leader. Relations between Active and Reserve Components of the Army were shaky, at best, prior to World War I. The efforts of the FAJ to include militia participation broke new ground and resulted in favorable comment from other branch association journals. (3)

The first issue of the 1911 FAJ had Snow as the editor. Although only one of the articles in that edition carried his byline, he personally wrote all but two. (4) Between 1911 and 1950, FAJ had 19 editors, all but two of whom held the position on a part-time basis. (See the figure.) Some only served for a few months, but the average tenure during that time was about three years.

Vision for the Future. The early editions of FAJ were influenced heavily by French thought. Quite often, articles translated from French journals outnumbered pieces from American contributors. Prior to World War I, translated German articles also were used heavily.

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Throughout the interwar years, FAJ had a fair degree of impact on contemporary military thinking. In October 1918, Snow, by then a major general and Chief of Field Artillery, published a retrospective on American Field Artillery operations during the Great War that proved to be truly visionary in its projection of future warfare.

Bucking the traditional wisdom of the day, Snow maintained that the trench warfare of World War I had been a temporary aberration and that "open warfare" would characterize the conflicts of the future. For that reason, he concluded, Field Artillery training would continue to be geared toward supporting maneuver rather than static warfare. (5)

Two other articles also appeared in the interwar years that were significant for what was said as well as the fact that their authors would turn out to be major leaders in World War II. In 1937, Brigadier General Lesley J. McNair published an article on the newly emerging military applications of the helicopter. (6) And in 1941, Major Albert C. Wedemeyer presented an interesting article on antitank warfare. In his article published in the May 1941 edition, Wedemeyer, an Infantryman, stated, "The best defense against the lightning-like, destructive blows associated with modern warfare is the offense. Therefore, tanks and planes, with their recognized offensive powers, are the most effective means against armored forces and air units." (7)

Although the early FAJ accepted private advertising to defray costs, this was stopped by Congress in 1931, forcing the USAFAA to depend primarily on subscriptions and the sale of books, etc., for FAJ funding. (8)

FAJ's most important contributor was retired Redleg Colonel Conrad H. Lanza. Between 1921 and 1950, Lanza published 89 articles in FAJ. Most of them were historical or analyses of the current campaigns of World War II.

Starting in May 1942, Lanza also wrote a regular feature titled "Perimeters in Paragraphs." The column commented on significant diplomatic developments, summarized current military operations and occasionally made predictions. "Perimeters in Paragraphs" attracted a fair amount of attention during the World War II years. For example, Hanson W. Baldwin of the New York Times quoted Lanza in his column in the 4 December 1942 issue.

During World War II, FAJ was a central vehicle in what would become a high point in Soviet-American military cooperation. The November 1942 edition carried an article on antitank warfare written by Soviet Major General N....

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