The staff department of this station was organized in accordance with a duty outline and assumed in forming the manning tables of the base. The duties of the S-1 formerly embraced personnel, statistical, classification, transient officer records, and civilian personnel.  In addition to those departments this department is also supervising the activities of shipping and receiving, finance, and post exchange, postal service, special services which also includes Army Emergency relief, physical training bonds and allotments, insurance, and CPA rationing, the band, Chaplains section, legal section, Provost Marshal, photographic, registration and identification, officers’ mess, Red Cross, USO, service clubs, and it further responsible for the supervision of sanitation.  All methods are utilized to further a high morale among the enlisted men and the officers.

                                                                Chronological History

                Since this office began to function on September 27, 1943 the following are the outstanding items instigated or accomplished other than ordinary duties.

·          September 27-30, 1943 Headquarters Planning took effect at the direction of the Base Executive.  This department directed the planing of the office space allotment and distribution of furniture

·          September 29, 1943 Civilian Employees there was a lot of employees sitting around being idle due to the transferring from the Army Air Force Tech.  Training Camp to the Second Air Force. It was also observed that there was a loss of moral among the civilian employees. Mr. Bondy the Administrative Assistant, Civilian Personnel opened up stenographic and clerical schools for any one that wanted to take them.

                                              October 1943

·          October 1, Provost Marshal a tour of all-interior guard and police posts was made in the company of the Provost Marshal of the AFFTTC. A study was made of the possibilities of reducing those posts in number, at the same time retaining the necessary security with smaller requisite personnel.  Sanitation A personal inspection was made by Major Fain in which he visited all the mess halls on the base, ate in most of them, had a conference with the Sanitary Inspector and suggested methods of inspection; certain changes in the handling of garbage were also suggested.

·          October 4, Draft Deferment, A list of all civilian employees draft status was drawn up and deferment was asked for those in the draft category whom this department felt would be irreplaceable in their present positions. Post Exchange, an inspection on foot of all the Post Exchange outlets on the base.  Directed the cutting down in the number of them together with the consolidation of activities.

·          October 5, Special Services: an inspection of the special services dining room showed that the soldiers were being crowed out by civilian employees.  Recommendation was made that the civilian employees eat in their cafeteria, which was built for their use.  Soldiers were asked to refrain from eating in the cafeteria during the noon hour,  

·          October 7 Photographic Registration and Identification: All BTC #5 passes have been abolished, no new “honorary passes” will be issued for civilians.  New car markers have been ordered and the BTC #5 metal plate will be abolished. New Class A. and civilian passes have been issued and Class B. have been permanently abolished. Short leaves for all enlisted me are now to be handled on # 7pass forms. Base Officer Personnel: All base officer duty and board assignments are made in the S-1 office.  All enlisted personnel and all transient officer assignments are made in the Personnel Office.

·          October 21, Sales Commissary: In the interest of better morale of base personnel living off the base, studies are bring made to decide upon the best method and the best location for a Base Sales Commissary and a base butcher shop; the sales commissary to be run by the Quartermaster, and the butcher shop by the Post Exchange.  Swimming Pools: Major Fain, the head f the department is negotiating with the Paddock Engineering Company of Los Angeles (a former architect) regarding the building of a swimming pool or pools for enlisted men; the officers’ pool is to be paid for out of Officers Club profits, enlisted men’s pools to be paid for from athletic and recreation funds. Reclassified Officers; Officers awaiting reclassification at Salt Lake City Army Air Base were shipped to Kearns Air Base.  They have all been interviewed and placed in jobs for which they seem best fitted. Many of them are making excellent records.

·          October 29 - November 6, Transportation; in the interest of enlisted morale, this department suggested that the Army trucks be requisitioned to run to Salt Lake City on Saturday nights so that enlisted men could get out to and from the camp.  It was done on October 30, and the congestion was entirely relieved.  It was noticed that on November 6 many more civilian busses were on the run.  Post Exchange; An officer was detailed to make surveys of the post exchanges of all surrounding Army bases to determine if the prices, merchandise and services rendered by our exchange system were in line with those of our neighbors.  The survey has been completed and we find that we are serving as well as any of our neighbors.

November 1943

·          November 4 Personnel; “Officer Duty Location Chart”, showing graphically primary duties, additional duties, and board duties of all base officers and re-classified officers was posted.

·          November 5 Post Exchange; A conference was held with Lt. Col. Perley relative to division of the profits of the post exchange.

·          November 10  Personnel;  Major Fain attended a staff meeting at the 18^th Replacement Wing. Since it was revealed that there are certain critical shortages in the Second Air Force among enlisted personnel, efforts are being made to obtain the following personnel for manning tactical units: Telephone, Teletype and Cryptographic operators.

·          November 12 - This office has completed base officers’ duty roster, giving duties and additional duties of all officers. Reclassified officers or Detached Service at this base, will, in the future be relieved from Detached Service by a memorandum from the Army Air Base. Their past VOGO release has resulted in some confusion.

·          November 22-27 - This department compiled the reports of all departments, active in the processing of Provisional Units 55 and 56 for overseas’ shipment.  Layouts for future projects were prepared.

·          November 30 Personnel; Department heads were requested to compile a list of enlisted men by rank and MOS that are to be supplied them to take the places of men recently shipped out.

The following Narrative was taken from the History of Base Personnel Office AAB, Kearns, Utah dated December 3, 1943 starting on page 2 last paragraph and going through to page 4 the end of this document.

                  Overall view

                Ground work for the establishment of a Base Personnel Office was begun on 23 September 1943, the office to begin operation on 1 October 1943. The following sections were set up and organized: Officers Records Section; Classification and Schools Section; Service Records Section; Sergeant Major’s Section; Payroll Section.  A “dry-run” on all morning reports, 363^rd Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron, Detachments, and 2^nd Air Force Bombardment Groups was completed 29, September.  Various records were brought up to date and supplies were obtained.

