On June 15, 1930, a poised cadet from the Virginia Military Institute proudly drove his dilapidated old Ford through the gates of Fort Myer, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, and home of the crack 3rd Cavalry Regiment.
A dozen years after World War I ended, Cadet Charlie Dayhuff and other Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets were beginning six weeks of concentrated training given to men who wanted to be officers in the modern U.S. Cavalry. Cadet Dayhuff was about to trade his car for a horse.
At the same time, the U.S. military at the highest levels was debating whether to trade its horses for cars—or for some form of mechanized vehicle. The horse cavalry had survived World War I and the 1920s. But by 1930, the debate over horse or machine had begun in earnest and would not conclude until after World War II had started.
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