Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-09-24

Any draftee or GuardSman who
considers himself to be a cross be-
tween an imaginative artist and a
hard-boiled practical day laborer
may be able to detach himself from
the routine duties of doughboy and
enter the Army's camouf1age corps
This was revealed yesterday as 1t
Col. Homer Saint Gaudens of The
Army Engineer Reserves, and son
of the famous sculptor. Augustus
Saint-Gaudens, announced that
there is plenty Of room for peculiar
ly-in every sense of the word
fitted men in the camouf1age corps
Here are some of the requirements
for being a good camouf1age man as
Col. Saint Gaudens lists them:
First of all, the camouflage officer
or man must be a healthy trained
soldier and young enough to take it
if need be. with any other man in
uniform who may rub elbows with
him in the field. The camouhage
man. like the machine man or
the cook. must be able to walk &c
miles day, Juggling go pounds on
his back, and be able to do it the
next day.
- A Lot to Camoufiage Work.
Having acquaintance in the
English camouflage section. I learned
a bit about their set-up. II the
camouf1age group in that British
contingent at Dunkirk had not
known how to handle themselves
as other troops their presence would
have been an added tragedy during
those black hours.
"A mans camouflage activities,
after his education as a soldier
has been completed, mean a lot
besides devising a. snipers veil that
will not tangle in the bolt of a rife
or dazzle-painting a tank. Camou-
f1age requires the coordination of
many details.
1T means inducing a WORKOUT
battery to set up of night, before
they start digging in their guns,
those "f1at-top" nets garnished with
strips of burlaps that form the best
hiding scheme yet devised. Camou-
fage is not just putting up Keep
Of the Grass signs and expecting
1000 900 soldiers to pay attention"
And this isn't all In tense mo-
ments, the camouhage man-who
in normal life might have been a
painter of pastorals or a Brooklyn
taxi driver-may be called upon to
fire the guns, guide detail of men
over "no-man's land" or perhaps
hunt members OF a lost detachment
who have gotten themselves so we'll
"camouf1aged" that no one can find
them.
Must Never Go to Sleep.
"Above all said Col. Saint
Gaudens, who saw camoufage duty
during the World War, "a camou-
fage officer must never 60 to sleep.
He must never complain ."
Those who are especially urged
TO volunteer for camoufage work
are the Hollywood property men,
prop men, as they are affection
dCSly hIlOWIl W IllC plOlCSolOIl VI
which they are so important part.
Such a man is hard boiled, hard
living, resourceful, disciplined, yet
used to acting on his own" Col.
Saint-Gaudens asserted. He works
at all hours, sleeps in his tracks,
eats anything you lay in his hand.
HE has a keen eye for the ap-
pearance of an object. Once he has
been taught whether the object is
to be seen through a pair of binocu-
lars from the ground or from an
airplane camera up above, he can
somehow put together something
that will resemble that object or
something that will make that OBJ
ject resemble something else or
nothing at all, as you will
1t was pointed out that Hollywood
property men first devised the trick
of planting emergency landing fields
with various kinds of grass and