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for guided missiles and aircraft armament. It has a Plans and Programs Branch, a District and Industrial Services Branch, and four commodity branches-Guided Missiles, Ammunition, Weapons and Fire Control, and Tank-Automotive. It provides the overall administration of government-owned plants, both active and stand-by; it cooperates closely with industry and with the manufacturing arsenals in production and mobilization planning. The arsenals supply small amounts of materiel in peacetime, and develop plans and methods for mass production in wartime. The division also supervises the 14 ordnance procurement districts, each of which procures all ordnance items manufactured in its area.

FIELD SERVICE DIVISION. This division deals with the storage, issue, repair, and maintenance of ordnance materiel and ammunition. It supervises and directs packaging activities; is responsible for determination of materiel requirements, including major items, spare parts, and tools; overseas the preparation of military and technical publications; and supervises ammunition renovation and demilitarization. It supervises the cataloging of ordnance items, maintenance engineering support, and management of the ordnance portion of the Army Stock Fund. It is responsible for the administration and operation of some 25 depots, several storage activities, and the Major Item Supply Management Agency.

TRAINING AND ASSIGNMENT OF PERSONNEL. The increasing complexity of modern weapons, including rockets, guided missiles, and special atomic weapons, places a heavy responsibility on the Ordnance Corps for training technical specialists for worldwide support of the using arms. These spe

cialists are either career ordnance officers whose technical education and experience fit them for command, staff, and technical advisory assignments, or specially trained enlisted men.

In an oversea theater, the ordnance officer who is directly under the theater commander is himself in command of the organization which supplies and maintains ordnance items for the theater. Within that organization, other ordnance officers command the various supply and maintenance bases. In the continental armies within the United States, the Army ordnance officer is primarily a technical advisor rather than a commander; but he exercises technical administration over ordnance supply and maintenance activities within his Army area.

Trained enlisted specialists are provided by the Corps for the various elements of the Army as required. Their tasks are supply and maintenance operations in connection with ammunition, combat and transport vehicles, artillery, fire control materiel, small arms, free-flight rockets, guided missiles, and other weapons and equipment.

The Ordnance Corps agency responsible for providing trained manpower is the U.S. Army Ordnance Training Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. Major training programs are conducted at the U.S. Army Ordnance School (also at Aberdeen) and the U.S. Army Ordnance Guided Missile School at Redstone Arsenal (Huntsville, Ala.). Training with new equipment is carried on at the various commodity commands and arsenals.

For full information on the Army's weapons which the Ordnance Corps has designed and produced, see chapter

9.

CHIEFS OF ORDNANCE. The following have served

2 Jul 1812-1 Jun 1821

1 Jun 1821-25 Mar 1848 20 Mar 1848-10 Jul 1851 10 July 1851-23 Apr 1861 23 Apr 1861-15 Sep 1863 15 Sep 1863-12 Sep 1864 12 Sep 1864-20 May 1874 23 Jun 1874-23 Jun 1891 23 Jun 1891-29 Mar 1899 5 Apr 1899-22 Nov 1901 22 Nov 1901-15 Jul 1918 16 Jul 1918-1 Apr 1930 2 Jun 1930-2 Jun 1934 2 Jun 1934-3 Jun 1938 3 Jun 1938-2 Jun 1942

2 Jun 1942-31 May 1946

Col. Decius Wadsworth Col. George Bomford Col. George Talcott . Col. Henry K. Craig .Brig. Gen. James W. Ripley .Brig. Gen. George D. Ramsay .Brig. Gen. Alexander B. Dyer .Brig. Gen. Stephen V. Benet ..Brig. Gen. Daniel W. Flagler Brig. Gen. Adelbert R. Buffington ..Maj. Gen. William Crozier .Maj. Gen. Clarence C. Williams .Maj. Gen. Samuel Hof Maj. Gen. William H. Tschappat .Maj. Gen. Charles M. Wesson .Lt. Gen. Levin H. Campbell

1 Jun 1946-1 Nov 1949 1 Nov 1949-1 Nov 1953 1 Nov 1953-2 Apr 1958 2 Apr 1958

.Maj. Gen. Everett S. Hughes . Maj. Gen. Elbert L. Ford .Lt. Gen. Emerson L. Cummings ..Maj. Gen. John H. Hinrichs

THE QUARTERMASTER CORPS

The Quartermaster Corps furnishes the Army with the following categories of supplies and equipment: food; clothing; most petroleum products and accessory equipment; general supplies and equipment; maintenance engineering equipment and parts; aerial supply equipment; and Government headstones and markers. It mans, trains, and equips numerous specialized troop units, and operates an immense complex of depots, purchasing agencies, distribution centers, and the like.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. The Corps traces its origin to 16 June 1775, when the second Continental Congress, following Washington's address accepting command of the Army, passed a resolution providing for "one quarter master general for the grand army, and a deputy, under him, for the separate army." On the same day Congress provided for a Commissary General of Stores and Purchases, in whom it vested responsibility for feeding the troops. In January, 1777, Washington, on authorization of Congress, appointed a Clothier General to supervise the supply of clothing to the Continental Army.

