Supply task force problems

Marriott issued a new vinit of hre table on i March because he was still responsible for tactical requirements and planning. Also, now that some support problems were handled by USASOS, the forward area problems increased. The inexperienced, young junior officers with the task forces lacked the knowledge to handle supply, and Marriott s office was frequently called upon to give detailed instructions at the regimental combat team level. In many cases Marriott sent out the officers of his own section to inspect or to clear up a field supply problem. ... 

By the middle of 1944 replacement factors had been increased, supply was more plentiful, and items received were in better shape. The first block-loaded ships were then being prepared in San Francisco, and the Sixth Army Chemical Section took advantage of this means to resupply ammunition. Block-loaded ships were those vessels with loads specially designed to support a task force with a balanced variety of supplies. The materiel was loaded so that discharge could be effected easily and expeditiously, and loads were so marked that accounting and reporting problems were greatly reduced. Each block-loaded ship came into a USASOS base and waited there to be called forward for the support... 

The Special Projects Division was to develop measures for defense and retaliation against BW, to produce or procure the necessary material, to collect and evaluate intelligence on enemy activity, to maintain liaison with other military and civilian organizations concerned with biological warfare here and abroad, to prepare training publications and conduct instruction in biological warfare, and to supply technical advice to the armed forces. " The division had an immense task and had to do the work hurriedly because of the urgency of the problem as understood at that time. Construction, research, and instruction were necessarily simultaneous operations at all installations of the Special Projects Division. 

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