Chapter XVI

District Supply, Accounting, and Disbursing Officers

 

When the Eighth Naval District was reactivated in December 1940, one officer performed the functions of District Supply Officer, District Accounting Officer, District Disbursing Officer, and Supervisory Cost Inspector for the District.1 He was relieved of the duties of the District Disbursing Officer on 9 May 1941, and of the Supervisory Cost Inspector on 20 October 1941; but it was not until 16 January 1943, on the reporting of Rear Admiral V. C. Fite, SC, USN (Ret), that the District Supply Office was established as an independent activity. On Admiral Fite's departure on 20 September 1944, Captain R. K. Van Hater, SC, USN (Ret), the District Accounting Officer, also became the District Supply Officer. He held both billets until 1 March 1945, when the District Accounting Office was disestablished and its functions were transferred to the Naval Supply Depot, New Orleans.

With his multilateral duties, the District Supply Officer in the beginning was extremely busy, and the unusual and varied demands made of him and his staff called for both technical knowledge and ingenuity. There were big jobs to do, and there were chiefly untrained personnel to do them. Building up and maintaining an adequate staff was a

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primary objective.

One of the first problems was to obtain civilian personnel trained in supply detail. As other supply activities throughout the country were rapidly expanding, they were loath to release seasoned civilian clerks to man key positions at new activities. However, a clerk versed in supply detail and one versed in accounting detail were finally transferred to headquarters. Aside from these two clerks and the civilian Chief Clerk, none of the civilian force had had any previous experience in supply and accounting detail. But with extensive training and a good deal of overtime, competent clerks were trained for key positions. Additional clerks were recruited as the work load increased, though a section occasionally bogged down with an excess of work before the papers for obtaining more help could be processed and the recruits trained in their duties.

After the war had begun, another problem arose. Large defense plants sprang up in the New Orleans area and many governmental agencies were established. As the salaries offered by these institutions and by the Navy were not comparable, many experienced clerks left their old positions for new ones. After much correspondence, some key positions were re-rated, but in most cases the Classification Section in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy re-rated them at a lower grade than that recommended. During the year following August 1942 there was a sixty-five percent turnover in civilian personnel. The ultimate establishment of a job classification office at headquarters enabled quick, first-hand appraisal of work done and immediate proper classification.

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Such an agency could have prevented the loss of many competent and efficient clerks at an earlier date./

Aside from the Supply Officer, the officer personnel in the beginning were all drawn from the reserves, and the majority of them had had only limited previous training in Supply Corps work. Most of them had background, however, that enabled them, with some coaching and the actual tackling of assignments, to fill responsible positions.

The Naval Air Stations at Pensacola and Corpus Christi were already operating and self-sufficient; but since there were no supply activities already operating in the New Orleans area, and since there were many immediate needs in supply there end throughout the district, the District Supply Office and the District Accounting Office out of necessity were operational as well as supervisory, and for a long time were the main supply activity in the New Orleans region. As new activities sprang up in the district, the initial supply and accounting detail was handled through the facilities of this activity.

The first four months' supply of material had to be ordered for the Naval Station, New Orleans, which was reactivated along with the district headquarters. Since the warehouses were not completed as rapidly as planned, considerable confusion resulted when large amounts of material began to arrive. Expedited completion of the warehouses, however, soon relieved the situation. Material for some of the other activities - most of it ordered from the Naval Supply Depot in Norfolk - was assembled and stored here until the activities had their own warehouses.

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The District Supply Office took care of the initial accounting for the Naval Air Stations at Dallas and New Orleans, which were commissioned on 5 May 1941 and 15 July respectively, and handled both the initial supply and accounting for the following:

Activity Date of Commissioning
Section Bases -  
Sabine Pass, Tex. 12-1-41
Burrwood, La. 12-15-41
Corpus Christi, Tex. 12-18-41
Mobile, Ala. 12-19-41
Galveston, Tex.

