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which were manufactured in parts, did not know what they were. Final assembly of the bombs dropped on Japan took place on a Pacific island air base, from which they were flown and dropped.

After the war the facilities of the Manhattan District were taken over by the Atomic Energy Commission. However, the Army, working closely with the Commission, has continued to interest itself in nuclear energy in both its destructive and its constructive aspects. For the present status of our atomic weapons, and of research in this field, see chapters 9 and 18.

The Transportation Corps has been interesting itself in the application of atomic power to ground transportation. A study made at Oak Ridge indicated the technical feasibility of a nuclearpowered "logistical carrier" for Arctic

use. The study was then broadened to cover the entire field of TC surface transport. It appears from these studies that nuclear power can be effectively used for various items of rail, highway, and marine equipment.

The "logistical carrier," as now envisaged, would consist of a string of cars traveling on tires 10 feet high, capable of operation in any climate and over a variety of terrain, with capacities of up to 150 tons of cargo and speeds up to 20 miles per hour. To reduce the amount of radiological shielding needed, the crew will be stationed in the forward control car and the car housing the nuclear reactor will be at the rear of the train. Each of the wheels of the intervening cars will be individually powered by electric motors deriving their power from the reactor in the rear car.

TRANSPORTATION

Army agencies, especially the Transportation Corps and the Ordnance Corps, have contributed in a variety of ways to the improvement of our national transport system.”

OPERATION OF RAILROADS. On three occasions (27 December 1943-18 January 1944; 10 May-9 July 1948; and August 1950-May 1952), strikes or the threat of strikes required the Government to take over and operate certain railroads. By direction of the President, the Chief of Transportation acted as agent of the Secretary of the Army in carrying out this task. Thanks to advance planning, fast action, and-most important of all-the close cooperation of both labor and management, it was possible to keep the trains rolling and to meet the needs of both the civilian economy and the Armed Forces.

This success was largely due to the fact that the Transportation Corps, in both peace and war, has worked closely and harmoniously with the railroads, as with other national industries. The great bulk of Army land shipments has always been routed commercially. It has been necessary for the Army to enter the rail transport field to some extent, in order to train personnel for

oversea railroad duty and to maintain a nucleus of equipment for emergency use. Except for this, however, the TC has avoided any duplication of commercial rail facilities. As a result a spirit of mutual confidence has developed, which has repeatedly paid dividends in national emergencies.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. The Transportation Corps' R&D program includes current studies on many aspects of transportation, the results of which are likely to benefit the civilian economy. Examples are transport of atomic weapons, radiological defense measures for rail and port facilities, and the application of electronic devices for analysis and solution of logistical movements control problems. An especially interesting field from the civilian viewpoint is that of terminal operation and cargo handling. The R&D program in this field includes about 50 projects, such as mobile cranes, rough terrain fork lift trucks, conveyors of all types, aerial tramways, containers, nets and pallets, prefabricated barge piers, and many more.

The TC's increasing use of the pallet and container techniques makes for faster loading and unloading of vessels,

2 The same statement applies to the Corps of Engineers, with respect to its development of our ports and waterways. See chapter 12.

assures the identification and accessibility of freight, and simplifies paper work. Newly developed cargo transporters, now in worldwide Container Express (CONEX) service, permit a substantial decrease in small package handling, and because of their construction can serve as weatherproof and pilferproof "warehouses" for the temporary storage and protection of supplies in the field. Their adoption permits production-line methods, with full use of mechanical handling equipment and reduced use of manual labor, resulting in a speedup in delivery, sorting, and distribution.

The TC is also fostering the "piggyback" method of rail shipment. The Navy has recently acquired a roll-on/ roll-off prototype ship to meet Army requirements. Additionally, the Corps' 330-foot Beach Discharge Lighter, designed to receive vehicular and other cargo from the roll-on/roll-off ship and move it ashore, has recently come off the ways of a West Coast shipyard. All these present possibilities of adaptation to civilian use.

DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE HELICOPTER. Except for the development of the helicopter and its widely recognized success in Korea, aviation would have been a much smaller segment of the Army's activities. Today, of all the Armed Services, the Army is the major user of helicopters. It has therefore been largely responsible for the growth of the industry in recent years. Ever since the Transportation Corps acquired its first helicopters it has been working to improve performance and simplify maintenance. Its goal is to be able to maintain them with no more elaborate equipment than is required for other Army vehicles. Through publicity, research and development, and close cooperation with manufacturers, great strides have been made and are continuing.

Much work has been done on the H-13, H-23, and H-19 helicopters, all of which were certified by the CAA prior to Army purchase. A new 250-horsepower gas turbine engine for both fixed wing (turbo-prop) and helicopter use is being developed. This engine will be only one-fourth the weight of conven

tional engines of the same horsepower. In addition to improvements of particular aircraft, the Army is engaged in broad research projects aimed at advancing general technology. Examples are improved helicopter cargo handling methods; improved rotor blade designs; use of new materials in aircraft structures, to reduce manufacturing and maintenance costs; improved structural design to minimize crash damage; crash-resistant fuel tanks; improved fire detection and prevention methods; and crash injury research.

ARMY CONTRIBUTION TO NATIONAL HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROJECT. Beginning in the fall of 1958, the Department of Defense will participate in a two-year series of road tests designed to determine the behavior of different types of road pavement under various traffic conditions. The Transportation Corps will coordinate the activities of the Armed Services in the program.

The tests, sponsored by the American Association of State Highway Officials, will be conducted by the Highway Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences over six specially designed test tracks to be built near Ottawa, Illinois. Also cooperating in the undertaking will be the various States, the Federal Bureau of Public Roads, and industry.

The Transportation Corps will station at Ottawa a special unit composed of two medium TC truck companies. Trucks with axle loads varying from 2,000 lbs. for single axles to 48,000 lbs. for tandem axles will operate over the various types of pavement and base design of which the test tracks consist, for two shifts a day six days a week. They will make about 8,000,000 trips with full loads for a total distance of 16,000,000 miles, thus simulating many years' traffic over various kinds of pavement. Vehicles, tires, fuel, lubricants, and spare parts will be supplied by the Highway Research Board.

Military interest in the tests will center on data which can be used to determine the effects of various models and designs of military vehicles on specific types of roadways, and the capabilities of each type to support military operations. Also of interest will be

special studies on the effects of different tire designs and tire pressures on the capabilities of varied pavements, the results of which may be applied in worldwide military transportation planning.

DEVELOPMENT OF IMPROVED LUBRICANTS. Ordinarily one type of lubricant was used in military vehicles operating in the tropics and another type for arctic conditions. If vehicles were transferred from one area to the other, a complete washout of the old greases was necessary so that the other could be substituted. The job cost was $30 to $40 per vehicle, and the manpower required was a great disadvantage in wartime.

Under Army Ordnance contracts, in

PUBLIC WORKS OF THE The peaceful contributions of the Corps of Engineers to our national development include the creation and maintenance of our port and waterway navigation system; nationwide flood control projects, including that for the Mississippi River; the comprehensive development of the water resources of the Missouri Basin, in cooperation with the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation; the

the late 1940's, lubricants were developed with unusual ability to withstand the effects of extreme temperature changes. To test them, a convoy of vehicles was sent from Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland to the deserts of California. There they drove several thousand miles at a desert heat of 100 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Without changing the lubricants, the trucks then continued to Alaska over the Alcan Highway. After operating there all winter, often at 60 degrees below zero, the convoy drove back to Aberdeen in the early spring. These petroleum products designed for military use are important for civilian use in any area where the span between summer and winter temperatures is very wide.

