QUARTERMASTER CORPS IN EUROPE

a sergeant and his family living in a u.s. army housing development in Germany facilities for officers and noncoms are identical and the quarter more is responsible for supplying their food and household goods most of the men in our army do not have wives and children with them overseas but the QMS job of course covers everyone and food is mighty important for men who are facing up to man-sized jobs there has to be a continuous supply of food the right amount so there will always be enough but nothing will be wasted and a stock of the right sizes of the right kinds of clothing has to always be at the right place at the right time those with families get the things they need @qm commissaries american kind of things and when the milkman comes around to the back door here it happens to be the front door even this is a kind of QM operation red gets delivered to [Music] here's real stateside service courtesy of the US Army quartermaster Corps big US Army quartermaster sales stores are situated in all foreign localities where there are large troop concentrations and in places where the demand isn't so great a railroad engine pulls the store around and it sets up for business for as long as the supply of customers holds out the well-dressed soldier today must have a minimum of 125 pieces of clothing and equipment she'll think you look fine Joe the man who's been overseeing the job of supplying all of the food clothing general supplies and gasoline for our army personnel in Western Europe is Major General William H middle Swart quartermaster for you sir are generally our job is divided into two major parts we provide quartermaster supplies and services for the United States Army in Germany and France but primarily we must be prepared to support our forces in the event of war this task involves supplying and servicing hundreds of concerns and proof detachments spread from Bordeaux to Berlin and from Bremerhaven to purchase khat the Giessen Depot one of half a dozen big warehousing installations in Western Europe which received store and distribute two million tons of quartermaster supplies annually everything coming in everything staying everything going out how much of everything there is on hand how much has been requested it can all be calculated with the wiggle of a forefinger by a cumulative system of punched out machine record cards the record system here at Giessen is the master control for the entire string of supply depots items of supply are ordered through procurement offices located in the major marketing centres of Europe all centres are in continuous contact with each other by teletype network so that everything can be purchased at the competitive price here at a procurement Center in Frankfurt Germany a qm draftsman draws up specifications for one of the numerous items that it's more economical to buy on the continent over two-thirds of the 143 million dollars worth of subsistence items that our troops in Western Europe use each year are shipped in from the United States [Music] from the moment a crane Lord of a new shipment touches down on foreign soil US Army checkers are on hand and alert to make sure that all of every shipment is properly accounted for and will get into the hands of the people for whom it is intended once safely ashore the transporting and warehousing that started months before in Chicago New York or perhaps even in the Canary Islands begins all over again it sort of looks like there'll have to be some new holes punched out on a few of those machine record cards back in Geeson doesn't it even most Texans agree that the pipeline's leading out of their state don't extend quite as far as Bremerhaven Germany so the vast quantities of gasoline that must be continually brought in to supply the US Army Navy and Air Force units in Western Europe comes in by tanker the gasoline and oil business is a joint operation of the Army Navy and Air Force with the quartermaster Corps charged with the major responsibilities of storage like every other QM job it's a big job [Music] roll out the barrel will have a barrel of class-3 supplies that's what the folks in the Army quartermaster Corps called the juice in these drums just plain all motor fuel to you unless maybe you lived over here turned a bit Continental and are calling it petrol now whatever it is you want to call it this much is sure a modern army has to have a whale of a lot of this stuff [Music] the farmers barge in with their products at a vegetable auction near the hague haulin just one of the dozens of buying centers throughout Europe where QM personnel are always on hand checking for quality and bidding for price if it comes up to the high army standards of quality before the week is out much of this food may be on the dinner tables in army mess halls or on sale in army commissaries [Music] [Music] step number one in the preparation of a hamburger sandwich meat fork um commissary sales only is purchased in Europe troupe messes all get frozen meat purchased in the United States whoever told you that a soldier overseas today has a lot of beefs was giving you a right steer selected meat is carefully inspected by army veterinarians who work closely with a quartermaster Corps and personally supervise every phase of the slaughtering process [Music] these Plymouth Rocks who never saw a Plymouth Rock are busy working for the US Army qm2 eggs for breakfast next week or for storage against the season when they'll be scarce and higher-priced everything's been inspected and it's all first quality when it comes to food processing sometimes it's more efficient for the QM to operate its own overseas plants when this is finished fixing it will be ice cream throughout the world American servicemen have become famous for their appetites for ice creams and chocolate milkshakes it's almost a military necessity for the army to make sure it's always got the makings [Music] this milk processing plant in Amsterdam is not owned or operated by the US Army quartermaster Corps but since it is one of the plants where the qm makes regular purchases its routine operations are a QM responsibility there can be no compromise with sanitary standards relating to personnel and equipment [Music] there's an army inspector on deck to make sure every bottle is spotlessly sanitary the game of spin the bottle army style the sanitary supervision is conducted in cooperation with the US Army veterinary service every year the United States forces stationed in Western Europe consume more than a quarter of billion glasses of fresh milk that has to be shipped in from selected dairies in Holland Denmark and northern Germany grade a pasteurized milk from tuberculin tested cows every bottle of it and all QM purchased milk is laboratory checked regularly for bacterial count by army veterinarians the same vigilant supervision is set up to assure the high standards of all the products the services contract for this is a mobile petroleum testing laboratory in many of the major foreign port cities the army also has permanent installations for checking the quality of its purchases of gas and oil to make sure that everything comes up to QM specifications [Music] just as with military purchases made in this country military goods purchased overseas must measure up to the rigid QM specifications how good is this sample of cloth good enough to be bought for the US Army from upholstery fabrics to china dishes for mess halls everything the army buys must measure up almost at its destination now but not quite this QM purchase has traveled a long way this time its sacks of coffee beans that