The organization set up in 1775 was known during the Revolutionary War as the Quartermaster General's Department, and more briefly, throughout the nineteenth century, as the Quartermaster's Department. Originally it was a field agency, and the Quartermaster General was the chief staff officer of the commanding general of the Army. He gathered intelligence data, assisted in planning marches, opened roads, laid out camps, assigned quarters, and transported men and supplies. In short, he took all measures to enable an Army to march with ease and to encamp with convenience and safety.

The position of Quartermaster General was abolished in 1785; but permanently revived in 1812. In 1818 the Quartermaster's Department was established as a supply bureau in Washington. Since Quartermaster General Thomas S. Jesup shaped and guided

the Department for forty-two years after his appointment in 1818, and Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs from 1861 to 1882, continuity of control permitted the development of policies and procedures that enabled the Department to carry out its duties with competency during the Mexican and Civil Wars.

Initially the Department depended upon the services of soldiers detailed from the line, and on civilians, to transport supplies to the front, to build and repair roads, and to erect barracks. During these years the Department repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, advocated a militarized corps. It took the deficiencies of supply, and the shortcomings of the War Department in general during the Spanish-American War, to generate a wave of reform that in 1912, among other changes, resulted in the organization of Quartermaster units on military lines. In that year Congress consolidated the former Subsistence, Pay, and Quartermaster's Departments to create the Quartermaster Corps that exists today, with its own officers and troops.

In World War I the Corps' functions were temporarily carried out by several agencies. Most of them reverted to QMC control in 1920; but in World War II, construction was transferred to the Corps of Engineers and transportation to the Transportation Corps. This left the QMC free to concentrate on its basic function of the procurement, storage, and issue of its characteristic supplies and equipment. The scale of its war effort may be judged by the fact that, at its peak in 1944, it had expanded to a strength of over 500,000 officers and men.

Immediately following the war there was of course a great reduction in activity. However, the Truman Doctrine of 1947, setting forth the national policy of containment of military aggression in the world, marked the start of a new phase of Quartermaster postwar history. In this period of intensified "cold war" between the United States

and the Soviet Union, lasting until 1950, our country began to solidify its farflung military outposts in order to resist Communist expansion. Quartermaster supply and service to American soldiers, stationed on distant military frontiers created a global mission for the Corps unprecedented in its peacetime history.

The chief characteristic of this mission was the “logistical flexibility" developed in Quartermaster organization, operations, and procedures for oversea supply. When the Korean conflict broke out, the QMC was in better shape to meet its unexpected demands than was much of the Army; partly because of this existing oversea supply organization, and partly because it had kept on hand large surpluses of World War II stocks. Serious shortages did develop in some items, in the early days of the Korean fighting; but in general, and especially in the supply of food and other perishables, the Corps did a remarkable job. By 1951 many frontline soldiers were actually eating two hot meals a day. This achievement was the result of techniques developed by the QMC food service program, including the daily delivery of fresh foods by air transport.

In addition to air-transported and landed supplies, the Quartermaster Corps parachuted and free-dropped thousands of tons of food, clothing, and medical, ordnance, and engineer supplies, through its airdrop program. "Supply by sky" was continuous throughout the conflict. Probably the most signficant drops were those made during the American retreat from the Changjin Reservoir to the Hungnam evacuation port in December 1950, and those near Wonju in the spring of 1951. On the route from the reservoir, the most spectacular single air drop took place when a 16-ton treadway bridge was floated down to rescue hundreds of Marines and infantrymen left isolated by a destroyed bridge.

These examples of Quartermaster supply and service were typical of the manner in which the entire resources and facilities of the Corps were directed to filling the needs of the individual fighting man in Korea. The extent of its success may best be gauged, per

haps, by the comment of General James A. Van Fleet, commander of the Eighth Army, that it was the "best equipped, best fed, best clothed, best housed and cared-for army we have ever produced."

During and since the Korean conflict the QMC, like the rest of the Army, has been evolving rapidly to meet the new concepts of war of the nuclear age. The chief developments in this recent period have been along the following lines.

