“Most of us are too young to remember pre-WW2 USA, but us historians remember our military was in such shambles that they drilled back then with broom sticks rather than rifles.”
That is true, my grandfather was in the 101st Field Artillery and at the start of WW2 they were still running around with horse drawn field guns.
Hell there’s old video out there of our “armor corps” training with plywood mock ups placed over light trucks because they didn’t have any actual tanks to train with.
Japs ran into the same issue later in the war. They prepared for it, we were not, they did not count on our tenacity to fight 2 wars at the same time.
We didn’t have STUPID ROE’s either. My dad fought under MacArthur for 6 yrs. Staff Sgt, he and a PFC put Old Glory back up on THE ROCK when old Mack was retaking it under sniper fire, both won Bronze Stars. It stayed up 2 weeks until the battle was won, then moved to another location in an official Flag Raising event. BIL under Merrill for 6 yrs.