Evening star., 1944-03-24
BY NEWBOLD MOVES, Jr.,
Star Staff Correspondent

NAPLES, Mar. 20 Delayed The
1anky virginian waved his hand
casually in the direction of a $40, 900
machine which had been badly
damaged by shrapnel.
~Our job is to, send this thing
back to the front in working order"
he said. "It aims several antiair-
craft guns at time automatically.
I guess it's the most complicated
piece of machinery used by the
Army. 1t has about 10000 more
parts than the finest watch. We get
what parts we can by ordering them.
Anything we can't get-we make 1t. "
That is 1t. Thomas R.. Vermillion
of Williamsburg. Like most Ameri-
cans over here doing specialist work,
he is good at his job, knows it and
Is proud of it. He is in charge of
the instruments section of ordnance
base shops which comes under an
Army Service Forces base section.
Whole Shop Is Fabulous.
The whole shop is fabulous. 1t is
really factory which takes as its
raw material ordnance so badly bat
tered that it cannot be repaired by
forward workshops and which turns
out in a steady stream new guns,
tanks and trucks-the whole range
of ordnance items-ali made from
the ruined carcasses. It's 247 900
square feet of floor space houses
hundreds of drill presses, grinders,
power hammers, forges-every kind
OF machine needed to keep a
modern mechanized, army rolling
Nearly 700 soldiers and more than
TOO Italian civilians work in the
shop.
1t is so extensive that it is i'm
possible to give clear picture OF
its operation as whole, but 1t.
Vermillion's instrument section, sit
uated in the TERED gallery high
above the roar of the machinery. is
typical of the shop in its operation
and its accomplishments.
Fifth Army's Instruments.
To it come all the 5th Army's in
struments for directing and con-
trolling gunflre If they have been
badly damaged improvisation is
the watchword here, for the requi-
site spare parts are seldom at hand.
But it must be axact improvisation.
You cannot simply slap together an
instrument which calculates the dis
tance to an object so accurately
that the reading is not more than 2
feet out at 400 yards.
Thirty-one badly battered range
finders once arrived at the instru-
ment section; 5th Army definitely
needed 10 replacements. They sent
out for available spare parts and
got exactly two, but 5th Army had
its range finders on time.
More than that, 1t. Vermillion
noticed that the regulation cases in
which the instruments were packed
broke too easily. His sergeant went
out and talked to an Air Forces lieu.
tenant, who contributed some alum
mum from an italian airplane parts
shop, and the instruments were re-
turned to the front in improved
aluminium lined cases which do not
break.
Drills for Dentists.
The section is continually called
on to perform delicate jobs far re-
moved from the field Of ordnance.
It Is, thanks to the ingenuity of its
personnel, that many of the native
dentists over here now operate drills
which are powered by electricity. It
has produced surgical instruments
and machines for grinding false
teeth: The boys were out to make a
dermatone-a device for cutting
SKIN graftings of microscopic thick
ness-and they made one in a few
Gays which is said to be far more
eficient than the original design.
This is the kind of work the sec
tons 3l-year-old boss likes best. A
while ago he had a waft removed
from his hand and suffered a slight
burn In the process. That sort of
thing always starts him thinking.
Z borrowed ta1s instfumen$ from