The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-10-03
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
DON'T GIVE UP THE TRUCKS"
FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN. Directo
Washington. d. G.

l. ~,
newest branch of the American serv-
ice, the motor transport corps. just
now offers a splendid opportunity for
men with experience in the automo-
bile industry. who want to render
service to the government and get to
France quickly.
There are to be 5000 officers and
100000 men in the corps when it is
fully recruited, and about 1000 of the
officers are still to be found. Men in
deferred classes are given preference,
but any man who is properly quail
fed may apply for a commission. He
should address his application to the
Training Branch. Motor Transport
| Corps, Washington. d. c. If he quail
fies, he will be sent to the training
camp for officers, which is a part of
Camp Joseph E. johnson at Jackson
vile, Fla. Another motor transport
officers school is to be established at
Fort Sheridan, and there will be sew
eral others for enlisted men.
The men who are organizing this
new corps strongly emphasize two
things-that it is no "slackers' brig
ade." but a service full of danger and
hardship, and that no. man will be
sent to France until he is as prof.
Gent in his job as instruction and ex-
perience can make him.
The best officer material for the
motor transport corps has been found
to be men of education who have been
in the automobile business as manu-
facturers, designers, statesmen, garage
managers and the like. It should be
borne in mino that there are two
principal divisions of the motor trans
port corps-a park service and a con-
Voy service. An officer Of the park
service has charge of repairing and
rebuilding cars. Men with an intimate
knowledge of motor car mechanism
1 I, e.
branch. The convoy service actually
uses the cars in getting food and am
munition to the fighting units, and in
moving troops, and even artillery,
horses and all. In this branch re-
sourcefulness and familiarity with the
operation of cars are the requisites
for both officers and men. The cor
pora1 who was carrying ammunition
to the front when the radiator of his
truck was, punctured by shell, and
who mended it with the solder from
tomoto can that he found by the road
side, is good example of the kind of
men needed in this branch It is a
| business of considerable hazard, as is
shown Shy the fact that when three
truck loads of ammunition were
started toward the marines who took
Chateau Thierry, only one of them ar
rived. The driver of that one had four
bullet holes in him. He offered to go
back for another load on the ground
! that he was the only man who knew
the way. He is also one of the kind
they are looking for.
The motor transport corps has been
getting its enlisted men by application
to the provost marshal generals Of
flee. Men who have indicated a
knowledge of the motor car business
on their missionaries are common
| ly assigned to this branch But the
9 nExr nh tai
recruit ten thousand men from the CT
william population without regard to
their status in the draft. 1t espe-
| clally wants skilled repair men and
skilled chauffeurs. To have owned
and operated some kind of a car for
| a year or. two is not enough. Real
professionals of the motor business.
and especially mechanics and truck
drivers, are what the motor corps
| wants. Men who want to enlist
should apply, the same as those who
aspire to commissions, to the train
ing branch, motor transport service
Washington, D. C.
The "motorization'' of the Ameri-
| can army is one of the swift miracles
which war has worked When we
went into the war, the use of trucks
and automobiles in the army was a
new thing to us, except for a very
brief experience of hauling supplies
that way to Mexico. And the other
L
motor business to anything like the
Importance 1t now has on the western
front. When the armies came out of
their trenches, and the present war
of maneuxers began, the motor enter
ed upon new phase of usefulness
NOT only could supplies be sent by
truck to the swiftly moving fighting
units much more rapidly than bv
horse drawn vehicles, and much more
surely than by rail, but troops and
artlliery are now transported by mo-
tor. Trucks are being used into
which three horses may be, loaded
while field piece and a caisson are
| h1tched on behind as traiIers. In this
way an artillery unit may be moved
from one place to another at the rate
OF fourteen miles an hour, and then
set down to maneuver in the usual
way.
The motor corps is just as highly
organized as any other branch of the
service. A truck company consists of
| twenty-seven trucks, with a repair ma
chine, baggage truck and a moving
Kitchen. A corporal and private are
on the drivers seat of each truck If
the corporal is killed, the private takes
his place. The first sergeant travels
| in the side car of a motorcycle, and
| the two commissioned officers in COM
mand, usually first and second
| lieutenant, go ahead in a light passen-
ger car.
Most of the moving of supplies and
| ammunition is done at night and with
out lights. That is why the corps is
now training its chauffeurs by sending
its trucks from factory to seaboard in
this country under their own power at
night.
Despite all precautions, a shell fire.
quently finds a truck. Some trucks
stay in the service for years, and 9TH
re a re 10 nj in fexxr
The most strenuous work of the corps
comes in case of an enemy advance. 1t
is then the duty of the truckmen to
load up the supplies and get them to
the rear, SO as to save them from cap
ture. When the Germans made their
big push in the spring, a heavy per-
centage of our trucks were shot to
pieces while irving to carry away sup