The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-05-11

| chronic yoWl tnat the chow Is no
good to complaints that a man has
had no pay for six weeks, that the
post exchange officer is robbing the
till, that excessive discipline has
been inflicted for minor offense,
| or that some junior officer feels he
is being submerged by the C. o.
The inspector general is required
to investigate every complaint, and
woe betide the senior officer who
reprimands a subordinate for re-
porting to the inspector general.
! In peacetime an organization is
visited by an inspector general once
a year for a check on training,
equipment, discipline, finances,
everything. In war, inspections are
more frequent. Before units are sent
overseas there will be one of two
special investigations in the field to
report whether the unit is ready, not
ready. or ready provided.
There are two inspectors general
Ia Mathematician and a captain
assigned to every division for con-
slant checkups on details which may
be ordered at any time by the COM
handing general on whose staff
they serve. There are also corps,
field army, and service command
inspectors assigned to every COM
manding generals staff.
"ACTION LETTERS" FILED
After every inspection, there is a
one-page report sent to Washing
ton. 1t will not cover the little
things that can be corrected in the
field, only the major things that
need further attention. At the bot
tom of each of these one-page re-
ports there will be a notation that
six or eight or any number of "ac-
ton letters" have been filed. Action
letters covering one specific thing
that needs fixing are sent to the Of
ficer whose responsibility 1t is to fix
1t.
It may be a shortage OF men or a
surplus of average officers or lack
of equipment or training. AS each
corrective action Is taken. the re-
sponsible officer must report on
what he has done. All these report
ing letters then come to the inspec-
lions division of the Office Of the
Inspector General in Washington.
If corrective action stalls, report
goes to the War Department so that
higher command can take action
Before the last war, inspectors
general were frequently considered
officers with little black books who
went around preparing Skin lists"
of petty criticisms on which to skin
the hide off some officer. Today,
under Inspector General Peterson's
policies, I. G.'s are instructed to look
not only for the things that are
wrong, but also for the things that
are right, on which they can pass
out commentator.
THE JOB is BROADENING
Expansion of the Army into the
new highly skilled technical serv-
ices has of course meant many new
jobs for the Office of the Inspector
General. There is whole new Of
flee of the air inspector general,
headed by Maj.-Gen. Junius w.
! JOIlco d41A ACpOA Gh16 AAASSNy w VAN
commanding general of the Army
Air Forces, Gen. Henry H. Arnold.
Six officers, all pilots, head up the
various tactical and technical di-
visions of this branch, and the SIS
officers now assigned to it are all
specialists in engineering flying, etc.
Gradually the work Of OTIG is
being shifted overseas. Today, Brig
Gen. Elliott D. Cooke is head of a
small overseas inspections division
in washington, with one officer in
charge of administrations inspec-
lions and one to look after the life
of the enlisted man But there are
inspectors general in each theater
of operations responsible to the
commanding general of that theater
and as each major unit goes over
seas it takes along its own inspec-
tors general who then become re-
sponsible within the theater. Only
the reports of things that the War
Department can fix come to WASH
ington. There are 1913 inspectors
general overseas now, and the num-
Der will grow.