The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1918-07-09
NEW PLAN
ADOPTED
AT TRAVIS
Quick Work Is Done in Getting Rockies
Ready los Duly on Arrival
in Camp

Camp Travis, Tex. July s.. The
problem that confronts the army to-
day in receiving thousands of men
from civilian life and putting them
into the uniform and discipline of
military life is vastly different from
the recruiting problems Of the old
time regular army Men now come
into the camps at the rate Of a thous-
and or moro a day They come hun
cry, and somebody has to feed them.
Most of them are worn out with a
day or two on a crowded troop train,
and somebody has to put them to
bed. Some Of them contracted mea-
slcs or mumps or something worse,
perhaps, and if they aren't looked af-
ter al once they ana their comrades
will be laid up and the training of
the national forces will be held up
Just that much
For a year the reserve corps Off
GERS of Camp Travis have followed
the beaten path laid out by the reg
ular army men in the old days when
the army was an affair Of fifty or
sixty thousand men all told Under
the strain Of the huge numbers of re-
cruits arriving the system worked
baiiy Company commanders were
distracted with keeping UP with send
ing each increment of new men as
signed to them to this infirmary for
examination and to that board for
something else Everywhere the men
stood in line long hours waiting their
turn to be inoculated and poked into,
as it seemed to them, by pretty near
1y every sort Of doctor that the law
allows.
AS the arrivals of new men be-
come more and more steady and the
old system became more and more
mired down9 IN its complexities, the
authorities in charge of Camp Travis
since the departure Of the Ninetieth
-for overseas service have in
stituted a new. plan The men are
now taken TO at central receiving
station Immediately from the train.
Upon entering the station they IN
dress, checking over their yaluables
and clothes to y NJ G. A. represen-
tatives. Theyathen are lined up and
examined specifically by number
Of shower baths, soaping and scrub
bing as they move along, dry them
selves with townels furnished as they
oyergo and proceed, still in line and
still on the move, through a regular
battery Of medical experts who eX-
anime them for defects of heart,
lungs, feet and so on Clerks take
down their measurements and their
family history and vocational qualifi-
cations. Other clerks have their
clothes ready for them, together with !
Q substantial blue denim barrack bag
o stop them in Orthopedic special
SITS examine the fit of each mar
shoes 10 make sure Chat he has not 1
'eceiyed too large a shoe through (
mothers carelessness or too small /
/ one through his own vanity The 7
'ookie then dons his uniform, put the I
est of his outfit in his bag, reclaims ,
lis valuables from the Y. NJ. c. A. I
nails his old clothes back home /
Trough the same organization, with I
packing material supplied him, and .
teps out soldier ready for instruc-
ion in drill. with oven his first inoc
tlation for typhoid already in his
nm and all is done in a single day
The new system not only takes a
ieayy load off Of the individual com
nanders. but actually advances the
raining schedule by a full two
weeks. In other words. the men Of
amp Travis viii now be ready for
heir work against the Hun two
weeks sooner than the men of last
ear could train, simply because they
rot started at real work and Ce;:l
NO weeks earlier. II appears that
he problems of organization and OF
handling vast numbers of men are
icing met with resourcefulness now +
" officers, many of whom were
themselves in civilian life a little
lver year ago.