Evening star., 1943-10-20

holAU obu1l NdAIJ6
Pvt. McLemsrs. yesterday at.
Morning Formation when Jackson,
D. Smith, six-feet-two-and-a- little
more Of top sergeant, fastened his.
eyes on me. After giving me Il
stare that would have withered the
blooms OF an artificial cactus, and,
causing me to feel that I had
broken all 12l Articles Of War, Sergt.
Smith called my name and told ms
to report to Pfc. Reynolds detail. >
Pfc. Reynolds, fine young man
from Crescent City, Fla, is in
charge of the detail that sees to
the neatness of what we in the
Army always refer to as the mems
powder room" We have two pow
der rooms in Company c and Pfc.
Reynolds is prouder of them thans
if they were a combination OF thk
Tai Mahal, st. Paul's. the Empire
State Building and the Ritz Carl
ton. He starts his detail to work
on them at eight in the morning
and it is not until four in the after
noon that he makes his final In
spection and, If finding everything
lovelier than sunrise over the
Painted Desert, dismisses the detail.
Powder Rooms Extensive.
The mems powder rooms" Of
Company C are quite bit different
from the powder rooms at the
Stork Club, the "21' Club, and all
the other powder rooms" I have
frequented in recent years. They
not only have very modern con-
veniences. They have every modern
convenience forty or fifty times. OF,
course. they don't have a faithful :
old retainer who, out OF the love
for the customers and a whacking
tip, will spray you with perfume,
shine your shoes, brush you of, and
mix you a throat gargle. But We
do have faithful old guard who,
armed with stout stick, Is thought
full enough to wander in and out
to see to 1t that we do not grow
so charmed with the place that We
try to convert it into a combination
recreation hall, USO hut, library,
and playground.
The United States Army is far
and away the best equipped in the
world, and its soldiers 90 into combat
with everything they could possibly
need. But the Army obviously does
not consider the equipment Of a
powder room" as an enemy, be-
cause it sent us in there with some
stuff that was left over from all the,
wars We have ever fought. We had
hrooms that had seen service In the
Revolutionary War, scrub cloths
that had been torn of the tails Of
CT shirts issued In the War Of 1912,
mops that had won ribbons for
service in the Spanish American
War. and bars Of soap that were
given honorable discharges from the
Army as long ago as 1919. Any one
who thinks the Army wastes ma
terial should join a powder room"
detail and find out for himself that
the Army still places a great deal Of
faith in elbow grease, the ability Of
private's knees to wear the dirt
OH the floor, and the power Of a
|private's hands to handle ANYTHING
from the cloven hooves OF the devil
on up.
An Efficient System.
The powder room detail OF Com.
pany G consists of 4 dozen men or
50, that number being available due
to the fact that Camp Blanding is a
reception center and those Of us here
are marking time until ofic,ally
assigned.
Pfc. Reynolds has worked out Q
system of cleaning powder rooms"
that is as effcient as any wartime
production line, While one group
is cleaning the shower room another
Is scrubbing the sinks and the sink,
room. There is a man who handles
scrub cloths. a man who wrings
them out, a man who Is in sole
charge of soap basins, another whose
responsibility is the mirrors, an
other who handles the window
cleaning, another who supervises
the scrubbing of the duck boarding,
another who Is responsible for the
cigarette and trash receptacles, etc.
While scalding water Is played on
the floor by one group, another
group scrubs the floor until it is as
spotless as the underside of an
angels wings.
was in none of these groups. NV
group was given an even more highly
specialized task-a task calling for
super judgment, super skill, a deli.
cate touch, and a thorough knowl-
edge of the intricacies Of modern
plumbing. Pfc. Reynolds, in assign
ing us to our task, intimated that he
was honoring us-that we were, in
effect, the rangers. the paratroopers.
Of the powder room" detail. We
were picked men, dauntless dough-
boys. who were unafraid Of any
enemy, even If that enemy be as
hard as porcelain.
The honor was lost on us. We all
agreed that we would rather win our
first decoration in another manner.