Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-09-07
DO IT NOW"
IS MOTTO OF
CAMP KEARNY

VAlvlr kEAlMl
More than $500 New Draft
ed Men are Pouring
Into Camp. I'll
Camp Kearny. San Diego. CAL,
Sept. 7.-"No lost motion" and "do it
now" are phrases which well might
serve as notices for the personnel
office here in inducing into military
service more than $500 draft re-
cruits who are now pouring into this
cantonment. The aim of those charg-s
I'd with turning this ray material in
to soldiers is to. finish all preliminary
work for each ma as rapidly as may
be, much of it before he arrives here.
and then to push him successfully
through four large and n smaller
machines from which he will emerge
a soldier, ready to be turned over to
the officers charged with his instruc-
ton in the arts of war. f.
The draft recruit makes the ac-
quaintance of the first Of these or
AOAo OBJ oOOAl 90 uO III 80
camp before he eats or sleeps, re-
CARELESS Of the hour he reaches here.
This is the receiving Office"
Through the next, the physical exam-
ination board. he passes that after
noon, if he arrives in the morning, or
the, next day, if he arrives at night.
A few hours later he undergoes ex-
animation by the personnel board.
and within a week he meets the insur-
onoa aud o11ofvo1r< h4o~1 A Pfor that
he undergoes examination by h
psychological board. When he Is
through with this. the army knows all
about him that it wants to know; 1t,
has him numbered, listed according
to his vocational qualifications and
rated as to intelligence.
The receiving office is located about
200 feet from a railroad spur track
where all recruit trains are stopped
to discharge their human freight.
Advance notice of the hour of arrival
when 1t reaches camp. the machinery
is in working order and ready to per-
form h first operations. .
AS each train arrives it is met by
Captain Irwin w. Minger, personnel
officer. The recruits are detrained
and lined up. each local draft boards
quota separately in alphabetical or
der. Captain Minger checks the lists
of men sent to camp which are fur
nished by the DRIFT boards against the
men in that group to see that none
are missing Then the men are
marched to the receiving Office.
Factory methods are in evidence in
this office, where behind each of the
ten desks is a specialist. AS he pass
es down the line of desks each re-
cruit receives one Of the group .of pa
per which forms his record in army.
Many spaces on most of these papers
are left blank, but his name and 9TH
er data are put on them at this stage
of the proceeding. When he leaves
this office, all his papers except
are clipped together in a specified or
der and he carries them with him
from officer to officer and board to
board until, when he is accepted as u
soldier, he- turns them all in.
The first, and what officers say has
these papers is a linen tag bearing.a
camp serial number" which is affix-
ed to the recruits clothing. Without
this tag the men can obtain neither
clothing, bedding nor food in fthis
camp. Any recruit found by an. Off
Ger to be without his tag Is ordered
into arrest Immediately. ON the tag
are a series of blanks AMI as the re-
cruit progresses through the various
stages mapped out for him, these
blanks are filled, one after another.
with notes that indicate his progress.
The tags are numbered seriallv and
according to the numbers given on
them the recruits are divided into
companies, the first $50 into the first
company. from 251 to 500 into the
second company and so on, so that a
mans camp serial number indicates
instantly to which company he be-
longs.
The first paper filled out for the re-
cruit after he has received his tag is
q mail card" on which his full name,
home address and camp address are
placed. This goes to the camp mail
detachment which uses it to see that
he gets mail from home promptly and
without confusion. !.
While all this apparently is yerv
complicated. system has reduced it to
such an orderly process that it takes
very little time. not enough to war
rant putting it off for a meal or for
rest after the recruits journey.
Next on the program is the medi-
cal examination, where more than
40 doctors, housed in five buildings
and a number of tents to test each re-
~ POSSAoAS physical unIlC-
ness and a board of specialists makes
fsure that he is sound mentally. In
the course of this too he is measured
by specialists to determine what size
shoes he shall wear. and that size ia
entered upon his records SO that he
never can~obtain any other.
From medical examination head.
quarters. a man may go but two wavs.
Tor while he may, be held for obser.
walton, the observation office is in the
examination buildings and obserya-
ton never lasts more than q few
hours. Near the end of the medical
examination Offices are two doors
marked Discharge" and Muster"
They are the only exits from the Of
f1ces. II at any stage a mar is found
physically unfit for service, that fact
Is noted on his tag and he is sentsun
to the ~discharging office. where an
officer relieves him from further duty
No discharged man is permitted to
remain long in camp. few men will
be here more than two days ali told
unless they are accepted as soldiers
Normally the stream Of recruits
flows through the door marked Mus
ter which leads to an Office whera
each recruit receives an arm serial
number and from which he goes a
Then comes the interview with the