CORPS OF ENGINEERS construction, wholly or in part, of a large proportion of the public buildings in Washington, D. C., including the Capitol, the Library of Congress, and the Washington Monument; the construction of the Panama Canal and the Alaska Highway; and a further long series of public works of incalculable value to our nation. For details see chapter 12.

AGRICULTURE

A notable contribution to the wellbeing of American agriculture was made by the Army's Chemical Corps (then Chemical Warfare Service) in developing effective means of eliminating the boll weevil, the insect which caused such enormous losses to our cotton growers.

The cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus Orandis, Boh) migrated to the United States from Mexico, making its first appearance in Texas in 1892. It gradually spread, and by 1924 there was serious weevil infestation in every cotton-growing State of the Union.

The CWS, working with the Department of Agriculture, undertook to test a large number of compounds against the boll weevil itself, using calcium arsenate as a standard. The initial comparison was made using the substances both as dusts and as mixtures with

molasses and other suitable solutions in tumbler tests. Materials showing promise were subjected to additional tumbler tests, and were also carefully checked as to their toxicity toward the cotton plant by preliminary tests on field and greenhouse cotton.

Substances successfully passing preliminary tests were set aside for cage tests and large-scale tests in the field. Over 1000 possible poisons and poisonous mixtures, and about 2500 combinations of these mixtures, were tried out, and more than 250,000 weevils were used in the tests. Experiments were also run to determine the actual poisonous or physiologically active dosage of various gases, solids, and liquid solutions necessary to kill or deleteriously affect the weevil.

As a result of these tests two materials stood out as especially promis

ing. One was a special calcium arsenate containing about 20% arsenic as As2O, Means were found to produce it easily and cheaply, in a form that could be applied with the greatest effectiveness. The other material was a sodium fluosilicate, containing about 80% Na,SiF. and 20% collodion silica; it could be

produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of acid phosphate.

The CWS developed these poisons until they were ready for commercial production. They attained a place of great economic importance in our cotton growing areas, and held it until after World War II.

DISASTER RELIEF

A classic example of the Army's ability to handle disaster relief was its action in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 18 April 1906.

When the earthquake occurred in the early morning, and the fires began to spread, Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston, acting commander of the Pacific Division, at once saw from his residence on the hills above the business section that the city of 500,000 people was in desperate peril. All lines of communications having been severed, he walked and ran the mile to the Quartermaster stables, where he despatched a messenger to the Presidio and Fort Mason with notes ordering the garrisons to report at once for duty to the Chief of Police. By 7:45 AM Regular Army troops were patrolling the streets and fighting the onrushing flames. In the absence of water, explosives were brought from the military posts in a frantic effort to check the spread of the fire by destroying buildings in its path. Engineer troops helped to repair broken water mains, and Signal Corps troops used military equipment to restore telephone and telegraph communications. During the morning of the 18th, units from Fort Miley and Fort McDowell arrived, and on the 19th further reinforcements came from Alcatraz Island, Angel Island, and Fort Baker. That day the garrisons at Monterey and at Vancouver Barracks were ordered to the stricken city. But for General Funston's vigorous action in immediately reinforcing the numerically inadequate police force, thugs and looters would have had the population at their mercy; and but for the work of the artillery detachments in dynamiting buildings, the city's western section would probably not have been saved.

Realizing, on the afternoon of the 18th, that an immense number of people

would be homeless by midnight, General Funston wired the War Department that all available tents and rations should be shipped without delay. The Department promptly ordered depots and major posts to send by fast express trains foods, tentage, blankets, and bedding. The depot at St. Louis sent medical supplies sufficient by Army standards for 60,000 persons for four months. Practically all of these supplies were on the way by the night of the 19th. By that time 250,000 homeless people were camped in the military reservations, parks, and open spaces of San Francisco, and further relief shipments were authorized.

