Planning Division, OC CWS

The plans for the purchase of these components were worked out in considerable detail in the various procurement district offices before being submitted to the Procurement Planning Division, OC CWS. The district office plans were not confined to the components of the mask, but they were of primary concern while chemicals were secondary. Each procurement district was headed by a civilian chief, who was chairman of an advisory board of five to ten members drawn from among the leaders of the community in the fields of science, commerce, and industry. Each district also had a military executive officer, usually of company grade, with a civilian assistant. The planning activities of the district office were facilitated by the assignment of selected CWS Reserve officers to appropria.te mobilization duties. From the ranks of these Reserve officers were to come competent officer material for World War II. ... 

To supervise its priority and allocation activities, the CWS set up a separate section in the Procurement Planning Division, OC CWS, early in 1941. This section had responsibility for estimating the amounts of critical materials needed and recommending priorities to be assigned to end items. The Chief, CWS, submitted these recommendations to the Army and Navy Munitions Board for assignment of certification of priorities. They were then passed on to the Office of Production Management for final approval. 

Under the new plan the Industrial Division, OC CWS, assumed the role of a staff rather than an operating agency. It prepared procurement schedules of end items for the installations, based on the Army Supply Program, In preparing these schedules the division consulted frequently with installation officials. Three weeks after the schedules were drawn up, a meeting of representatives of the chiefs office, the arsenals, and the districts was held in Washington for the purpose of arranging the manufacture and delivery of components which the installations could not procure within their own confines. 

The return of overseas materiel necessitated the formulation of a plan for receiving, classifying, and repairing various CW items. In conformity with a directive from the Distribution Division, ASF, the Chief, Supply Division, OC CWS, drew up such a plan in the spring of 1945. This plan divided CW materiel into six categories and established receiving ports and classification facilities for each category. To illustrate, flame throwers, classified as Class B items under the plan, were to be received at the east and west coast ports and at New Orleans, and were to be sent to Rocky Mountain Arsenal for repair. ... 

Intervs, Hist Off with Col Harry A. Kuhn, USA Ret, 19 Oct 53 Lc Col Rura O. Ball, 1 Oct 53 and H. C. Fischer, Supt, Machine Shop, ACmlC, 8 Oct 53. Colonel Kuhn had experience in procurement planning in NYCWPD and Colonel Ball at the Wat Plans Division EA and in the OC CWS. 

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