St. Tammany farmer., 1919-08-02

|
When Uncle Sans armies finished
the war the motor transport corps,
comprised a force Of roughly 100000
trained drivers Of motortrucks, cars,
and motorcycles.
OF this great force, only about half.
were trained drivers when they en-
listed for the service, so it was neces-
| sary in order to have this force or!
men to train $4,000 men to drive auto-I
motive vehicles.
The ammunition trains, supply
| trains, sanitary trains and casual mo-
| torized units which first went over;
seas were composed Of trained driv-i
ers, as rule. Those who came after
were the men who did not know cars,
engines, or any of the problems Of
| driving, particularly such problems as.
driving over roads under shell fire or
with the great congestion Of the roads
to the fighting zone In France. The,
| men who came in the second great
rush Of men for the army had there
fore to be trained from the very be-
ginning to know the machine, and
then to know the problems of driving
in formation on military roads.
Big Problems Presented.
The two big phases were the teach
ing of the mechanism of the truck
engine-I say truck because this was
by far the more vital part Of the
training of driving in military forma-
tlons Of huge fleets Of trucks.
Now that the war Is over the prob
lem of teaching the mechanism of the
machine Is by far the more important
to the commercial truck operator. AS
to the military formation required in
the army, this can be disposed Of
quickly. ,
On the Mexican border, and with
the Pershing expedition into Mexico,
the problem Of mass operations with
trucks was of minor Importance. The
drivers went forward with some SEM
blance of military formation, with,
certain distances between trucks, and
with some attempt at military cohe-
sion. The truck work, however, was
more or less Of problem Of every
man to drive his own machine.
New System Developed.
When the American army reached
France, with the greatly restricted
area Of operation, the shorter dis
tances for ordinary hauls and the in
tense congestion Of the roads, it was
necessary to develop a military pre-
cision in handling Of trucks, before
that unheard Of. The French trans
port was first to develop this pre-
cision, and it's vital need was shown
in the British offensive on the Aisne
in 1917, when the enormous number
of over $500 trucks moved an entire
British corps in military formation
into the fighting line. Such column
meant nearly 100 miles of length for
the train. And to have this body of
trucks operating properly the strict
est discipline was required.
This truck discipline was first sys-
tematized on the French lines by work
and experiments at Camp Johnson,
Fla, near Jacksonville, the mother
school of the motor transport corps,
and was soon developed into book
form and standardized for the army.
Thorough Training Given.
To the commercial truck operator,
however the work done to train the
drivers in the handling Of their vehi-
cles was far more important. Every
man who went into the corps was
given thorough training in the opera
ton of the motor vehicles, and while
the Camp Johnston school was work
ing out truck discipline enormous re-
pair and shop units were in full op-
Grafton in other parts of the country.
Such, for instance at Camp Holabfrd,
near Baltimore, and at Atlanta, while
over In the West there were such
units as at San Antonio: These were
mechanical organizations for repair
work and for shop training.