Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-14

With the approach of the field train
ing period next month, officers and men
Of the National Guard of the District
Of Columbia are making preparations
for the departure to camp. Equipment
Is being gathered together and made
ready for the advance guard which
will carry it to camp, and have 1t in
place by the time the main body OF
troops arrive, lecture courses are being
mapped out. and mimic warfare
problems are being prepared to test
the results OF the arnlory training dur
ing the Winter months. 4
It has just so happened that at a
time when the units are busiest get
ting ready for the annual iaunt the
quartermaster had to pick up his sup
plies and move out of one of the hotel
brmories on the Union Station plaza,
and dump his loads of equipment into
rented store room on lower Pennsyl-
vania avenue. While the moving has
been completed, it will take some time,
with the limited help allowed the
uuartermaster, to get it all sorted out,
and put on shelves yet to be built. In
the meantime, there likely will be
acquisitions coming from the various
units for necessary pieces of equipment
TO At UP their organizations to take
the field for training ds:ty.
While every effort will be made to
put the property in orderly shape as
rapidly as possible so that it may be
issued when needed. 1t is Stupendous
task. All of it must be sorted out and
placed on shelves where it can be easily
obtained. This work has to be done
with very little help, and with nothing
like the. equipment which would be
furnished to a Regular Army quarter
master who might be called upon to
make such a move.
Capt. Fletcher F. BernSdorff, the
local quartermaster, has just completed
q special course of study at the Army
Quartermaster School at Philadelphia,
but, according to officials of the Guard,
this training cannot be used to the
maximum in the present move. because
of the limited help. He does not have
q regular corps of enlisted men on full
time duty to assist, but must depend
on civilian labor for the work, and this
involves large amount of direct
supervision.
However, it is not expected that any
of the units will be seriously hampered
In the preparation of their organizations
for camp. On the other hand, 1t was
said, the location of the store room
some distance from the armory will
give both officers and men some very
valuable training, because they VIII
have to look far ahead and foresee
many of their needs. In the past, with
the quartermaster store room located
right in the armory where the units
are drilled, 1t has been possible for
officers to draw promptly only such
equipment as they needed from time to
time.
Training programs are being prepared,
and noncommisSoned officers being
Kchooled in the most modern methods
of instructing the enlisted personnel
under them so that the maximum re-
suits may be obtained from the train
ing.
The training program of the goth
Division Headquarters. composed of Of
f1cers from the militia of this city and
the States of Maryland and Virginia
has been completed by Lieut.. Col
Charles B. Elliott, U. S. A., Regular
Army instructor assigned to this unit
which will train this year at Camp
Albert c. Richie at Cascade, Md.
The program provides for two long
trips for the officers, one of them q
terrain exercise, which will carry them
over the battlef1elds of Gettysburg, and
the other q chemical warfare demon.
stration at Edgewood Arsenal, Md. The
first of these will be held on August