By the 21st the fire, having burned over 3,400 acres, was at last under control. The city was then divided into military districts, with Federal troops in charge of an area that contained half the population and almost all the financial and commercial houses. Maj. Gen. Adolphus W. Greely, commanding the Pacific Division, took over, on the mayor's insistence, the work of the Citizens' Relief Committee. At the request of the Red Cross, the Subsistence Department acted as its purchasing agent for foodstuffs. The Chief Surgeon of the Department of California was put in charge of sanitary control, and officers and men of the Medical Department carried out the bulk of the emergency sanitary work. During the whole relief period, the Subsistence Department furnished 4,829,992 rations, and the Quartermaster's Department some 27,000 tents, 96,000 blankets, 9,000 cots, and 12,500 mattresses. Relief supplies provided by the War Department were valued at more than $2,000,000.

Many other instances could be cited of the Army's disaster relief activities. The Corps of Engineers has a statutory flood fighting responsibility, which in

cludes rescue work; the strengthening, raising, extending, or other modification of flood control structures; and the repair, restoration, or maintenance of flood control works threatened or destroyed. The Corps maintains standby organizations and procedures for meeting such emergencies, including machinery for obtaining support from private construction organizations and from other branches of the Armed Services.

A recent example was in August 1955, when hurricane "Diane" struck New England, bringing intense rains that produced the costliest flood disaster in our history. Acting under authority delegated by the Federal Civil Defense Administration (the nation's disaster-relief agency), the Corps of Engineers mobilized experts from the entire eastern half of the country within a matter of hours. Before long, 550 officers and civilian employes of the Corps were on the spot, directing debris removal, temporary replacement of destroyed bridges, and restoration of basic facilities such as water and sewage systems. Within a week, 112 contracts had been let for rehabilitation work in 64 cities and towns; over 4,000 men were at work; and almost 800 pieces of construction equipment had been mobilized. The bulk of the work was completed within a month.

Noteworthy also was the vital role of the Army helicopters and fixed wing aircraft of the Transportation Corps in rescue work. Some 900 persons were rescued by this means, and 223,000 pounds of relief supplies were delivered to otherwise inaccessible areas. Later the Corps temporarily leased to eastern railroads over a hundred locomotives from its "mothball fleet," which were of great help in the reconstruction and return to normality of the damaged

areas.

This is not the only occasion when

Transportation Corps vehicles and organizations have proved their adaptability in domestic emergencies. The snow congestion during the winter of 1944-45 in the Great Lakes and eastern seaboard areas; the Texas City disaster of 1947-48; Midwest Operation SNOW in 1948-49; the New England floods of 1955; and the major airline disaster in the Grand Canyon in 1956 were a few instances in which the Corps stepped in to give emergency help.

In the Grand Canyon disaster, two airliners collided at night at a high altitude and crashed into almost inaccessible gorges along the wall of the main canyon. The only means of approaching them to rescue possible survivors (in fact there were none) and to bring out the remains of the dead was by Army helicopter. Flying in turbulent air currents, and repeatedly landing on tiny areas not much larger than the machines themselves, the Army crews succeeded in removing the bodies and personal effects from the sites of the two wrecks. At a White House ceremony President Eisenhower lauded the pilots and crews for their work. "With skill and daring," the citations read, "these pilots made repeated trips into the narrow depths of the canyon, a feat seldom matched in time of peace."

In 1949, when blizzards blanketed the Western Plains, the Transportation Corps under "Operation SNOWBOUND" threw 6,000 civilian and military personnel and more than 2,200 pieces of equipment into the battle to save life and relieve suffering. In 1947, when the Texas City explosion took 500 lives and wrought $50 to $90 million damage, the Galveston District Engineer arrived on the scene with men and equipment and began organizing the rescue and relief work within an hour after the initial blast.

EXPLORATION

In the days of our national expansion from the eastern seaboard to the Pacific, the Army was a pioneer in the exploration of what were then unknown areas. The best known case, and perhaps the most famous and fruitful land

exploration in history, was the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-6.

President Jefferson negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with Napoleon in 1803. Anticipating the acquisition of this huge territory he had sent a confiden

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