PENTOMIC SUPPLY. The organization and tactics of the "pentomic" Army now in being have their counterpart in new QMC procedures of supply and service. These procedures are being worked out by various research and development projects, some of which, such as the use of irradiation to preserve food (see chapter 31) have revolutionary possibilities.

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OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY. This has been improved by various management reforms. Among them are: reduction of operating stocks, in line with the "living-off-the-shelf" practice of private industry; use of the fiscal and accounting methods of commercial firms; integration of budgeting, programming, and the review and analysis of operational activities; new and expanded command-management cepts; central inventory control and automatic data processing. Along with this has gone a tendency to eliminate Government competition with private industry. Many important Quartermaster services have been affected, including commissary stores, meat-cutting plants, bakeries, laundries, dry-cleaning plants, coffee-roasting plants, typewriter officers' repair shops, and tailoring shops. Quartermaster manufacturing activities in the field also have been reduced drastically.

UNIFICATION. The QMC has been a chief protagonist in most of the major logistical developments of the movement for unification of the Armed Services, including "single-service procurement," "joint procurement," "coordinated procurement," "cross-servicing," and the "single manager plan." The Corps has two single manager assignments which it executes for the Secretary of the Army. One is for the supply of sub

sistence to the Armed Forces, carried out by the Military Subsistence Supply Agency. The other is for clothing and textile supply. It is handled by the Military Clothing and Textile Supply Agency, located at the Philadelphia QM Depot.

DECENTRALIZATION. The new responsibilities of the QMC, resulting from the single-manager activities and other measures, call for maximum decentralization of operating functions to field agencies. In the fall of 1957 the Office of the Quartermaster General announced that it had developed a plan, approved by the Department of the Army, for decentralization of major supply management functions, of the administration of the Army food service program, and of related functions, to four field installations. The plan involved the transfer of seven OQMG divisions and 449 employes to the Columbus, Philadelphia, and Richmond QM Depots, and to the Chicago Administrative Center, with all moves planned for completion by the spring of 1958. The effect will be to shift the emphasis, in the cental office of the Quartermaster General, away from operation and toward the roles of policy development, administrative control, and following up on the performance of the field agencies.

PROCUREMENT OF COMMISSIONED OFFICERS. There are five procurement sources for QMC Regular Army officers: distinguished graduates of the ROTC, reserve officers on active duty, transfers from other branches, direct appointment of civilian specialists, and direct appointment of warrant officers or enlisted men. At the present time no Regular officers are commis

sioned in the Quartermaster Corps from the United States Military Academy. Until the new Air Force Academy begins producing officers-around 1960the current needs of the Air Force leave only enough Military Academy graduates each year for the combat arms and quasi-combat services, such as the Corps of Engineers and the Signal Corps. Graduates can therefore become Quartermaster officers only by transfer from some other arm or service.

For ROTC distinguished military students, acceptance is based on general college record plus scores obtained on the evaluation report of the PMS&T, the summer camp evaluation report, and a personal inventory test. The primary consideration is not whether the student received QM training during his ROTC course, but whether his interests and college curriculum fit him for QM activities. Equal opportunity is provided if training was received in a general military science unit or some other Army branch unit. A distinguished military graduate who desires a commission in the QMC can almost always obtain it, if he meets the general criteria for acceptance established by the Department of the Army.

A man not receiving a Regular commission under the above program may apply for it 18 months after entrance on active duty as a reserve officer. The Armed Forces Regular Officer Augmentation Act of 1956 provides additional means for reserve officers to apply for Regular commissions.

For further details, see "A Career of Service in the Quartermaster Corps." QMC Pamphlet No. 1.

QUARTERMASTERS GENERAL. The following have served

14 Aug 1775-16 May 1776

5 Jun 1776-27 Sep 1776 28 Sep 1776-7 Nov 1777 2 Mar 1778-26 Jul 1780 5 Aug 1780-25 Jul 1785 4 Mar 1791-19 Apr 1792 19 Apr 1792-30 May 1796

1 Jun 1796-16 Mar 1802

4 Apr 1812-2 Mar 1813 21 Mar 1813-29 Apr 1816 29 Apr 1816-14 Apr 1818 29 Apr 1816-14 Apr 1818 8 May 1818-10 Jun 1860 28 Jun 1860-22 Apr 1861 15 May 1861-6 Feb 1882 13 Feb 1882-23 Feb 1882 23 Feb 1882-1 Jul 1883

Col. Thomas Mifflin Col. Stephen Moylan .Maj. Gen. Thomas Mifflin ..Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene Col. Timothy Pickering .Samuel Hodgdon

James O'Hara .John Wilkins, Jr. .Brig. Gen. Morgan Lewis .Brig. Gen. Robert Swartwout

.Col. James Mullany (Northern Division) Col. George Gibson (Southern Division) .Brig. Gen. Thomas S. Jesup .Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston .Brig. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs . Brig. Gen. Daniel H. Rucker Brig. Gen. Rufus Ingalls

a Designated Quartermaster, United States Army. No rank given.

