The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-11-25
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
How the Men in Our Army and Navy
Will be Sent Back Home

w LII DC JCHt D0Sh I1OluC
Senator Fletcher sends US the fol-
lowing information, which will be
very interesting to our people at this
time.
Press Interview, Secretary of War,
November Is, 1918
"The first units to be demobilized
will be the development battalions at
all camps. The development battal-
ions are made up of men who were
under physical requirements or who
needed some special drill or discipline
to bring them into full military value
-underdeveloped physically, largely.
''No furloughs will be granted, but
they will be honorably discharged, of
course. There is no certain date.
every man who is discharged from
the army has to have physical ex-
animation and very careful record
made for statistical status, and in
stead of furloughing them and then
discharging they will be discharged,
so that there may be no subsequent
claims against the government. All
of those men will have to be examin-
ed by the doctors and the medical de-
partment is prepared to take over the
question of rapid examination and
discharge No date has been set for
examination, but have an idea it will
be soon. 1t is not contingent upon
anything, but will be done as soon as
convenient.
at is difficult to grant requests
from business institutions, etc., for
men, because it breaks up units and
creates an inequality of conditions and
it is not likely that individual re-
quests can be granted.
"The physical examination applies
also to students at schools.
"The central officers training camp
schools will be discontinued.
"The thing that we have to do and
the thing that we must do is to de-
mobilize the men in this country and
all the others with reference to their
occupational opportunities, so as to
let them get back into the normal life
of the country without filling the
country with unemployed men. The
war department is working in close
cooperation with the department of
labor and the war industries board as
much in the discharge of men as in
the termination of contracts"
@. eff an individual had an oppor-
tunity to get his own employment,
would an individual case be consider
ed?"
A. can individual case if it comes
in class that was to be discharged
as class, but no priorities and no
furloughs will be granted"
Press Interview by the Chief of STAFF,
November 16, 1918
with reference to what is being
done after the armistice was formally
signed, have issued orders in accord
ance with a plan which we have evolv-
ed for the prompt reduction of our
forces in the United States. l first
ordered the rehabilitation Of the de-
yelopment battalions throughout the
country. They are II in number and
embrace in strength 8,199 men. The
second order carries out the demobili-
zation Of conscientious DIRECTORS who
are not serving sentences. Third, the
spruce production division; fourth,
central training schools for officers,
with certain notifications; fifth, the
United States guards, who comprised
something like $4,000 on paper;
sixth, railway troops; seventh, depot
brigades; eighth, replacement camps;
ninth, and last, combat divisions.
eve have in the United States now
something like 100000 men, and to
muster out force of that kind, of
course, will take some time. Each
man has to be examined physically,
his final accounts made, and copy of
his medical record transferred to the
war risk insurance bureau. so that
the men may get compensation they
are entitled to under the act, which
must be properly safeguarded. Great
masses of blank forms lave been pre-
pared in advance, and they are being
shipped to the various camps for use
as these orderse go into effect.
"The orders that have already been
loSuCO CuSCI SOIlc HVO,OUO HELL. 1 GX-
pect to muster them out in two weeks.
When the machine is in full opera
ton we expect to release 5000 men a
day.
Gil handling this problem of demob-
ilization, one of the features which
had to be considered was the subse-
quent retaining of men for the regu-
lar army, Or what will be the regular
| army when Congress passes laws re-
| organizing the army When the war
broke out there were only a limited
| number of such men in the service,
and the great number of men who
filled out these units were men who
voluntarily enlisted for the period of
the war. So we have offered these
men who came in for the period of
the war the option of reenlisting if
they care to.
eve have offered an immediate
honorable discharge with a furlough
of one month upon reenlistment, and
we propose to go before Congress
and ask Congress to give every single