have been imported directly from South America throughout Europe the quartermaster Corps operates 11 plants like this where army coffee is roasted freshly ground and shipped out daily to troop messes and commissaries testing the roast it's beginning to look and smell like the top-quality product that it is such as the life of a coffee bean preparing to join the army it's always a tough grind [Music] but once you've gone through it your future is in the bank [Music] it takes a lot of dough to feed the service personnel and their dependents stationed overseas and savings can be accomplished by having the quartermaster Corps bake its own bread bread that measures up to army standards of quality that are ordinarily higher than civilian standards frequently civilian personnel and specially trained military personnel work together side by side in QM bakeries this is one of 13 QM bakeries that operate in Europe to turn out over a third of a billion pounds of bread every year the ovens a bit larger than the one in your kitchen but then the QM family in Europe is a little larger than yours is too [Music] the freshly baked bread wrapped like stateside is sent out in a fleet of trucks to be delivered daily to the homes of dependent personnel as well as to army mess halls [Music] another household chore of the QM core is the family wash and a mighty big laundry it is as in the case of Army bakeries big army laundries like this generally utilize civilians as well as military personnel it's all been marked of course to make sure it will be returned to its rightful owners everything from personal clothing to shirts and towels goes into the wash [Music] here are the sheets you saw being unloaded already through the washer they're ready for the mangle notice how they press the shirt sleeves and the way they dry the socks to guard against shrinking in areas of sparse troop concentrations the QM has its mobile laundries operating this is the system that's used for a number of our smaller installations in France everything is mounted on wheels the washers the dryers and the iron errs ten of these laundries are presently in operation new and needed items of equipment may be developed by QM personnel right here in Europe there was a need for dry-cleaning units to operate along with the mobile laundries in France so the QMS designed and built portable units like this which can clean and press 4,500 pieces of clothing a week you take your shoes to the cobbler the army takes theirs to the quartermaster Corps whether it's soles or heels or a complete renovation the QM cobblers are competent to take care of the job like old soldiers old soldiers pillows never die at least this is the case in Europe where the quartermaster Corps saves the army upward to half a million dollars a year by operating a QM plant for disinfecting washing and remaking army pillows and mattresses finally the American soldier has found the answer to the age-old question of what makes his mattress tick it's his own qm-- plant that set up and operating in Munich it's only after an army mattress has been completely rebuilt that anyone can truthfully say that it can't be beat no he's not testing this product for durability it's part of the manufacturing process [Music] on each rebuilt mattress the army saves eight dollars here they are good as new maybe better a US Army quartermaster plant in southern Germany renovating 55-gallon oil drums the old oil drums can be rusted badly dented in maybe even have some leaks in them but it's a lot cheaper repairing them than buying new ones [Music] renovating one of these old 55-gallon drums cost the American taxpayer a dollar 41 a new one would have set him back seven dollars and 11 cents five-gallon cans are also collected and renovated at substantial savings the insides have to be painted too and the special paint used in the renovating has proved more satisfactory and longer-lasting than the original a butcher a baker and now the army quartermaster is an upholsterer and cabinet maker living quarters and offices require millions of pieces of furniture which in turn necessitate constant repairs remodeling and renovation as a part of its big clothing business the quartermaster Corps continually surveys stocks on hand this is part of some stock that has been in storage since the end of World War two materials are checked for their condition repairs are made when necessary and finally the bundles are repacked according to size and like of item [Music] tents are another item to be bought distributed stored issued and repaired mess kits one more of the QM 80,000 items in a US Army quartermaster metal replating shop in Munich more dollars are saved by Riesling and refinishing army tableware and army pots and pans [Music] the army cost consciousness program even extends to salvaging bread crumbs at quartermaster bakeries the crumbs are used for stuffings old egg shells from mess-hall garbage cans even these are saved they bring high prices from farmers who feed them back to the chickens sometimes quartermaster supplies come in via the sky route quartermaster aerial supply organised for close support of combat was sighted during the Holland flood disaster for its outstanding contribution to the US military relief efforts [Music] near Munich Germany in the Bavarian Alps the army quartermaster Corps operates an overseas Technical Training School here annually it graduates more than 5000 students from u.s. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Europe the students are taught quartermaster doctrine with special reference to the problems and conditions peculiar to Western Europe the quartermaster's electronic brains that are far less open to making errors in the brains of the scientists who invented them these automatic tabulating and accounting machines constitute the heart of quartermaster administrative control men must learn how these gadgets operate and they must learn how to operate them [Music] touch-typing instruction army-style as a business element of garmi the quartermaster Corps not only trains to nog refers for its own use but for other arms and services as well [Music] when a typewriter breaks down there will be a QM repairman who will know how to fix it learning to whip up a good dinner [Music] looks like somebody's going to be a mighty handy fellow for a girl to have around the house someday [Music] most are me cooking and food preparation is done indoors with normal kitchen facilities instruction in how to plan meals efficiently and how to prepare them appetizingly or both part of the food service program wherever a 6x6 truck can get through it can carry a modern kitchen with it using models built to scale students learn how it's done the best quality meat can be no better than the way it's been cut students are instructed in how to be expert butchers and how to utilize all cuts to their maximum advantage not only must every man in the quartermaster Corps be technically trained for the performance of his special duties but he must also be tactically trained for combat modern warfare is likely to be characterized by fluid and fast changing frontlines in times of quick strategic withdrawals service troops like those of the quartermaster Corps may merge with frontline combat elements and in times of quick advances the same quartermaster troops may be required to defend their supply installations against powerful guerrilla infiltration a continuous physical and tactical training program is a part of every quartermaster soldier's daily military life our quartermaster troops in Western Europe are competent technical specialists and [Music]