1 Jul 1883-16 Jun 1890 26 Jun 1890-27 Jul 1896 19 Aug 1896-16 Feb 1897 16 Feb 1897-3 Feb 1898 3 Feb 1898-13 Apr 1903 12 Apr 1903-1 Jul 1907 1 Jul 1907-12 Sep 1916 13 Sep 1916-12 Jul 1918 22 Jul 1918-27 Aug 1922 28 Aug 1922-2 Jan 1926 3 Jan 1926-17 Jan 1930 3 Feb 1930-2 Feb 1934

3 Feb 1934 31 Mar 1936 1 Apr 1936-31 Mar 1940 1 Apr 1940-31 Jan 1946 1 Feb 1946-21 Mar 1949 21 Mar 1949-30 Sep 1951 9 Oct 1951-31 Jan 1954 5 Feb 1954-31 Mar 1957 12 Jun 1957

.Brig. Gen. Samuel B. Holabird .Brig. Gen. Richard N. Batchelder .Brig. Gen. Charles G. Sawtelle .Brig. Gen. George H. Weeks .Brig. Gen. Marshall I. Ludington .Brig. Gen. Charles F. Humphrey .Maj. Gen. James B. Aleshire .Maj. Gen. Henry G. Sharpe .Maj. Gen. Harry L. Rogers .Maj. Gen. William H. Hart .Maj. Gen. B. Franklin Cheatham .Maj. Gen. John L. DeWitt ...Maj. Gen. Louis H. Bash ..Maj. Gen. Henry Gibbins .Lieut. Gen. Edmund B. Gregory .Maj. Gen. Thomas B. Larkin .Maj. Gen. Herman Feldman . Maj. Gen. George A. Horkan .Maj. Gen. Kester L. Hastings .Maj. Gen. Andrew T. McNamara

THE SIGNAL CORPS

The basic task of the Signal Corps is to furnish the means and the men needed to provide the signal communications and electronic equipment which are essential to military command and control.

HISTORICAL

BACKGROUND. The official birthday of the Corps is 21 June 1860. On that date Major Albert J. Myer, Assistant Surgeon, was appointed Signal Officer. He previously had obtained War Department approval of his flag signaling system (wigwag). He at once began to train officers in this system, which in the Civil War was adopted by both sides. A Confederate Signal Corps was created shortly after the war began. The U. S. Army Signal Corps was established by an act of Congress of 3 March 1863, and by October of 1864 numbered 170 officers and 1,400 men. Our Army was the first in the world to establish the position of Signal Officer, and the first to create separate and independent Signal Corps.

a

The record of the Corps in later wars is treated in chapter 13.

THE CORPS TODAY. The principal elements of the Signal Corps' mission are to develop and procure communication, electronic, meteorological, and photographic equipment, distribute it to the Army and maintain it; to install, operate, and maintain Army's communication networks; to train and furnish Signal Corps specialists and units;

and to perform photographic and meteorological duties. Officers and men are trained in all means of conveying information and intelligence-visual, from flags or lights to facsimile and television, and electrical, from simple wire or radio telegraph to the most intricate and rapid carrier and multiplex methods. Military signaling utilizes all the means offered by the radiation spectrum, including infrared and radar.

In addition to providing for the transmission, within our own forces, of all types of military orders, messages, and documents, Signal Corpsmen collect essential information about the enemy, using radar, photography, and other means ("combat surveillance"). They provide the equipment and signals essential to accurate gun-laying, to air navigation (for Army aircraft), to guided missile control, and to new applications of electronic computers and of the wire and radio nets serving the Army's clerical and logistical activities.

TRAINING FACILITIES. As the communications agent of the Army, with a considerable variety of other technical missions not all related to communications, the Signal Corps has always carried large training responsibilities, instructing not only its own specialists but communicators of other Arms and Services as well. In World War I the number of Signal Corps specialists categories ran to no more

5 The term "communications" has two military meanings: (1) (as used here) means of transmitting verbal or written messages usually called "signal communications" railroads, etc. often spoken of as "lines of communication.

(2) means of moving men and supplies, as roads,

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