   The office commenced operation on 1 October 1943. 1^st Lt. H.H. Juell, AC, was in charge as Base Personnel Officer; Lt. Meiners, Statistical officer; S/Sgt. Edwards, Sergeant Major; Sgt. Hasselbring, Assistant Sergeant Major; Sgt. Jackins, in charge of Service Records and Payrolls; 9 other enlisted men and 2 civilian employees.  These enlisted men were assigned from Camp Williams, Wisconsin, and Army Air Base, Salt Lake City.  Operations proceeded as scheduled handling transient officers and enlisted men as well as assigned men.  From time to time during the month of October, additional enlisted and civilian personnel were added.  During the month of October as certain policies were found necessary, they were adopted and a standard operation procedure was evolved.  Some of the major policies adopted during the month were:

a.         Combat crew members form AAB, Salt Lake City, who were being transferred to this Base for the purpose of firing on the range, were instead simply being sent over daily and returned the same, day thus eliminating a great deal of unnecessary paper work.

b.         Combat or Specialists School students will be qualified in Small Arms before leaving this Base.

c.         Arrangement was made with ORTC to procure their strength figures before 0900 daily.

d.         Arrangements were made with the Finance Department and Officers’ Club for the processing of newly arrived officers, in conjunction with the standard processing procedure of this office.

There was numerous changes still taking place in November of 1943. 

    Three officers were added to the department during the first week of November.  It was decided to move the Base Personnel Office to Wing B, Building 203 the move was to take place on November 8.  A meeting was held on November 3^rd, of all officers under the jurisdiction of the Base Personnel Officer.  Each officer explained the function of his department and its relation with the other departments.

      The mover to Wing B, Building 203, was completed on Monday evening November 8^th. This move allows the department considerably more office space.  Some difficulty was being experienced regarding telephones at first, but this situation was remedied.

     The office undertook to provide information regarding all furloughs for this base over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, as regards the number of furloughs and destinations.

    A conference among Col. Ginder, Base Executive Officer; Lt. Reed and Lt. Juell resulted in provisions being made to accommodate rush shipments of personnel.  A staff meeting on November 9^th revealed critical shortages in the 2^nd Air Force of telephone, Teletype and cryptographic operators.  Every effort is being made to alleviate this shortage.  Staff meeting also revealed that General Order #159, of the 2^nd Air Force, freezes all promotions of all officers and enlisted personnel.

       There was some difficulty experienced in collecting the cost of telegrams on AWOL men.  Lt. Laird, Base Signal Officer, cooperated with us in straightening out this matter.

      To clarify Special Orders on officers, all orders on transient officers will be cut in this office; order on static officers by Major Fain’s office. 

     Effective November 11, Form 127 will be made by the 363^rd Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron and will be cleared through the Base Statistical Officer.  On November 12 th Lt. Reed, shipping and Receiving Officer, was transferred to Wright Field, Ohio and Lt. Juell assumed his duties.  To a large degree, responsibility for the department was placed on Lt. Happe.

   As of November 12, no more men are to be transferred form Bomb Groups at this until further orders are issued by the 18^th Replacement Wing. Due to the 18^th Wing Detachment’s holding payrolls for signatures, men had been delayed in being paid and consequently in shipping.  Captain Adams agreed to make every effort to return payrolls within 12 hours. And in the future, CDD’s must be cleared through 2^nd Air Force.

    On November 18^th word was received that two units, B-55 and B-56 were to be made up at Kearns for overseas shipment.  Personnel were to be obtained from the base complement and from Salt Lake City Air Base.  Inasmuch as a Base personnel was not set up to cope with such a situation, a wing of Building 203 was given over to the project.  Experienced personnel were drafted from the various departments to work on the shipment in addition to fill the units; numerous key personnel had to be transferred to them.  With the combined efforts of all of departments and with untiring devotion to accomplishment of the mission by all concerned, the job was done.  New personnel to replace those lost are being obtained from the Basic Firing Squadron.  In the event that they cannot fill the quota, additional replacements may be obtained from the CRP, Salt Lake City.

   A conference was held with Col. Harms, Commanding Officer, 18^th Replacement Wing, after this shipment was completed. IT was determined that ORTC, Kearns would handle future shipments, since such work is more under their province than ours.  This arrangement is proving very satisfactory.

                                                                     Policy Files

    The Officers Record Section of the Base Personnel Office is set up to enable each officer reporting and leaving this Base to do so in the most rapid possible manner. 

   Each officer arriving at the Base is directed to report to the Officers’ Section, where he is given the following forms to be completed: Factual Data Report, Locator Card, Emergency Address Card, Data Report for Public Relations Office, Assignment of Quarters Forms, Signature Cards.  The officer accomplishes these forms and the necessary information for the efficient functioning of the officers’ section is taken from them.  This information, together with the Officers’ W.D., A.G.O Form 66-1, is kept in the Section for the duration of the officers stay at this Base.  It is necessary to make certain changes in this data from time to time to assure the records being kept up to date. 201 Files are maintained on each officer.

                Upon receiving orders to leave this Base, the officer reports to the Officers’ Station, where he is given the necessary clearance forms and Termination of Quarters form, which must be accomplished before the officer can clear the Base.  This Section is also responsible for obtaining an efficiency rating on the officer’s Form 66-1 from the Commanding Officer before the officer leaves.

                The Officers’ Section is also required to make certain monthly and bi-monthly reports to higher headquarters on the officer status of this Base, which are made according to higher headquarters directives and regulations.