Note 39 — Chapter III · Plans Are Made and Forces Are Readied

If the strategic plan were fixed, he recommended that one or more of the following measures be adopted: (1) increase the number of engineer construction troops; (2) shift the operation to an area where major air and supply bases could be constructed without encountering the adverse weather and port conditions existing on Leyte; (3) “decrease the tempo of the strategic plan”; and finally (4) decrease the scope of the air and supply requirements. Nothing was to be gained “by undertaking an overambitious program from the beginning that cannot be completed on a time schedule that will assure early and adequate support to future operations.”39