Detached Service Law

The Detached Service Law, passed by the United States Congress in 1912, prohibited military officers under the rank of major from being assigned to detached service, such as to embassies abroad or civilian departments, for more than four successive years. It was known in the army as the Manchu Law. It was not a separate piece of legislation but was a provision of the Army appropriations act that required a Detached Officers List be kept by the Army to enforce its regulation limiting the amount of time an officer could spend away from the organization in which he was commissioned. Prior to passage of the act, detached service was limited by policy, using a regulation created and enforced by General Order No. 68 (26 May 1911), issued by the War Department in response to criticism of the Army for creating a General Staff in 1903, which many in Congress philosophically opposed in a standing army. The regulation was also intended to curb favoritism shown in embassy and other "soft living" assignments perceived as "homesteading," i.e. "permanent residence" in an assignment. The regulation affected many Army agencies and all aviation officers except those permanently assigned to the Signal Corps. It varied in wording from year to year, but all variations stressed that at least one-third of an officer's time in service be spent with a "troop unit". Regulations in succeeding years tended to be more complex and legalistic as challenges to the policy grew in the officer ranks, and after 1914, included all officers in the grade of colonel or lower. The regulation required an officer to serve troop duty in his "arm of the service" (branch) for at least two years in any six-year period. Leave, illness, and travel time did not count towards the two required years. The Manchu Law was rigorously enforced by the General Staff and was much hated by the field forces. It was suspended during World War I and repealed by the National Defense Act of 1920. The term arose in usage comparing staff officers sent back to their regiments to bureaucrats of the Manchu dynasty ousted by revolution in China at the same time.

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