Procurement district offices

While procurement was kept at a minimum there were no restrictions on procurement planning. The Procurement Planning Division of the Chief s office was responsible for drawing up and submitting its portion of industrial mobilization plans to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War. Early in 1924 procurement district offices were activated in New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and San Francisco. ... 

Late in January 1942 the Office of the Chief, CWS, sent Maj. Herbert P. Heiss to Atlanta to establish a procurement district office. A month later Col. Alfred L. Rockwood was transferred from the San Francisco Procurement District to assume command of the new Atlanta office, and Major Heiss then proceeded to Dallas to open the new office there. He arrived in Dallas on 2 March, and five days later the district was activated. With the creation of the Atlanta and Dallas districts, some of the territory formerly attached to the Pittsburgh and Chicago districts was put under jurisdiction of the new districts. The Atlanta district included the following states Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi while the Dallas district included the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. (See Map, page 112.) Early in 1943, Headquarters, ASF, and OC CWS decided that the continuation of the Atlanta office as a separate district office was not justified and, in April 1943, it was designated a suboffice of the Dallas district. 

Civilians with proper qualifications provided an important source of officer procurement in 1941-42. The Personnel Division of the Chief s office and the procurement district offices carried out a program of contacting industries where qualified civilians might be available. Pamphlets listing the specifications of CWS officers were compiled and circulated. In this way numerous civilians were attracted to the Chemical Warfare Service and granted direct commissions. ... 

The actual writing of the specifications was done by the Technical Division at Edgewood Arsenal. All specifications were reviewed by a board made up of representatives of the Technical, Production, and Inspection Divisions of the arsenal. After the board had made a preliminary review of the specifications, the chiefs office sent them through the procurement district office to industrial firms experienced in the manufacture of the item. Final approval had to come from the Standards Division, Office of the Assistant Secretary of War. ... 

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. ... 

Immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Under Secretary of War directed the Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service to "take all measures necessary to expedite so far as possible the delivery of incendiary bombs. In January 1942 the OC CWS, after hearing from the War Production Board that magnesium would be available by May or June, notified each of five procurement district offices to arrange for the purchase of components of the M50 bomb. The district offices began immediately to negotiate contracts for components and for casting magnesium bomb bodies. 

With V-J Day came an all-out eflfort to quickly terminate all war contracts. Both in the Washington headquarters and in the procurement district offices this objeaive became the first order of business. By August 1946 the CWS could report that there were only six contracts that had not yet been terminated. Three of these were with Eric Basin Metal Products, Inc., and Batavia Metal Products, Inc. The other three were with Prcssurclubc, Inc. 

The standardization of organization in the procurement districts and other CWS installations facilitated the standardization of administrative procedures. Before the Control Division survey of the districts, for example, each district office had its own forms and records system. This led to endless confusion in the Chief s office, where the data coming in from the installations had to be correlated. Until the forms and records were standardized it was extremely difficult to tell in what areas progress was being made. 

Procurement District Headquarters and Field Inspection Offices... 

From the point of view of operations, the system was effective because the quality of chemical warfare items improved greatly after the spring of 1943. The commanding officers of the procurement districts felt, however, that the same objectives could have been attained had the Chief, CWS, held them personally accountable for both quantity and quality of items. Such a procedure, they believed, would have avoided the administrative problems of divided authority that sprang up after separate inspection offices were activated in the districts. 

In recruiting employees, the procurement districts generally possessed certain advantages over the other types of CWS installations. All of the district offices, and even the suboffices, were located in large cities where a sizable pool of professional, skilled, and clerical labor was available. A great many of the district employees lived within easy commuting distance... 

Another factor which complicated the personnel situation was the growth in the number of field inspection offices, the aftermath of the increased number of contracts. The CWS had to make provision with the Civil Service Commission to permit chief inspectors in certain field offices to hire all personnel under blanket authorities issued by the commission. As time went on the procurement districts, like other installations, hired more and more women to do jobs formerly done by men. 

Mr. Allen, who was also the civilian chief of the New York Chemical Procurement District, had suggested that the district advisory committee be designated the Chemical Advisory Committee to the Army and Navy Munitions Board. This suggestion was adopted and from early 1939 until after the close of World War II the committee, whose members were leading representatives of the chemical industry, met monthly in Washington or New York. Liaison officers from the Army and Navy Munitions Board, the Ordnance Department, and the CWS attended the meetings. A representative from the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense and, later, one from the War Production Board, were often in attendance. ... 

Still another problem of expanding procurement activities was plant protection. The Federal Bureau of Investigation inspected all War Department and contractors facilities until the spring of 1941, when the function was transferred to the War Department itself On 12 May the Under Secretary of War notified the Chief, CWS, of the change and outlined the activities to be carried out. He "stressed the safety features of plant protection as well as the need for guarding against sabotage and directed that plant protection units be set up in the Office of the Chief and in the procurement districts. In conformity with this directive, the Chief, CWS, activated a plant protection unit in his office in May 1S>41 and instruaed the chiefs of the districts to do likewise. ... 

Conference of Commanding Officers, CW Procurement Districts, 3-4 Mar 43, passim. CWS 314.7 Procurement File. 

Intervs, Hist Off with Cols Almon N. Bowes and A. J. L. Wilson, 27 Nov 56. Colonels Bowes and Wilson were officers in the New York Procurement District in World War II. 

A survey of the districts conducted by the branch in the fall of 1943 revealed an almost total lack of interest and initiative with regard to pricing functions. To rectify this situation General Ditto, Assistant Chief, CWS, for Materiel, wrote a letter in December 1943 to the commanding officers of the districts in which he emphasized that price analysis was primarily a district function. From then until the close of the war the procurement districts were more active in conducting pricing operations. The Purchase Policies Branch, OC CWS, continued to act in a staff capacity on all pricing matters. 

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