Evening star., 1945-01-14

Is responsible Tor the emc1ent and sue
cessful attainment of the objectives.
The overall headquarters activities
are assigned to the following staff divi-
sions:
CONTROL, which may be likened to
the efficiency engineer in similar ci-
william enterprise.
PLANS AND OPERATIONS, which
drafts the overall aims and means of
attaining them.
INTELLIGENCE, whi nh may be L.
kened to that department of civilian en-
terprise concerned with learning the
weaknesses within its organization and
in the organization and plans of compe-
titive (enemy) enterprises.
PROVOST MARSHAL GENERALS
OFFICE, the Army's police department.
NATIONAL GUARD BUREAU,
which administers the National Guards
affairs
DIRECTOR OF PERSONNEL, whose
duty Is to provide sufficient manpower
for both the Army and Army operated
plants and factories engaged in war
production. He is also responsible for
their welfare and efficiency.
DIRECTOR OF MILITARY TRAIN
ING, who prepares the personnel of
the ASF for the varied routine and
specialized jobs.
DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY, who pro-
vides the weapons of modern war and
all the supplies and equipment for SOL
diers.
FISCAL DIRECTOR, the Army's
banker, paymaster and accountant.
ADJUTANT GENERAL, the business
manager and Office manager of the
Army. Also the keeper of millions of
records.
JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL, who
heads the legal and judicial depart
ments.
Big Personnel Job
Obviously managing group of nearly
a million men and women war workers
has meant a big personnel job for the
Army Service Forces-the biggest ever
attempted in this country. This has
been and still Is the particular respon-
sibility of the Industrial Personnel
Division under the director of person.
mel. This division was established in
March, 1912, by Gen. Somervell to
formulate and develop a sound per-
sonnel program for the Nation wide or
ganization of civilian employees.
Contrary to popular belief all War
Department civilians, of whom at least
85 per cent are employed by the ASF,
are not herded at desks in the Penta-
gon Building, which, true to the Army,
is the worlds largest Office building"
Not more than per cent of the total
civilian group working for the ASF is
located in the Washington Metropolitan
Area. The other 95 per cent is to be
found scattered throughout the United
States, in plants of all types. Some are
overseas.
They include such enormous enter
prises as the ports of embarkation, en-
ploying as many as 10000 civilians each;
the arsenals and factories, the big
Quartermaster, Engineer and Signal
Corps depots and plants; the huge Army
hospitals and hundreds of other estab-
hshments in which the bulk of the
operations Is by civilian labor.
From June, 1943, to April, 1914, the
Army Service Forces reduced the work.
ing force by 265,0O0 persons-16s, ,166
civilian employees and 95,834 officers
and enlisted men. While this curtail-
ment of personnel was being carried
out work was actually increasing by
about 20 per cent. Yet the cut was made
without impairment to the efficiency
of the ASF or detriment to it's war pro-
duction.
All Army staff divisions, the service
commands and the military district
OF Washington, which is organized and
operates as service command except
that it is under the direct command
Of the War Department, are manned
partly by civilian workers. So also are
the technical services and fuel install
lations. When the war began there
were only about $4,000 distributed
throughout the agencies absorbed by
the ASF. In little more than a year
they expanded to top a million. There
are still 767 900 on its payroll. But to
obtain the present force 1000 900 men
and women were recruited.
Women Workers
Hundreds of thousands of these have
been trained to perform unfamiliar
jobs. Nearly half of the civilian per-
sonnel is made up of women. Many of
them had never worked before and
their mechanical experience did not
extend beyond the eggbeater, a can
opener or vacuum cleaner. Yet they
have been trained to operate drill
presses or Welding machines.
OF special Importance to the war pro-
duction program was the recruitment
and employment of women as replace
ments for able-bodied men subject to
military calls or urgently needed in war
production elsewhere. About $4,000 are
doing jobs formerly performed only by
men in ordnance plants, arsenals, de-
pots, ports of embarkation and other
installations. They make blockbusters,
test heavy guns, drive locomotives,
trucks, operate cranes, test precision in
struments, make war gases and do a
score of other important jobs in addi-
ton to banging typewriters and taking
stenographic notes.
In hiring workers the ASF has ad-
hered strictly to the policy set by Secre-
tary of War Henry L. Stimson that
there shall be no discrimination with
respect to race, sex, color, religion, creed,
national origin or political afiliation
except as required by law" AS a result