12-27-41

Naval Supply Depot, New Orleans, La. 7-15-42
Naval Air Station, Memphis (Millington), Tenn. 9-15-42
Naval Air Technical Training Center, Memphis (Millington), Tenn. 9-23-42
Naval Air Station (LTA), Houma, La. 5-1-43
Naval Ammunition Depot. McAlester, Okla. 5-20-43
Naval Air Station (LTA), Hitchcock, Tex. 5-22-43
Naval Hospital, New Orleans, La. 6-1-43

The "oldtimers" in the District Supply Office say that in the early days one never knew what might have to be done when the telephone rang. On Monday after Pearl Harbor word was received that Intelligence Offices had to be furnished and opened throughout the district immediately. This involved purchasing by long distance telephone over the eight states of the district. By noon the next day reports had come in that all offices were provided with equipment and furniture. An operational task that required more work and time was that of obtaining large quantities of material for the first Marine Corps Expeditionary Force, known as the "Lone Wolf." Before commissioning details were established throughout the district, the District Supply Office ordered all outfitting material for vessels constructed at Orange, Texas. It

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purchased for the District Public Works Office several automotive units, made up of various numbers of vehicles of different types, that later were sent out to district activities. It obtained food for cafeterias in the shipyards and for cafeterias near large Naval activities under construction when the cafeterias would otherwise have been unable to serve all the workers.

The District Supply Office was, in a very practical way, a training center for inexperienced supply officers assigned to new district activities. These officers reported in New Orleans and worked with the headquarters staff in learning how to order equipment and supplies for their establishments. When they went out and set up their own offices, they continued to call on the district office for the answers to innumerable questions. Many newly commissioned officers were indoctrinated at headquarters for a month or two before they reported to the Supply Corps School at Harvard University.

A certain amount of educational work had to be done by the District Supply Officer in other departments at headquarters itself. Few officers outside of supply knew the proper procedure for requesting allotments, writing job orders, and issuing requisitions for the material required. Many emergency purchases were made by personnel who had no idea of the details required when Government funds were to be expended. Dealers' bills poured into the Supply Office in great numbers. Since this office was not a party to the procurement transactions, the Supply Office had no record as to who had made the purchase or what procurement papers had been instituted. After investigation it was discovered that the majority of these emergency purchases had been made at headquarters,

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and the bills were cleared up by personal contact. In a short while a heavy back log had accumulated in the Supply Department because there were not sufficient trained personnel to accomplish the work required to pay these bills, and the contractors, who at first had been eager to sell to the Navy, were reluctant to dispense their wares further without some definite information as to when they were going to receive their money. In order to correct this situation, civilian clerks and officer personnel put in many hours of overtime preparing these bills for payment. During this period an intensive educational program was instituted in order to impress on all departments that the Supply Department was the only department vested with the power to obligate government funds, and that the Supply Department could not obligate government funds until allotments had been granted by cognizant Bureaus. Those departments which had net requested allotments from their cognizant Bureaus were instructed in how funds were to be obtained and how job orders were to be drawn up. Many of the new personnel could not understand why this long-drawn-out procedure was necessary. One officer said that since the President had declared a national emergency, he felt perfectly free to get what he needed "without a lot of red tape."

One of the problems that the District Supply Office had to cope with during the first year was purchasing according to the old peace-time methods. Many man hours were wasted in sending proposals to establishments that normally would have submitted bids, but that now could not bid because they were already overloaded with orders from other Governmental and commercial activities. In 1942, however,

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the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts made changes in the placing of war contracts that resulted in great economy in man hours and paper.2 Under the new system the required material was located by telephone, tender, and personal contacts. If the material was reasonably priced and the contractor could guarantee quick delivery, then the contract was closed. Procurement was also speeded up by a directive in April 1943 which permitted the scheduling of purchases of less than $5,000 on an informal order; formerly any contract over $500 had to be scheduled as a formal contract.3

Though in the beginning the District Supply Officer was extremely busy in the performance of his multilateral functions in supply, accounting, and disbursing, it was not necessary that he give much time to the functions of Supervisory Cost Inspector because of the fact that not much Naval material was being produced in the area prior to Pearl Harbor. When the District Supply Officer was relieved of his duties as Supervisory Cost Inspector, on 20 October 1941, that activity ceased to be of concern in the administrative history of the district since it was taken from under the cognizance of the Commandant.

The functions of the District Disbursing Officer, divorced from the District Supply Officer in May 1941, involved in the beginning the payment of military and civilian rolls for all Naval activities in the district without disbursing officers until such time as disbursing officers

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reported for duty at those activities. It continued to pay rolls for such activities as Inspectors of Naval Material, Supervisory Cost Inspectors, and the like.

By January 1945 the personnel on board in the District Disbursing Office had increased from the original 2 officers, 2 storekeepers, and 2 civilians to 4 officers, 7 storekeepers, and 30 civilians. The work load was considerably out of proportion to the number of military and civilian pay accounts carried in view of the fact that this office served so many activities in the district that a large volume of correspondence was necessary in connection with the pay rolls.

During February and March of 1945 a major change in the functions of the office occurred when it assumed the function of paying all material public vouchers in the Eighth Naval District, including those of the Air Commands. This necessitated taking on twenty-one additional civilian employees. On 21 February 1945 the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts changed the designation from "District Disbursing Office, Eighth Naval District," to "Central Navy Disbursing Office, Eighth Naval District, New Orleans, Louisiana."

Until 1 March 1945, when the District Accounting Office was disestablished and its functions transferred to the Naval Supply Depot, New Orleans, the functions of the office continued to be of major significance to the District Supply Officer and the District Accounting Officer. In the beginning, except for the Air Commands activities at Pensacola and Corpus Christi, all accounting for the Eighth Naval District was handled by the District Accounting Office on a centralized

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basis. As other large activities were established, the Supply Corps officers reporting for duty were given separate accountability. During the entire period, however, the District Accounting Office accounted for most Eighth Naval District activities, including hundreds of small offices, the receiving stations, the commissioning details, and the training school.

As already noted, the District Supply Office during the first two years performed many operational functions. Until the Headquarters Supply Office was transferred to the Naval Supply Depot, New Orleans, on 1 February 1945, it was a part of the District Office. Its purpose was to perform supply functions for headquarters, to procure material for small activities throughout the district to which no supply officers were attached, and, as directed by the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, to perform certain supply functions for small activities to which supply officers were attached, such as receiving stations, Naval training school, and the like.

Prom the beginning the District Supply Officer inspected Supply Corps activities throughout the district and made reports for the Commandant to the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. The staff of inspecting officers was built up gradually. In February and March 1943 two assistants reported, one to inspect disbursing activities and the other supply. To these duties the Commandant added that of inspecting Ship's Service activities. Beginning in April 1944, the District Supply Office performed the functions of District Mess Officer (for contract issues), District Clothing Officer, and District Disbursing Liaison

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Officer. As there was no District Rationing Officer as such, the District Mess Officer made the necessary inspections on rationing (the other functions of the rationing officer were performed at headquarters, by the Administrative Section of the District Supply Office). Late in 1944 it became expedient to have one of the officer assistants of the District Supply Officer concern himself with inspection of the Inventory Control program at all activities. During the same period six specialists in accounting reported on board to analyze all accounting in Eighth Naval District field activities in preparation for a major change in Supply Corps accounting which was finally Installed on 1 July 1945. Until 1 January 1945 the District Supply Officer shared supply inspections in the Eighth Naval District with inspectors of the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts General Inspectors' Office. After that time inspections were handled solely by the District Supply Officer.

Supply activities were inspected as often as necessary to assure efficient operation, but in any event not less than once each year. The policy was twice each year for most activities. As of July 1945 ninety-one activities were subject to Inspection, which entailed the inspection of 220 separate "functions" (for instance, the Supply Officer, the Disbursing Officer, the War Bond Issuing Agent, and Ship's Service would constitute four functions at a given activity). The inspection services were performed by a staff of seven officers.

In order to be cognizant of all matters pertaining to supply in the district, the District Supply Officer kept in close contact with all supply activities. He made special studies of such subjects as

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consolidation of disbursing of disbursing offices in concentrated areas, such as Mobile and Houston, availability of storage for supplies from combat vessels returning from war theaters, and decommissioning and subsequent use of facilities in the Eighth Naval District. The closing of activities at the end of the war gave the District Supply Officer such problems of supply and redistribution of material, final reports, and recommendations for transfer of officers and enlisted personnel. Supply Corps officers asked for and received help from the District Office on such matters.

The following activities came under the District Supply Officer for administrative purposes only:

He assisted these officers by giving advice on request, and by correlating and coordinating their work with that of the District Supply Office and other Naval activities in the district.

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FOOTNOTES

1. For detailed account of all Supply activities in the Eighth Naval District, see the reports submitted to BuSandA by Supply Corps officers at Eighth Naval District Headquarters. This account of headquarters activities is based, to a large extent, on those reports and on interviews with Supply Corps officers who have been present since shortly after the district was reactivated.
2. BuSandA ltr. to various activities, Ser. L4-3(20)(SPC), dtd. 9 Jan, 1942, & Chief of BuSandA ltr. to various activities, Ser. L4-3(20)(SPC)/L13-l(l)/L4-l(5)/L4-3(46), dtd. 23 Oct. 1942.
3. Chief of BuSandA ltr. to various activities. Ser. L4-3(20)(SPC), dtd. 27 Apr. 1943.

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